The Account Management & Client Services Summit
This is your chance to hear how other agency client services leaders are engaging clients, growing accounts and developing their roles
• Get inspired! Take away ideas to implement in your agency
Thursday 12th June 2025 – 9.30am to 5.15pm
The British Library, Kings Cross
Client services is as much about new business as it is about retention.
And as more and more holes poke through their pipeline, agencies are looking strengthen and grow their relationships with existing clients.
This has created a mounting pressure on account managers and client services teams.
Yet still…
- Clients still don’t want to pay for it.
- Project managers think they could do the job themselves.
- Communication between sales teams and account managers is still abysmal.
It’s enough to make anyone’s legs buckle.
So while you’re battling cheeky contract changes, cancelled projects (despite great performance) and client-side staff changes – we’ll be looking at how you can manage the expectations put on your role, by your team and your clients, whilst leaving enough time to do what you do best: keeping clients close and committed.
For the agency founders in the room – we’ll be looking at why account management needs your support now more than ever, as well as the ways you can make client services more of a team effort.
Who you’ll hear from…
How Client Conferences Can Make Your Agency Indispensable
Brightec noticed something curious about their clients – many of them faced similar problems.
As the business developer for the mobile app development agency, Simon Brading wanted to help.
His goal was to create a unique, high-value event where clients could come together, learn from each other and develop practical solutions. Somewhere their clients could feel inspired and understood – whilst enriching their network.
After discussing the possibilities, they landed on a bold idea: The Brightec Exchange, an all-day event gathering their client base and wider network together for knowledge sharing, problem solving, and peer learning
As a result:
- They won new business – more than covering the cost of the day.
- 50% of attendees said one of the keynote speeches was “life-changing”.
- The event deepened existing relationships, turning professional contacts into trusted partners.
- Brightec showcased the strength and diversity of its client network – boosting credibility across sectors.
At Happy Clients, Simon will share how being a driving force for solutions can secure new business, increase value and strengthen relationships.[Read More]
How a Secondment Won Our Agency a Major Client Account
Jenny Keyte kept coming up against the same problem.
Growing a major account was near impossible due to lengthy client approval processes killing time-sensitive social campaigns.
Then, the client approached Jwoo with an idea that would change everything.
They needed an extra pair of hands in their internal marketing department and asked if a member of the Jwoo team would consider taking a secondment with them.
Only they didn’t need someone for a day, a week, or even a month. They were initially looking at a six-month stint.
Jenny decided to go for it. While working on the client side she presented to the leadership board, was involved in high-level meetings, and played a key role in decision-making.
“I learnt to speak their language – understanding their priorities, challenges, and ways of working. Once I adapted to their communication style, everything became more efficient. Conversations flowed better, decisions were made faster, and we were able to collaborate more effectively to drive results.”
At Happy Clients, Jenny will share how a secondment can increase trust, improve efficiency and make your agency the ‘go-to’ for key clients. [Read More]
Workshop: Turn Difficult Conversations Into Win-Win Outcomes
Trenton Moss was facing the dreaded scope creep.
Unbillable hours were piling up as a client kept shifting the goal posts by requesting “small” amends, which had a big impact on the overall project and budget.
He knew a difficult conversation was on the horizon.
Or was it? Trenton had a brilliant idea – what if the key to tricky client conversations was listening like a counsellor, not a project manager?
Drawing on years of coaching and his time as a Samaritans volunteer, Trenton used deep listening and guided discovery to uncover what the client truly needed.
“By getting to the real issue, we were able to stop the revision cycle and agree on what success looked like – for them and for us. You’re not saying, ‘Sit on my couch and tell me how you feel’ – but it’s still the same techniques a counsellor would use, just in a client meeting.”
At Happy Clients, Trenton will run a highly interactive workshop to equip you with everything you need to truly understand your client’s needs, turn tricky conversations into productive ones, and create an outcome that works for everyone. [Read More]
Client Love Languages: Understanding Your Clients’ Communication Styles
“The client went absolutely apeshit.”
That’s when Daisy Whitehouse, founder of Down at the Social, knew something in her agency had to change.
During a Zoom catch-up, a member of Daisy’s team paused the call mid-meeting so that they could reply to a different client’s email.
The team member didn’t see a problem. But the client certainly did, as did Daisy.
While wracking her brain for a possible solution, she found her answer in the unlikeliest of places: Love Island.
“I was watching, and they kept talking about love languages, and I thought, ‘Why not have love languages for clients?”
Inspired by the pop culture concept, Daisy built and implemented a framework that helps her team attune their approach to every client’s emotional style.
