Josh Koeller, Co-Founder @ 97retention

Your clients signal before they leave. Your account team can catch it.

We help agency account teams keep more of their clients. We reward retention, catch the signals clients give before they leave, and coach the team on what to do next.

Tell me where clients slip away

Who it's for

Digital marketing agencies on monthly retainers

SEO, paid media, social, web. Whether the founder still holds most client relationships or you've built a full account management team, the same thing tends to happen: nobody owns keeping clients as a number, and the cancellation email is the first warning.

PR and communications agencies

Retainers renew on how valuable the client feels the work is. That feeling can drift for months before anyone on the account says it out loud.

Not a fit: freelancers and solo shops, project-only shops with no retainers, in-house marketing teams, holding-company networks, or anyone shopping for software to run on their own.

What changes

• Cancellations: the cancellation email is the first warning. Instead: the account team is trained to catch the signals clients give before they leave.
• Incentives: account managers are paid on upsells and new scope, not on keeping the client. Instead: an incentive plan rewards keeping clients, so retention is a number the team watches weekly.
• Escalations: unhappy clients go straight to the founder. Instead: account managers have playbooks for what to do next and own the conversation.
• Quiet accounts: a quiet account looks fine until it cancels. Instead: quiet is treated as a signal, and someone follows up early.
• Renewals: renewal season is a scramble to show value. Instead: a weekly cadence keeps the value of the work clear before the client has to ask.

Clients decide to stay long before the renewal date. The point is to see it while there's still time to act.

From one agency we work with

"May started at 90.5%, we hit 97.1% by month 3." - Surge Digital Marketing

"4% churn decrease · $54K ARR protected · $6K expansion closed · $500K profit surfaced in audit" - Surge Digital Marketing

"We've seen our client leaks decrease significantly with your system." - Seth Brown, Founder, Surge Digital Marketing

One agency's own past numbers, not a forecast for yours.

How we work

• Inside your account team. An incentive plan that rewards keeping clients, training to catch the signals clients give before they leave, and playbooks for what to do next.
• One onboarding session, then a weekly call with me and your account management team.
• Your team keeps the relationship. We coach the account managers. We don't take over your clients.
• Not a software license, a survey tool, a call center or a one-off workshop.

Hi, I'm Josh.

I spent years in corporate America running customer service teams at scale. What I learned is that clients decide to stay long before the renewal date, and the people closest to them see it first. At 97retention, my team and I put that to work inside agency account teams.

Tell me where clients slip away. I'll tell you honestly if we can help.

Reply to the email I sent you, or write to josh@97retentionnow.com. No pitch deck. If it's a fit, I'll say so. If it isn't, I'll say that too.