Changing Agencies

Sometimes clients change agencies, it is usually as a result of the business changing hands, but it might be because you are disappointed with the service you are receiving. Whenever I am presented with a client who is moving from a competitor, I always stress that it is important for my client to leave their old agency on the best possible terms.

Agencies are usually run by professional people, who will try to make the process as simple and trouble free as possible. It is in nobody’s interest to prolong or hamper the process, though it may not be a priority for them to action your transfers. Being polite costs nothing and will usually speed the process up considerably.

Ask questions while you still have the opportunity, your old agency will generally have valuable knowledge about your website, its hosting and marketing. Often Social media pages will be connected to your old website, these will have login information and passwords.

There may be business pages such as Google’s My Business and Google Plus, transferring these is possible without your agency’s consent, after all it is your business. Just remember that the more work you give the new agency, the greater the cost, so save yourself some time and money and ask for the access information while you can.

If you are moving domains any emails will be lost as soon as the transfer is made, so make sure you have downloaded everything before it is too late. Addresses of email customers is a useful resource for sending out special offers etc. or sourcing business during slow periods, if your agency has a list of these they can be invaluable to you.

Finally, ask for copies of any photographs or documents that were part of the old website. Images on the site will be optimised and that generally results in quality being lost. However, frequently the original images will also have been retained by the agency, so ask for them before they too are destroyed.