I lost a client today

Posted by FirstTab on Mon, 06/02/2012 - 21:00 in Blogs 1336 4 comments | report

I really need to get this off my system. It is a horrible feeling losing a client. It is even worse where it is a key client who I would lose my sleep over. Who is responsible for this loss? 100% me of course. It is my business, the buck starts and stops with me.

I took my eye off the ball on client retention and I was heavily concentrating on growth. There was a large degree of complacency on my part about my existing clients – “oh they will stay”.

Where did I go wrong with this key client?

Not responding to his queries within 48 hours
Excessive use of emails by me rather than picking up the phone
When the client called he just took too much of my time over the phone. I found that I was teaching him accounts and tax. My stupid action (an email of course) was to inform him that any single calls of over 10 mins will result in an additional fee. On reflection, I would have left if someone told me this!
I responded to some of the emails in haste rather than think through and then respond.
Whenever he asked a question on tax, I gave him an answer that in his view was playing it extra safe. He wanted to bend the rules but at the same time not go against the rules.

This is a bitter pill to swallow. I will now go out of my way to look after my existing clients. Retention will come first and growth second.

Comments

It happens 1 thanks

petersaxton | Mon, 06/02/2012 - 21:20 | Permalink

Just because somebody leaves it doesn’t mean it’s your fault. There’s always something you could have done to keep them but would it have been fair on you?

I think being slow at replying to emails can irritate clients but if you can’t answer for a few days why not phone to explain why? At least you can judge the response.

Emails or phone is a question of judgement. If somebody emails me usually they would be happy to accept an email back but there are always exceptions. Sometimes you only know with hindsight.

From the sound of it you are better off without this particular client.

bend the rules? 1 thanks

Red Leader | Tue, 07/02/2012 - 11:01 | Permalink

"Bend the rules" - I suspect this is the main reason he left you.

There are some clients who feel that any tax bill is an outrage and the accountant's job is never complete until the bill is reduced to nil! These clients put a lot of pressure on you to get the tax bill down but they alway say "of course, I don't want to do anything illegal". Hmm, really? Perhaps they want to make payments to their employees as a gift and of course gifts aren't taxable. Come on Mr Accountant, surely this willl work?

Just review how far he wanted to push you to do "tax planning" that you were uncomfortable with, and then think what it would look like if he was prosecuted. I think there may be a case going on now.......

I agree that saying there'll be a charge for calls over 10 mins may have made any client fed up. You could instead simply have reviewed the fee - higher - next year.

Email delay time 1 thanks

paul.gloverstanbury | Wed, 08/02/2012 - 10:50 | Permalink

I note that you sent some emails and seem to have had regrets - it is possible to set up a delay in sending emails (5 minutes in my own case) to allow cooling-off time for possible second thoughts or gentler phrasing....I am sure that Simon Hurst showed the way in an article on AccountingWeb a year or two back and, as someone who has been known to send the odd intemperate response in the past, I recommend it!

Our subconscious ... 1 thanks

ShirleyM | Wed, 08/02/2012 - 09:43 | Permalink

... often gives us good information. If you are putting off responding to a certain client, it is probably because you have doubts about that client, or they are straight out cringeworthy!

With regards to tax planning, I agree with Red leader. What a lot of them really mean is .... they want you to bend every rule going, but they want the blame to be yours when it all goes wrong.

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