Customer story · Brand & creative
How Copperline Creative made change orders something clients appreciate
A 31-person brand and creative agency moved from awkward retainer overages to fast, itemized change orders. In four months clients signed 21 of 22, worth $31,900, with zero pushback.
21 of 22
change orders signed in four months, with zero pushback
- Company
- Copperline Creative
- Team size
- 31 people
- Headquarters
- Toronto, Canada
- Plan
- Agency
- in signed change orders over four months
- $31,900in signed change orders over four months
- average time from send to signature
- 1.6 daysaverage time from send to signature
- change orders signed, one rescoped
- 21 of 22change orders signed, one rescoped
- client disputes on billed overages
- 0client disputes on billed overages
The challenge
What was going wrong
Copperline Creative runs brand identity projects and monthly creative retainers for consumer and hospitality brands. Retainers include a fixed number of deliverables each month: social assets, campaign variants, landing page designs and a reporting pack. Client Services Lead Aisha Bello owns the relationships, and with them the uncomfortable job of telling a client that a request is outside the retainer.
Requests arrived everywhere: email threads with the marketing director, Slack messages from a brand manager, comments on Asana tasks. Account managers were generous by nature. An extra set of ad sizes here, a rush landing page there. By the time the monthly report was compiled, the retainer had been exceeded and the overage felt like old news that no one wanted to raise.
When Copperline did raise overages, it was usually in a single end-of-month invoice line. Clients asked reasonable questions about what the line covered, and answering them took hours of digging through threads. Aisha wanted the opposite experience: a short, clear note at the moment of the request, with options.
The approach
How Copperline Creative rolled out TWINJAM
- 01
Deliverable caps tracked in real time
Each retainer agreement was parsed so that monthly caps became counters: 40 social assets, 6 campaign variants, 2 landing pages and one reporting pack. TWINJAM tracks requests against those counters from Gmail, Slack and Asana, and warns the account manager when a request would exceed the month's cap.
- 02
Itemized options, not invoices
Instead of a single overage line, every flagged request becomes a small itemized change order with three choices: add it this month at the agreed rate, move it into next month's allocation, or swap it for something already queued. Account managers review and send each one.
- 03
One-click signature
Change orders go out through DocuSign with the original request quoted, so the client signs with full context. Signed items sync to QuickBooks for invoicing at month end, and the counter resets automatically with the new retainer period.
Selected moments
What TWINJAM caught, and when.
A selection of the flagged requests that became change orders. Each one was reviewed and sent by a PM.
“The change order arrives while the idea is still fresh. Clients see the price, pick the timing and sign. It feels like service, not billing.”
- Month 1
A hospitality client asks for 18 extra social sizes for a regional launch.
The account manager offers add-now or roll into next month. Client chooses add-now.
Change order$2,700
- Month 2
A third landing page is requested against a two-page monthly cap.
Signed within a day.
Change order$4,200
- Month 3
A brand refresh client asks for a motion logo system.
The identity SOW covers static marks only.
Change order$8,500
- Month 4Rescoped
A retail client requests weekly instead of monthly reporting.
Rescoped into the next retainer renewal at a higher tier.
The results
Over four months, Copperline sent 22 change orders. Clients signed 21 of them, worth $31,900, and the 22nd was rescoped into a larger retainer at renewal. The average time from send to signature was 1.6 days, and there were no disputes on billed overages.
Aisha says the most surprising result was the client response. Several clients told account managers they preferred the new approach, because they could see exactly what they were paying for and choose the timing. One client began asking for a change order before making a request, to check the price first.
Internally, account managers stopped dreading month end. Overages are settled when they happen, the reporting pack no longer needs a defensive appendix, and retainer renewals are now based on real usage data instead of impressions.
“Clients actually appreciate the speed and clarity of the itemized change orders. We have had zero pushback since switching.”
Lessons for other agencies
What Copperline Creative would tell you
- 01
Make every change order a choice. Clients respond to options far better than to a bill.
- 02
Quote the original request in the change order so the client never has to ask what it covers.
- 03
Use counters for retainers. Monthly caps are easy to agree to and hard to track by memory.
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