At Happy Clients, Daisy will share how she’s using ‘love languages’ to decode client relationships. You’ll learn how to map your clients and tailor your comms style to suit them. It’s a unique idea that’s making a big impact. [Read More]
Why Happy Clients Still Leave: And What Really Makes Them Stay
“If you’re only doing what a client has asked, you’ll be replaced.”
As co-founder of the global relationship experts, Relationship Audits®, Simon understands what clients really want in 2025, and it’s much more than you might expect.
“Happy clients still leave. Agencies need to prove their value – or risk losing their role entirely.”
Through conducting thousands of client interviews, Relationship Audits® has unearthed why satisfactory work is no longer enough.
In this data-led keynote, Simon will share:
- Why the bar for client happiness is higher than ever.
- The hidden levers that drive long-term relationships.
- What clients wish agencies understood (but don’t always say).
- How AI and big tech are shifting expectations.
- Practical ideas to stay relevant, respected, and indispensable.
Whether you’re a founder, client services professional or part of a growing team, Simon’s session will give you practical ways to build deeper partnerships, grow revenue and turn your clients into your most powerful new business generators.
How to Manage Difficult Client Behaviours
Catherine Warwick knows about challenging client behaviours.
As the client partner for digital agency Numiko, Catherine had to opportunity to run a session with their clients and ask them an important question: what was the cause of difficult client behaviours?
Their answers were invaluable:
- Lack of internal stakeholder alignment.
- Absence of a clear, long-term strategy.
- Changeable budgets.
- Ineffective briefing processes.
This information allowed her to implement changes that improved Numiko’s internal processes and in turn, helped their clients.
“When you invest time in truly understanding what your clients are going through, you’re not just solving a problem – you’re building a partnership.”
At Happy Clients, Catherine will share how to uncover the root causes of your client’s woes and implement practical changes that improve both your agency’s processes and your clients’ happiness. [Read More]
The Benchmarks of Happy, Profitable Clients
What separates the best agencies from the rest? In this data-packed session, Peter Czapp from The Wow Company reveals insights from 677 agencies to help you better understand — and improve — client performance.
You’ll learn the four key benchmarks every agency should be tracking, including average client spend, dependency on single clients, and how many are actually measuring Net Promoter Score.
Peter will also explain why profit per client is the most important (and often overlooked) metric of all. If you want to reduce client risk, boost profitability, and build a happier, more resilient agency — don’t miss this!
How to Scale Your Agency and Land Bigger Clients
Mike Lander has some advice that you might not be ready to hear.
“If you work with smaller clients, you get referred to smaller clients, and then you’ve got a portfolio of small clients. Unless you deal with the historical culture of working with 10 small clients, it’s pointless.”
To make the switch and scale up, Mike says there are several key steps every agency leader must take:
- Identify and remove low-profit clients.
- Rehire and restructure to ensure your team is capable of managing bigger and more demanding clients.
- Ensure there’s enough capital and cash flow to see you through the transitional period.
- Be willing to make tough, strategic decisions that initially shrink the business before enabling sustainable growth.
At Happy Clients, Mike will be joined by Kevin Gibbons, founder and CEO of Re:signal, a specialist e-commerce SEO agency. Together, they’ll present a real-life case study illustrating how Re:signal successfully transitioned to landing bigger clients through the co-development of a tailored systematic approach. Mike will outline a repeatable, structured framework, offering actionable and practical guidance for agencies aiming to scale effectively and avoid the over-servicing trap. [Read More]
Breaking Silos: The Client Services Leader as Internal Orchestrator
“You often have to become the peacekeeper.”
For Rachel Raphael, this is the role of many client services leaders today – stuck smoothing over internal chaos, while trying to look composed for clients.
“Clients aren’t stupid,” she says. “They know when things are broken.”
There’s often an invisible problem, or friction, when it comes to client work – creative pulling one way, strategy pulling another, with client services caught in the middle. This leaves teams with no authority, no shared rituals, and no sense of shared ownership.
This session is all about challenging this situation, and reframing client service leaders as the conductor of an orchestra, rather than just a go-between.
And for Rachel, a key part of this is what she calls the magic triangle.
“It’s about bringing together these teams – client services, strategy, and creative, in whatever guises they are in your agency,” she explains. “You’re not opponents. You’re a collective team. That’s where the magic happens.”
At Happy Clients, Rachel will share how to build the internal rhythms and rituals that make collaboration real and how client service leaders can shape delivery from the inside, even without formal authority. [Read More]
How To Set Client Services Up for Success – A Practical Framework
“Client services shouldn’t be about putting out fires.”
So why are project leads often left picking up the pieces instead of steering the ship?
