Bang Digital needed a tool to manage ongoing client projects and Accelo’s Retainers product was the solution. Time tracking and automated billing made it possible to easily turn one-off projects into recurring work for their business.

Background

While many agencies start out chasing one-off projects, the strongest marketing leaders know the secret to long-term success is to hold onto their best clients. 

The benefits of recurring work are clear: more predictable revenue, long-term value for your clients and the chance to lock in your services as part of their business processes.

Bang Digital has nailed this approach with its Lifetime Customer Model. Approximately 60% of their customers are monthly subscribers and work with them for a minimum of 12 months. They aim to transition new clients to retainers in month two.

“We know their businesses through and through and have a solid relationship with these customers,” says Managing Director Renae Lunjevich. 

Challenges

Unfortunately, most of the tools and applications used to run professional services businesses today are focused on delivering one-off projects, leaving you without the means to make your most valuable client work a priority.

Many accidentally build a business model around ad-hoc projects because they can’t properly support ongoing work.

The team at Bang knew their lifetime model wouldn’t survive if they kept going without a software built to handle these commitments.

Solution

Renae and her team turned to Accelo in 2012, largely because of its unique Retainers product.

They now have the functionality they need to maintain strong relationships with clients on retainers:

• Visibility: The team sees all emails sent and received from every client
• Time Tracking: Accelo records the time employees dedicate to each client and project
• Automated Billing: Billable time is collected and reflected on recurring invoices

The Retainers product also allows the flexibility to roll extra time over to — or pull time from — an upcoming period.

With Accelo’s help, Bang’s plan to turn one-off project requests into recurring work in the second month has been successful in many cases.

“The ability to seamlessly transition from a project implementation phase into an ongoing service phase with the same client using the same tools, framework and billing has helped us turn this good theory into a reality.”

Results

Bang credits Accelo’s time tracking capabilities for its increased profitability.

We use automated timesheets in Accelo and can see where we overspent our time and, most importantly, if it was beneficial to the client. If it was a benefit, we can use this information to suggest an increase in management hours to compensate for additional time spent on meetings or reports.
Jon Ogden, Project Manager

The agency has improved its efficiency and ability to fully serve its all-important retainer clients thanks to the automations they’ve built in Accelo.

Your team can follow suit. Find out more about using Accelo for your agency.