4 steps guide to solving inefficient agency proofing

Table of contents

1. Introduction
   
   • Overview of Inefficient Agency Proofing
     
2. Step 1: Identify the Bottlenecks in Your Current Process
   
   • Common Challenges in Agency Proofing

   • Analyzing Feedback Loops and Communication Gaps

3. Step 2: Implement a Centralized Review System
   
   • Benefits of Using Online Proofing Software
     
   • Features to Look For in a Review Tool
     
4. Step 3: Streamline Feedback and Approval Workflows
   
   • Best Practices for Collecting and Managing Feedback
     
   • How to Set Clear Expectations for Reviewers
     
5. Step 4: Train Your Team on New Tools and Processes
   
   • Importance of Training for Successful Adoption
     
   • Resources and Support for Your Team
     
6. Wrapping Up
   
   • Summary of Key Steps to Improve Agency Proofing

People who work for advertising companies detest the term the most. The main cause of this is their ineffective agency proofing.

Agency proofing assessment has to be of the utmost relevance in a digital environment where businesses are continuously striving to increase efficiency. This is due to the fact that improving their services is their biggest challenge.

If you’ve worked on any creative projects, especially ones involving several departments, you know how important this is. There is a sizable potential of mistakes and confusion, particularly if you are editing and perfecting items online. One of the numerous reasons why agency proofing procedures require improvement is this.

However, before we discuss remedies, let’s first discuss some of the main reasons why agency proofing procedures need to be improved.

The proofing problem

Agencies frequently commit the error of dispersing communication and feedback over many channels. For instance, Slack may be used by your internal team members to communicate. However, harmonizing the channels can be challenging when external collaborations take place through emails or other media.

It is difficult to determine which production flow is going where and why if there is no centralization of a project’s interactions. With several versions of the same thing floating about and input coming from all angles, communication may easily become jumbled. This makes it more difficult for shareholders to monitor a project’s progress.

Every error and hold-up disrupts the work flow and interferes with the functioning of different departments, but it also raises overhead and project expenses. Not taking into account the cost of labor and resources is a frequent error. All of this is brought on by ineffective client management, communication channels, and production process.

4 steps guide to solving inefficient agency proofing

By following the detailed instructions for fixing ineffective agency proofing, you may resolve the majority of these problems. Start now!

1. Pay attention to sources of revenue

As a business, you must direct your staff’ attention toward activities that increase revenue rather than waste time on activities that do not. And by that, I don’t just mean the typical daydreaming or procrastination at their workstations. The actual issue is that.

They spend time searching for revisions and handling haphazard emails, reformatting files that weren’t submitted the first time correctly, pursuing down customer feedback approval across several channels and threads, etc.

Additionally, it’s possible that each of these jobs may be spread across several screens, which you must keep track of. For instance, even merely downloading a file from your email requires you to hop between three to four tabs before the file is eventually connected to the page it was meant for. Given the quantity of steps needed, this is obviously inefficient.

Workflow interruptions of this nature make it difficult to concentrate on the tasks at hand that your clients are paying you to complete. The papers, the tools you need to edit and add comments, and the feedback itself can all be found in one location when using a top-notch online proofing service like QuickReviewer.

2. Impress your customers

You will encounter unsuccessful projects and money loss as a result of bad client experience. And all it takes for that catastrophe to occur are omissions and delays in the proofing procedure. There are numerous different ways that issues might arise, which could leave the customer with a negative image due to delayed deliverables, broken contracts, and vendor charges.

Missed deadlines and poor quality must be completely avoided if you want to keep your customers satisfied. These problems can make a customer so frustrated that they decide to never do business with you again, which will drive up the cost of your operations even more. By optimizing your workflow, you may address these issues. To ensure that you and your clients are on the same page and are aware of one another’s expectations, one approach to do this is to centralize communication.

In this situation, employing agency proofing software to examine papers is simple. This is due to the fact that all communications are consolidated and accessible from one location.

3. Spend less on unnecessary technology

Use the software and resources that will truly help your proofing process, in other words. Yes, there are many free programmers available nowadays that support the equipment you need to do your work-related assignments. Free tools typically show up with several ad interruptions. It doesn’t provide as much as a more expensive instrument.

You must be able to identify precisely which instruments are necessary for a certain work and which only serve to complicate and extend the process. A typical error made by businesses is trying to integrate a lot of tools without taking into account how all the initially little expenditures would add up to a big hassle once the invoices start pouring in.

Checking to see whether you’re not using the same tools for jobs that only need one is one method to spot this issue. In the end, you can discover that different departments are paying membership fees for the same set of products, which adds to unneeded expenditures. Select the tools your organization requires and implement them across the board to avoid spending time on useless ones that nobody uses.

4. Solve collaboration issues

Many workers feel that there is not enough cooperation among their coworkers in their own organizations. Given that it is not always easy to spot, this may be one of the production process’s main issues. Cross-team cooperation is essential to completing projects on schedule and in accordance with customer requirements, but this is made challenging by poor or disorganized communication channels.

In essence, it gets harder to handle work the longer it takes for replies to come in. Therefore, we advise employing video for important corporate communications. It is generally understood, easily available, and shared. Regarding the remaining matters, we advise you to form project groups and invite each group’s members so that each project may be overseen by the appropriate parties.

Additionally, QuickReviewer may be used for online collaboration for both internal and external messaging. It not only streamlines and organizes cooperation, but it also increases project transparency.

Wrapping Up

The efficiency, productivity, and profitability of your agency can all be significantly impacted by the “hidden” costs of inefficient workflows, such as the time spent looking for missing projects or hunting down missing approvals. When weighing your options, you could conclude that designing and implementing a solution will take far more time and effort than the issue warrants. This is rarely the case, in our experience. The time and money you’ll save from a better production process will offset the cost of putting the solution into place, even if your firm is tiny. Online proofing services are really one of your marketing technology stack’s most economical tools.

Some other Posts you might be interested in.