Most agency relationships fail because of misaligned expectations and poor communication.
You've probably been there... You hire an agency with high hopes, only to find yourself stuck in a cycle of delayed responses, rigid processes, and feeling like you're being kept at arm's length from your own website.
But it doesn't have to be this way.
Why most agency relationships fall apart
The problem isn't that agencies are inherently bad at what they do. The problem is how they position themselves in the relationship.
Too many agencies see themselves as order-takers rather than partners. They wait for tasks to appear on their to-do list, action them without question, and move on to the next ticket without offering strategic input.
This creates a frustrating dynamic where you're paying for expertise but getting compliance.
Here's what we see going wrong time and again:
Agencies treat clients like ticket queues: Death by ticketing systems. Everything has to be logged, categorised, and processed through rigid workflows that slow everything down.
Communication blackouts: You submit a request and then... silence. Days pass without updates. Some agencies deliberately limit communication to control workload, leaving clients guessing about progress.
Website gatekeeping: Instead of empowering your marketing team, agencies become bottlenecks. They'd rather do everything themselves than teach you how to handle day-to-day tasks. Wasn’t the point of your new Webflow site that you could manage it without an external team…?
Faceless relationships: You never actually meet the people working on your account. Everything happens through project management tools and email threads.
The result? You end up feeling like a client, not a partner.
Our approach: partnership over process
We've built our entire model around a different philosophy: proactive partnership instead of passive execution.
Here's how that works in practice:
We stay visible, not invisible
We won't disappear once the contract is signed.
Every client gets weekly catch-up calls to stay close to you and your team. We're always contactable via Slack, and when we start working on tasks, we log them in a simple Notion dashboard so you can track what we're up to.
You get a notification in Slack when a task is completed. No chasing, no wondering what's happening behind the scenes.
We bring ideas, not just execution
We love bringing our cross-client expertise to your marketing team.
If we spot something that could be improved, we'll make suggestions about experiments we could run or tweaks we could make, all aimed at driving growth on your website across traffic, engagement, and conversion.
See a little bug? We'll get it squashed right away without waiting for you to spot it and raise a ticket.
We work as part of your team, not separate from it
We don't work in isolation. Building a shared team with your marketers is a key part of how we work.
We typically set up a shared communications channel on Slack or Microsoft Teams to keep everyone on the same page, with a client dashboard in Notion, a home for tasks, question logs, meeting notes, and more.
We'd rather teach you how to do something than do it ourselves if we can. That way, we can help you on the big exciting stuff and leave you to handle the day-to-day edits and landing pages that keep marketing moving.
What this looks like in real life
For us, it’s talking over ticketing every time.
Most of our team are based at our central London HQ (come visit us at Somerset House!) and we're happy to host you for workshops, meetings, and coffee catch-ups. We also travel globally, meeting clients on-site at their offices or catching up at conferences to build the client-agency relationship.
We try our best to get back to you within 24 hours, with most things resolved quicker than that. We know some agencies deliberately close off their lines of communication to slow things down… but we'd rather keep the conversation flowing.
We're always available on Slack when we're online and happy to hop on a quick call or record an explainer video on Loom.
What this looks like in practice - MakeBuild x Typeform
Take our experience with Typeform. When Tom Fairclough (Growth Marketing Lead at Typeform) needed to migrate a complex 4,000-page website to Webflow, his team wasn’t just looking for technical execution - they wanted a partner who could navigate the complexity while keeping their marketing operations running smoothly.
“MakeBuild are a pleasure to work with! Passionate, professional, and VERY knowledgeable. They've felt like a part of our team throughout a complex Webflow migration.”
That "part of our team" feeling didn't happen by accident. It came from the daily Slack conversations, proactive suggestions to smooth out the kinks in the migration strategy, and a willingness to teach Typeform's internal team how to manage their new platform rather than keeping them dependent on external support.
This is what real partnership looks like in action: not just delivering what was asked for, but anticipating what wasn't, and empowering the client team to be more capable once the project is complete.
The difference this makes
When agencies and clients work as genuine partners, both sides win.
You get faster turnarounds, proactive suggestions, and a team that actually cares about your growth metrics. We get to work on more interesting challenges and build long-term relationships instead of just completing task lists.
The marketing teams we work with aren't just getting website updates, they're getting strategic support that helps them move faster, test more ideas and drive real growth.
Instead of feeling like you're managing yet another external supplier, working with MakeBuild feels like extending your internal team with specialists who bring fresh perspectives and cross-industry expertise.
Let's wrap this up
Not all client-agency relationships are made equal, so choose your agency carefully.
Look for partners who prioritise communication over process, who bring ideas instead of just executing orders, and who want to empower your team rather than control everything themselves.
The right agency relationship should make your marketing team more capable, not more dependent.
Ask potential agencies these questions:
How quickly do you typically respond to questions or requests?
Are ticketing systems your primary method of communication?
What's your approach when you spot potential improvements we haven't asked for?
How do you help our internal team become more self-sufficient?
The agencies that give you clear, specific answers to these questions are the ones worth working with.
What could your marketing achieve with a true strategic partner instead of just another supplier?