Initially, DCG tried to evaluate agencies using traditional industry analyst methods, just as analysts assess software platforms. But agencies aren’t like technology—there’s no feature list to check off. Their success is tied to people, processes, and expertise, making it difficult to measure objectively.

Instead of trying to analyze thousands of agencies through internal research, DCG recognized that the best way to evaluate agency performance at scale was through Voice of Customer (VOC) research—letting the agencies’ own clients determine their success. Thus, VOCalis was born.

The name VOCalis is a deliberate play on words—"vocalis" is Latin for "vocal," meaning to express one’s opinion—which ties perfectly to our mission of capturing authentic client feedback to help agencies improve, differentiate, and succeed.

We started by publishing our findings, much like JD Power does with consumer research. In fact, the foundation of VOCalis was directly influenced by Stephen C. Goodall, former President & CEO of JD Power and Associates and a DCG board member at the time. Steve served as the initial managing director of VOCalis, leveraging JD Power’s proven methodologies in Voice of Customer research to shape the program. However, agencies were hesitant to share full client lists if they knew the data would be made public, which led to incomplete insights. To get more accurate results—and to drive real improvements—we pivoted to working directly with agencies.