Hotwire Global

Global communications agency

249 active referrals across six consecutive years. Response rates rising year on year.

Hotwire Global needed a consistent, credible way to measure and manage client satisfaction across regions. What it built with Q&R became part of forward account planning across the agency.

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The question they came with

Hotwire Global was growing across multiple regions. The leadership team knew client satisfaction mattered, but the way it was being measured was inconsistent, varied by country, and was not reliably feeding into business planning.

What they were hearing: broadly positive feedback, managed through individual account relationships.

What they suspected: a patchwork of impressions was not the same as a clear picture, and the gaps would only show up when they were already expensive.

What happened

An eight-question independent programme was designed to measure overall service delivery across Hotwire’s client base and map satisfaction by country office. It ran annually for six consecutive years.

Each cycle combined ratings with written comments, so the agency could see not only how clients felt, but where challenges were emerging, which offices were performing strongly, and where additional support was needed. The programme also asked directly about interest in additional Hotwire services, turning client feedback into a structured view of growth opportunities across the business.

Results were benchmarked year on year. Account teams were brought into the process, actions were attached, and the loop was not left open.

The outcome

249 active referrals generated across the agency network. Response rates rising year on year. Some country offices exceeded 85% response rates.

What Changed Because of It

Hotwire moved from relationship memory and local impression to structured, comparative evidence.

Offices with weaker satisfaction scores could be identified earlier and supported before problems became exits. Stronger offices became visible too, giving leadership a clearer view of where the agency was performing well and where it was not. At the same time, explicit signals of interest in additional services created a cleaner path to organic growth.

The clearest proof is the referral figure. Two hundred and forty-nine times across the network, clients turned satisfaction into advocacy.

Proof Back

Clients were told what Hotwire had heard and where action was being taken. Internally, account teams were expected to respond to the findings, not just receive them.

That closure mattered. Over time, the programme became more than measurement. It became part of how Hotwire’s client relationships were managed, and part of how the agency proved that feedback had consequences.

The Method, in One Line

This followed the Listen Better Loop: independence, judgement, follow-through, proof back.

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"Getting structured feedback through a trusted independent third party like Q&R plays an incredibly important role in the way we manage our client relationships. Every year we do it, we not only celebrate great results, we actually open new opportunities and, in rare instances, save relationships."

Andy West

Global Chief Development Officer

Hotwire