Efficiency. Enemy or enabler?
Efficiency. Enemy or enabler?
Often described as the enemy of invention and creativity, an increasing focus on efficiency has been one of the most enduring changes of the five years since COVID.
We’ve analysed hundreds of thousands client comments on their experience of working with agencies and the increasing scrutiny on agency efficiency is impossible to ignore. However, what it means has evolved.
COVID pulled back the curtain on agency efficiency
At the height of crisis management during COVID, speed was everything. Agencies achieved the impossible daily, but that intensity gave clients a rare look into how agencies really operated.
Many processes were exposed as slow, bureaucratic and heavy.
Clients praised agency talent who papered over the cracks, and criticised agencies for having systems that weren’t fit for purpose.
That period marked the start of increased client scrutiny on agency efficiency and effectiveness.
The focus, operations.
Five years later in 2025, efficiency is a top 5 client complaint.
- Complaints are up +20% since 2021
- Efficient delivery is the #1 complaint for the majority of network agencies
- The biggest gap between top and bottom performers is how efficiently they deliver
Today clients still care about delivery and operations, but increasingly, efficiency is a more multi-layered proposition that spans the relational as well as the operational, the strategic as well as the executional.
Beyond ops: The 5 dimensions redefining efficiency today
Traditionally, agency efficiency was largely defined by how well agencies deliver, and this lens framed efficiency as tactical, execution-led, and rooted in operations.
But today, it’s definition has evolved, and client expectations have shifted. 58% of client feedback linked to efficiency in 2025 is non-operational (vs 45% previously).
We’ve identified 5 key dimensions that now define what efficiency really means in a high-performing agency-client relationship.
- Operational efficiency: the basics of delivery, process, budget management.
- Relational efficiency: Proactive leadership, collaborative, stable & experienced teams, ownership.
- Strategic efficiency: Smart thinking & vision, insights, alignment to goals, business understanding
- Creative efficiency: clarity in briefs, based on better understanding leads to fewer rounds of work, scalable ideas, creative thinking
- Tech-Driven efficiency: AI, automation, tool integration, MarTech, data & analytics
Relational and tech-driven efficiency are what clients are increasingly linking to agency efficiency in 2025.
This multi-dimensional experience drives effectiveness and reduces client effort.
Efficiency creates the space for what matters most
Yes, clients care about speed. Yes, they want things done smoothly and on time. But what they, and agencies really want, is to create space for what matters most.
When done well, efficiency creates space and unlocks the capacity for big creative thinking, strategic vision and innovation.
It creates momentum, bandwidth and trust that allows you to deliver bigger thinking and better work.
Efficiency isn’t just a hygiene factor anymore. It’s a performance multiplier.
Get it right, and it builds trust, deepens relationships, shapes the client experience and enhances perceptions of agility, value and effectiveness.
Get it wrong, and it raises questions about your worth.
Efficiency doesn’t just shape the work; it sets the tone for the entire partnership.
The Efficiency Matrix: are you fully leveraging all the drivers that deliver efficiency?
Which of the 5 dimensions is your biggest challenge right now?
