When it comes to client work, what does value really mean? And in turn, how can you measure it?

This is the burning question posed by Nadia Ali, head of client success at Hex Digital.

“The whole purpose of my role is to make sure our clients are getting value from what we’re doing. And the main thing I’m working on right now is trying to help clients understand what is valuable to them – and if they’re getting good value from us,” she explains.

Value is incredibly subjective, which can make it especially tricky when trying to talk about and measure this with clients – what works for one might be in stark contrast to another.

“I think value is a bit of a wishy-washy term. You can feel you’re getting good value, as it’s a good price and you’ve got a lot of work for it. But actual true value – did the work do what it was supposed to do for the price you were happy with?” asks Nadia.

“And because it’s a wishy-washy term, it always gets dropped to the bottom of the list. Most clients in a kick-off meeting just want to know what the website will look like, for example – they jump straight into the detail when actually, that one level removed will pay dividends.”

In this month’s client services mastermind, we’re calling on the Agency Hackers hive mind to help Nadia solve her value dilemma.

We’ll be asking questions like:

• Have you found a way of measuring value with your clients?
• How do you articulate this, both to your team and to clients?
• How can you get clients to understand what is valuable to them?
• Have you been able to set targets, or work out a formula, to get the best value for your clients on every project?

“Value is so subjective,” says Nadia. “Obviously you would set KPIs for a project, asking what success looks like. That’s an easy one to agree on. But value isn’t necessarily one-size-fits-all, and we don’t yet have the language to talk about it.”

Come along with your experiences and methods of measuring value, and help Nadia figure out how to approach this with clients going forward.