What creative agencies can learn from a plumber

My kitchen tap has been broken for three months and I've been trying to find a plumber to fix it.

I'm useless at plumbing. If I did it myself it would be a disaster.

Finding a plumber has not been easy. I've asked friends, gone on Google and had three or four come over. They all say "yep, sure no problem." They look at what needs doing and then they disappear.

Never hear from them again. I follow up and get ghosted.

I think what's happening is they don't want the job. It's too small, it's not for them.

From my point of view as the buyer with a broken tap it's frustrating because I get my hopes up, somebody comes in, I think it's going to get fixed, and then it doesn't happen. I'm left disappointed and then I have to find somebody else. And I really can’t be bothered.

Then I saw a plumber on Facebook

He had a flyer listing his services and in a bullet point it said "taps." My eyes lit up. This is my guy. This guy says he does taps. I gave him a call, he came over, and he's now booked in.

This plumber told me exactly what problem he solved. I needed somebody to fix my tap and he was declaring "I fix taps." It was exactly what I needed.

The lesson for agencies

Creative agencies need to be more like this. Much clearer about the problems you solve for your clients, big or small.

It's really hard for clients to choose an agency. They're all saying the same thing and nobody's saying anything very specific. It's all very mushy and lacking in relevance.

The agencies that are going to win are those that declare what they do, what problem they solve, and who they do it for.

Simple.