9 Ways to Lose a Client

In a competitive business market, we want to keep our good clients while building to gain new ones. Not only is it more expensive to gain a new client, a long-term client will provide financial stability to your business, along with loyalty, business continuity, potential referrals, and the opportunity to push creative boundaries together. You can get over bumps in the road, mistakes, and communication glitches with a well-established relationship.

Practicing relationship faux pas puts you at risk of losing established clients, so to avoid this we recommend the following:

1. Set unrealistic expectations - In the desire to win over a client, we might over-promise. Make sure your promises are things you have complete control over. Otherwise, tell them the true odds. A sports coach can’t promise an athlete an Olympic medal, but he can tell her what success he has had with others, how much work it will take, and how hard he will work to give her every opportunity for success.
2. Stop marketing to you clients - Never assume loyalty alone will keep you together. Keep marketing to your current clients by reminding them of wins and checking in with them for feedback.
3. Focus on new clients in lieu of your longer relationships - Your first child never wants to be bumped for the adorable, new baby.
4. Step up only at contract renewal time – Your client has been evaluating the relationship long before that. We have all experienced this with vendors. They realize it is time to re-up and start shaping up. Don’t be that vendor.
5. Fail to keep agreements - You can meet or exceed expectations 99 percent of the time, but the time you fail on something important could be the time a client negatively talks about you to friends, colleagues, or on social media.
6. Fail to ask about their priorities - Just because it is clear to you what your client needs to do next, you may forget to take a step back and ask about their priorities and expectations.  Even if you’re right, it doesn’t matter if it’s not what your client wants.
7. Fail to set up roles and responsibilities - Success is more likely to occur, and usually happens more quickly, when everyone knows their roles. It’s a good move to clarify what you do and don’t do, as well as what your client will or won’t do. It will help avoid bumping into each other or overlooking tasks later on.
8. Believe “ground rules” are for the playground - Call them whatever you want, but clarify how you will contact each other, who to contact for what, and any other points that are significant for communication, meetings, and follow-up. If rules are created from the get-go, then less misunderstanding and untangling will follow.
9. Skip orientation - Both you and your client want to be excited about the investment in your partnership. You may have delivered this in the sales pitch, but if you can add to it by welcoming them to your company family and celebrating an anniversary as partners as years pass, then items from #7 and #8 will continue to be seamless.

Customer attrition can be more costly than employee turnover in direct and indirect dollars. As Human Resources experts will tell you that it is critical to retain and reward your top talent, the same theory applies to your valued clients. It’s more difficult and more expensive to replace a valued client, so consider these tips -- and I would love to hear from you if you have other suggestions. Please share with us in the comments below.