Ever wondered how full-service ad agencies are able to offer you such a wide array of expertise? Agencies don’t always do all the work themselves. Often, the expertise comes through their relationships with qualified vendors. In fact, at BrandHive, maintaining good relationships with vendors is a must.

In building good relationships with our vendors, BrandHive focuses on three things:
1. Trust
2. Open dialogue
3. Accountability

1. Trust is primary. Our clients view our vendors’ work as an extension of our own, so quality is our top concern. Highly qualified vendors are more likely to hang around when treated as a valued partner, not just a supplier. We carefully select vendors that have proven themselves worthy of our trust and then make every effort to earn their trust in return.

2. Trust can only develop through open dialogue. We talk a lot. That’s because keeping the dialogue open allows our vendors to understand our expectations, deadlines, and unique client needs.

3. Lastly, in any good relationship both parties need to be held accountable. Unfortunately, mistakes will be made, sometimes on the vendor side and sometimes on the agency side. When that occurs, the party responsible needs to own the mistake and take actions to rectify it as soon as possible. Mistakes not acknowledged (and therefore not corrected) mean flailing relationships and unhappy clients before too long.

In the hive, we recognize how valuable our vendors are in serving our clients. As someone who has direct contact with multiple vendors every day, I go out of my way to be open, honest and respectful with our vendors. Not only does it pay off in better work for our clients, but it makes coming to work a whole lot more fun every day as well.