Hiring a PR or communications agency is one of the most important decisions communications and marketing leaders make.

There’s the cost of an agency to consider, but perhaps far more important is the fact that you’re asking a third party to manage your company’s brand and reputation. We wrote about this in our Client Guide to Agency Search.While making the right decision when it comes to hiring agencies is potentially a key driver of business success, a question that’s unanswered is whether or not the search process companies use to find agencies will make that success more likely.That’s why CommunicationsMatch™, RFP Associates, and Researchscape have partnered with the Institute of Public Relations Research (IPR) to conduct the industry’s first national research into agency search and hiring processes. The goal is to provide data and insights around the contributions made by the search process to agency satisfaction and program outcomes.If you’re a communications leader responsible for hiring agencies, we encourage you to join CCOs, CMOs, and IPR members around the country in completing this short survey before March 15.

Click this link to complete the Agency Search, Selection & Hiring Survey.

Research conducted in 2017 by CommunicationsMatch, in partnership with CommPRO, revealed the importance of word-of-mouth in the agency search process. In fact, 76% of respondents cited asking peers as a resource for finding agencies, while other search criteria, including Google or LinkedIn searches and using RFPs, were cited by 20% or less of respondents. Read the Report here.Given the importance of recommendations in everything from computers to cars, it’s not a surprise that communications leaders rely on people they know when it comes to choosing agencies. But, since annual agency fees can amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars or more, it may be surprising that a minority (around a third, according to one data point from the PR Council) employ RFPs, and far fewer engage consultants to conduct searches for agencies.Since around three-quarters of companies reported strong satisfaction with agencies in a 2017 Researchscape survey, it’s reasonable to ask if there’s a need for more thorough agency search processes and detailed RFPs to select agencies.Research and anecdotal evidence suggest that companies may say they’re generally happy with the firms they work with, but not all are enamored. In our 2017 survey, 37% of respondents were considering hiring new firms with different skillsets. Talk to enough communicators, and the gap between what was promised and what was delivered or between expectations and results, will surface. There are a range of reasons for this, many of which have little to do with agencies’ capabilities.Moving beyond a search process that leverages contacts and connections to adopting a formal approach to finding agencies and using RFPs, is not something to be done lightly. It takes time and may require expert help. This is a challenge when corporate communications leaders are hard pressed for time and focused on the bottom line.Our operating thesis, based on our experience, is that in a digital world with more choices and greater specialization, when the net is cast wide and a disciplined search process is implemented, both companies and agencies benefit. Stronger relationships are forged, expectations are managed, and results are improved.The proof, or otherwise, will be in the new survey data “pudding”. We welcome perspective. Share your comments here or on this LinkedIn post.We’ll share the results on CommPRO and will be presenting them at the Institute of Public Relations Research (IPR) Bridge Conference in Washington, D.C., in mid-April.