Testimonial from Jürgen Gangoly, CEO / Managing Partner, The Skills Group
Website: www.skills.at

Why CMS certification?
We are CMS-certified… because we have always focused on outstanding quality and the CMS certification has enabled us to have this quality standard externally verified by independent auditors since 2004.

Why do you think agencies need an international quality label like CMS at all?
The demonstrable and obligatory compliance with international industry standards gives clients security when commissioning agencies and at the same time helps to recognise quality providers in the communications industry at first glance.

What has certification brought to your agency in concrete terms?
We are of course getting better and better! 😉 No kidding: the certification – and especially the re-certifications every two years – ensure that you can actually live a continuous improvement process in practice and that mistakes – if any – only happen once. This demonstrably increases customer satisfaction, the length of time customers and staff stay with the agency and automatically makes the agency more successful economically. Onboarding new employees and communicating the agency’s quality standards takes less time and is more effective. As a recognised and quality-certified agency, you are not only more attractive for clients, but also on the labour market, and you appeal particularly to “high potentials”.

Why do you recommend other colleagues to tackle CMS certification for their agency?
For all the reasons mentioned above – and because you can of course also be proud of being demonstrably one of the best communication agencies internationally in terms of quality.

In what way does the CMS label help you in acquisition?
In the last 15 years we have noticed several times that the quality certification is a significant plus point in agency presentations and pitch processes. Of course, you don’t win new clients with this alone – you also have to convince them personally, through consulting and implementation competence and creativity. But the certification is an additional evaluation and decision criterion for clients – and demonstrable quality sometimes justifies higher prices.

What influence does a label have on the internal effect – on your employees?
Our employees are really proud to work for a recognised and quality-certified agency. This has a positive effect on everything from the number of applications to the length of time they stay with the company.

What are your wishes for the further development of the CMS? What is missing today?
Public institutions and companies looking for communication agencies should increasingly demand CMS certification or at least provide it as a positive evaluation criterion with extra “points” in the pitch process. This requires the PR industry associations to become active nationally and internationally.