13.7 billion years later

No Retainer. Seriously ?

I had a conversation today with a new colleague who told me that at his old agency, they didn’t use retainers.

What no retainers ? Seriously ?

If you’ve not come across the concept before (or perhaps you have another name for the same thing) I am defining a retainer as

A contract established between the agency and the client whereby the client pre-book the agency by purchasing x number of hours for the forthcoming months / year.

On the surface it may be tempting to think that the retainer benefits the agency more than the client, after all there are lots of agencies right? On closer inspection I would argue the opposite. While there are many agencies out there, once you’ve invested heavily in finding one you are happy with you need to make sure they commit to you as well as you committing to them. Failure to realise this will end up costing you more in the long term.

A retainer establishes a long term relationship

This much is obvious but not all the benefits of such relationships are so obvious. Consider the following:

• You all know each other well. You’ve also probably been out socially on one or two occasions. Being relaxed and knowing the people you deal with daily will make a difference.

• The agency knows it is in for the long term. They write better code and have more pride in their work. They know the people that will be replacing feature x,y and z are themselves. They have the opportunity to make things really nice.

Retainers guarantee relationships continue

Many clients think they have the upper hand in the relationship, but often with a good agency this is simply not true. The attitude of the marketing dept may be ‘of course the agency wants to work with us’ but without a retainer this has not been established. Agencies operate at a fixed capacity and the next big and exciting piece of work to come through the door may be just a little bit too good not to take. Without a retainer the agency can just walk away.

Retainers buy ideas

Buying 30 hours a month means it has to be filled. It is in the interests of both parties that this time gets used both this month and every month going forward. This should mean that both parties are spending plenty of time thinking how to fill it and this translates into ideas, lots of ideas.

Retainers buy priority

Without it you might end up at the back of the queue. We’re are often in the situation of having a full schedule for 3 months into the future. Without booking your work in by pre buying time, 3 months is a long time to wait.

Retainers cost you less in the long run

The cumulative effect of all of the above results in a tidy and efficient working relationship. The end result of this finely tuned machine will not only be financially beneficial but the effort required to get good ideas and a motivated team working on your site / product will be less.