Lost Clients

Why do clients leave relationships with us? According to the US Chamber of Commerce, there are various reasons that clients stop doing business with us. While it may appear that we can do nothing about some of these reasons, others are completely within our control, and we should take all steps that may address any of the reasons.

1% of our customers will die, and we cannot prevent that. We should have established relationships with other personnel of that business in order to continue that partnership. 3% of our clients will move away, and 5% will buy from a friend, but can we remain in the business relationship in spite of those events?

9% of our clients will move to one of our competitors, and we should have built our relationship in order to avoid that. We will lose 14% because they are dissatisfied with our product or service, and that is within our area of control. However, their dissatisfaction may be because they should never have been our client in the first place, and that may also be our fault.

The bulk of our lost client base, 68%, leaves the relationship with us because they perceive that they have been forgotten. We must never allow our clients to believe that they are ignored or taken for granted. We spend money, time, and effort on obtaining customers. We should spend some on making those customers into the valued clients who refer business to us and have a long time contract status with us.

If we practice Gratitude Marketing, we do not lose clients because they believe that they are ignored or taken for granted. We do not lose clients because we have not established a partnership with them. Our clients know that they have a business partner that cares about their success, their continued achievements in their business and personal lives. They know that we have a relationship that benefits both parties.

There are clients that we will lose in spite of all that we do to make them know that we are their partner in life and that we really care about them. However, there are some clients that never should have been in business with us, even if we have a networking relationship with them. There are a number of our networking partners who will never be our customers, and should not be. They just don’t need what we have to offer.

There are others who will never use whatever they may purchase from us in the manner for which the product or service is intended or designed. We should not have these people as customers, nor should we be surprised when we lose them as customers. While we have a responsibility to acquire the right customers, customers have a responsibility to make informed buying decisions.

As business people we all have a responsibility to obtain new customers. We also have an equal responsibility to retain as many customers as we are able. While there are reasons that we may lose some customers that may not be completely under our control, the 68% of lost customers are ones which we can take action to prevent. We must not allow our customers to feel ignored or forgotten.

Take action to make customers know that they are not taken for granted. Practice Gratitude Marketing and retain those clients that might perceive that we do care about them. Please leave me your comments here, or email me at Jim@SOC4Now.com, or call me at 360-314-8691 to let me have your thoughts.