How to Take an Agency Reference Call

A reference call is the only check in the whole selection process where you can ask a follow-up question, which is what makes it worth more than any review. Everything else a buyer reads was written once, for a general audience, by someone who knew it would be published. A reference is a conversation, and conversations produce information that prepared statements cannot.

Ask for the right reference, not just a reference

The reference an agency offers is the one most likely to say good things, which is reasonable and also why the specification matters more than the request. Ask for a client in your category, at roughly your size, who joined more than a year ago.

Each part does work. Same category means the reference has watched the agency handle your specific problem. Similar size means the service level is comparable. More than a year means the relationship has survived at least one disappointing month, which is when the useful information is generated.

An agency that cannot produce anyone matching all three is telling you something about its client base rather than about its quality, and that is worth knowing plainly rather than inferring later.

The six questions that produce information

What did the first ninety days actually look like? Onboarding is where most relationships are decided, and the answer is specific or it is invented.

What did they do when something did not work? Every engagement has one. The answer describes behaviour under pressure, which is the thing you cannot check any other way.

Who do you actually deal with, and has that changed? Turnover on an account is invisible from outside and is one of the strongest predictors of a relationship going flat.

What do you get each month, in concrete terms? Compare this against the scope you were quoted. Divergence here is the most useful single finding a reference call can produce.

What would you change if you were starting again? Almost nobody answers this with nothing, and the answer is usually the truest sentence in the call.

Would you sign again at the same price? A yes with a pause is different from a yes, and the pause is the answer.

What a refusal means, and what it does not

A refused reference is not proof of anything. Some clients decline to be named for competitive reasons, some agencies work under confidentiality terms, and some simply have not asked anyone.

What is informative is the shape of the refusal. An agency that says its clients prefer not to be identified, and then offers an anonymised call or a client in an adjacent category, is managing a real constraint. One that treats the request itself as unreasonable is telling you how it will respond the next time you ask for something ordinary.

Why a flawless reference is worth less

A reference with nothing critical to say is either a very unusual relationship or a coached one, and in both cases the call has produced little. The useful reference describes something that went wrong and how it was handled, because that is the part you are actually buying.

Listen for specificity rather than enthusiasm. A reference who can name a month, a problem and a response has lived it. One who speaks in adjectives has been asked to help out.

Do the call yourself

Delegating the reference call to whoever is running the procurement removes most of its value, because the follow-up questions depend on knowing which answers matter to your business. Fifteen minutes on the phone yourself is worth more than a summary of a longer call someone else took.

Take it live rather than by email. A written reference is a review with a smaller audience.

Our position

We will introduce a client in your category who has been with us long enough to have seen a month that did not go well, and we will not sit on the call. We are early enough as a company that our reference list is short, and saying so is more useful to a buyer than arranging the most enthusiastic conversation available.

We sell into this category, so treat the advice above as coming from a party with an interest in how you run the check. A reference call is the last and most informative of the evidence checks, and the four other checks that surround it decide whether it is worth arranging at all.

SEO Is My Love Language was founded by Jose Villalobos, who has spent his career on a single discipline: getting businesses found, cited, and recommended by AI search. He has been a member of Koray Tuğberk Gübür’s Holistic SEO Community since 2022, is a graduate of the Topical Authority Course, holds the Google AI Professional Certificate, and is a member of Kyle Roof’s IMG. That combination, topical authority strategy paired with rigorous on-page execution, is what our team brings to every business we work with.

Frequently asked questions

What should I ask an agency reference?

What the first ninety days looked like, what happened when something did not work, who they actually deal with and whether that has changed, what arrives each month in concrete terms, what they would change if starting again, and whether they would sign again at the same price.

Which reference should I ask for?

One in your category, at roughly your size, who joined more than a year ago. Same category means they watched the agency handle your problem, similar size means the service level is comparable, and over a year means the relationship has survived a disappointing month.

What does it mean if an agency will not provide a reference?

Not necessarily anything, since some clients decline to be named and some contracts restrict it. What is informative is the shape of the refusal: offering an anonymised call or an adjacent client is managing a constraint, while treating the request as unreasonable predicts how ordinary requests will be handled.

Is a written reference as good as a call?

No. A written reference is a review with a smaller audience, because the value of a reference is the follow-up question and writing removes it. Take fifteen minutes live, and take it yourself rather than delegating it.

What if the reference has nothing negative to say?

Then the call has produced little. A reference with no criticism is either an unusual relationship or a coached one. The useful version describes something that went wrong and how it was handled, since that is the part you are actually buying.

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