A new account manager every six months is not a coincidence
If your web agency has cycled through three account managers in a year and each one asks you to explain your business from scratch, you are not imagining the problem. Agencies churn junior staff on purpose, and your account is treated as one of many that gets handed down the line. The fix is either to force them to keep proper notes on your account, or to work with someone where the person you email is the person who does the work.
Why agencies rotate account managers
Account manager is usually the lowest-paid role in a web agency. It is a starter job - graduates, career changers, people one year out of university. They burn out fast, get promoted out of the role, or leave for a better job.
Agencies know this. They build the business model around it. You get assigned to whoever is available, and when that person leaves, you get assigned to whoever is available next. Your account is a folder in a shared drive, not a relationship.
The agency does not lose money when this happens. You do.
What it actually costs you
Every time you get a new account manager, the clock resets. You re-explain your business, your tone, the thing your last manager promised would be done by March, the reason the homepage hero image is the way it is.
This is unpaid work. You are doing the agency's onboarding for them, in your own time, on a service you already pay for. If you are on a £150/month retainer and you spend two hours every six months bringing a new person up to speed, that is real money in your time.
- The first email is always polite and friendly. "Just taking over from Sarah - could you give me a quick overview of where we are?"
- The second email asks for things Sarah already had.
- The third email contradicts something Sarah promised.
By the time the new person is up to speed, they are leaving too.
Why nobody at the agency remembers your site
Account managers do not build your site. They do not host it, edit it, or fix it. They sit between you and the developer who actually touches the files. Their job is to translate your emails into tickets and the developer's replies back into your language.
When the account manager leaves, the developer does not pick up the slack - the developer never knew you in the first place. The new account manager opens the folder, reads whatever scrappy notes the last one left, and starts guessing.
The account manager who emails you twice a year to check in is, conservatively, £30 of your monthly bill.
Whether you run a salon in Glasgow or a letting agency in Reading, this structure is the same. The agency is selling you the illusion of a dedicated contact while the actual contact changes every nine months.
Questions to ask before you stay
If you want to give the agency one more chance before leaving, ask these in writing:
- Who specifically is responsible for my account, and what happens to my notes when they leave?
- Can I have direct contact with the developer who actually works on my site?
- Where are the notes from the last two years of changes stored, and can I see them?
- What is your staff turnover in the account management team?
You will not get clean answers. The point is to see how they react. An agency that has thought about this problem will have a proper handover process. An agency that has not will go quiet or send you a marketing brochure.
What to do next
The reason this keeps happening is the structure. As long as there is a middle layer between you and the person doing the work, that layer will keep churning, and you will keep re-explaining yourself.
SkipTheAgency removes that layer. I am the person you email, the person who knows your site, and the person who makes the changes. There is no account manager because there is no account management to do. The Maintained plan is £65/month for a small business site - direct contact, same-day changes, no handovers because there is nobody to hand over to.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my web agency keep changing my account manager?
Account management is usually the most junior role in a web agency, so turnover is high. Staff get promoted, burn out, or leave for better jobs every nine to eighteen months. The agency replaces them with whoever is available next and your account gets reassigned.
Is it normal to re-explain my business every time I get a new contact?
It is common, but it is not acceptable. A well-run agency keeps proper notes on each client so a new contact can read up before the first call. If you are doing the onboarding work yourself every time, the agency has no real handover process.
Should I leave my agency over account manager turnover?
If it has happened twice and your site has stalled, yes. The turnover itself is a symptom of how the agency runs - you will not get continuity at a place that does not pay or retain staff. Leaving costs you a few weeks of migration work and saves you years of repeated explanations.
How do I move my site to someone smaller without losing everything?
Ask your agency to confirm in writing who owns the domain and where the site files are. Most decent independent developers will handle the migration for you free of charge. The whole process usually takes one to two weeks and there is no downtime if it is done properly.
Is a solo developer more reliable than an agency for a small business site?
For a small business site, usually yes. A solo developer has fewer clients, no middle layer, and remembers your site because they built or took over the whole thing themselves. The risk is that if they are unavailable, you wait - so ask about backup arrangements before you sign.
Stop explaining your business to a stranger every six months
With SkipTheAgency you email one person - me - and that does not change. The Maintained plan starts at £65/month and includes direct contact, same-day changes, and no handovers.
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