Sally Stevens has the answer.
As a client services strategist, Sally began her career brand-side before moving into agency life – first permanently, then as a freelancer. She’s spent years parachuting into agencies mid-crisis. From covering for stress leave to rescuing spiralling projects, she’s seen firsthand what causes things to go off the rails – misalignment.
Having watched this cycle repeat across countless agencies, Sally decided to take action and created the ‘Brilliant Blueprint’ – a practical, three-part framework that helps agencies:
- Reset their client relationships.
- Set clear, proactive expectations for the agency and client.
- Give account teams the structure, confidence, and tools they need to lead, alongside a safe space to speak up when they need help.
The result? Calmer clients, more empowered account teams, and stronger long-term partnerships, which leads to better work.
At Happy Clients, Sally will share her framework for getting your client services professionals out of firefighting mode and back where they belong – leading, guiding, and holding the agency-client relationship together. [Read More]
Complaints Are a Compliment: Why All Client Feedback Is Good
“There’s another agency that can do it for half the price.”
It’s the last thing most agency leaders want to hear – but for Fiona Skilton, it’s a compliment.
As client services director at Collective Content, Fiona welcomes uncomfortable conversations with her clients.
“Weirdly, I do take it as a compliment if they say, ‘I’m not happy about this,’ because it indicates that they want to fix it. Otherwise, why would they bother saying anything?”
In this session you’ll learn:
- Why client complaints can be a positive sign.
- How to respond to feedback without defensiveness.
- Ways to stay proactive and avoid client drift.
At Happy Clients, Fiona will share her unique take on negative client feedback and offer tangible advice on how to implement a system that keeps you and your clients on the same page. [Read More]
Client Services Surgery
One minute you’re having a tricky conversation and the next you’re untangling a confusing brief, all while dodging the dreaded scope creep.
Sound familiar? If so – you work in client services!
It’s all part of the job – but far too often, client services professionals are left to power through the day-to-day without the benefit of a second opinion or sounding board.
That’s exactly why we created Happy Clients Surgery Sessions – a safe, supportive space to share your challenges, swap ideas, and get practical advice from others who really understand.
We’ll be joined by:
- Darcie Thompson-Fields, Client Services Director at Chief Nation.
- Stef Lait, Client Services Director at OST Marketing.
They’ll be on hand, alongside a room full of your peers, to offer advice and have an honest conversation about the challenges client service teams are facing right now.
Bring your stories. Bring your questions. Bring those “what would you do?” moments. Or just come along to listen, learn, and feel a little more human in the chaos.
Meet other people improving how their agency runs
Happy Clients is a day that will help you get inspired, and meet other agency client services and account leaders that you can learn from.
We blend interactive talks and group discussion.
- We dot you around the venue so you can interact – and we mix up the groups so you meet different people.
- We poll you before the event to see what you want to talk about.
- We make sure all the talks are original and interesting. We facilitate questions and reflections throughout.
It’s aimed at agency leaders and their process or operations leaders – but anybody can come.
- Our venue is the Knowledge Centre at The British Library. We have the entire building, so you will explore the venue interacting with different agency leaders. We mix up the groups so you meet different people.
- We poll you before the event to see what you want to talk about.
- We make sure all the talks are original and interesting. We facilitate questions and reflections throughout.
Five Rooms of Learning and Inspiration
Q: What actually happens on the day?
We start the event at 9.30am, so try to arrive by 9am.
The day’s format is pretty simple: you will spend some time hearing from guests with interesting stories that you can learn from, and you will also spend some time in small groups discussing your journey with like-minded agency leaders.
The event is hosted by an Agency Hackers facilitator who makes sure that everybody with something interesting to say gets heard. (We poll attendees before the event, so we know who to ‘pick on’ on the day.)
Q: Who will I hear from? Who are the speakers?
The people you’ll hear from are all agency leaders with interesting stories to tell about agency process or operations.
We also decide who to spotlight based on the information we capture in the weeks before. (Look out for our emails!)
We will publish the line-up a few weeks before, but mostly we hope that you will trust us to select interesting folk from our audience. We find that the people who choose to attend our events are overwhelmingly on fascinating journeys that will resonate with you.
Also, the ‘talks’ aren’t really linear presentations. They’re more like structured case studies, with lots of questions and reflections from the audience.
You could potentially call them ‘fireside chats’, but these are not rambling cosy conversations. They are planned and structured . We put a lot of work into researching our guests, out of respect for your time.
Q: Who can attend?
This event is mainly for people who work in client services in agencies – but it’s potentially of interest to anybody interested in making their agency run better.
Basically, anybody can attend if you think it looks up your street.
