Retaining and Losing Clients

I’ve lost clients before. And it’s 100% my fault.  I got so busy swimming with the big fish I landed that I forgot about the minnows that got me near the big fish - the smaller clients that kept me in business for the first 5 years and still contribute greatly to our revenue stream. I became short sided. It happens. I’m human. So, I reached out to that client and apologized. I let them know what I did and why I did it and was uncomfortably honest with them. I eventually won them back but not without having to reprove myself, my loyalty and my appreciation.

I’m not here to impart some sort of lesson learned. Just to share my personal experience for you to take from it what you will, if anything at all. I forgot that small fish are just as important as the big fish. I forgot that no matter what is going on in the world, whether it be business as usual or the current pandemic, it is important that we retain all levels of clients. To paraphrase a wise mentor, we do this by providing top notch, above and beyond service, every single day. So, for what it’s worth, that is what we always try and do. When we treat our existing clients as though they were new, we all win. Kind of like the early days of a relationship, with more wooing than booing.

We think it’s important that we all stop for a few minutes every now and then, especially if you have any thing to do with Business Development or Marketing and say “how are we doing with our current clients” instead of always trying to land the next big, or bigger fish. When we ask ourselves that, we often find that we need to do better. We aren’t always going to get it right, but we will try.

Have a wonderful rest of the week.