Have you ever had one of your best clients gut punch you?

Have you ever asked a question that you thought you knew the answer to and the response came back very unexpected?

That’s what happened recently when we received back a survey from one of our best and most long-standing clients.

We asked, “Do you feel like you adequately understand the value and service you receive for the fee you pay?”

Over the past 20 years of asking variations of this same question, we’ve become accustomed to receiving a 5 out of 5 ranking.  This day though, our client ranked us a 3. A 3?!

WHEN A GUT-PUNCH IS ACTUALLY A HEAD’S UP

We have a motto, if it’s not broken don’t break it.  In other words, we want to break things all the time, that’s the way you make things better.

Instead of making excuses for our client’s low rating of us, instead of trying to justify it we took that ranking and used it as motivation to make us better.

The reality of it is, I would imagine there are other clients of ours like this one who don’t fully understand the services they are receiving for the fee they pay.  Some of them are “too kind” to openly share their feelings with us or maybe preparing to leave us.

What did I do? I immediately gathered a team meeting and we discussed ways to very intentionally build into part of our client meetings reminders about the fee they pay and the value they’re getting for that fee.

I would rather have my client tell me were missing the mark and allow us to improve it (most likely earning a client for life) than them not telling us and leaving us.

I can assure you almost all of our clients going forward will now be reminded of the value they receive for the fee they’re paying. It might be a step backward but in the long run, it’s going to be several steps forward, strengthening the relationships we have with our existing clients.

Keep breaking things to make them better and you’ll be growing your business as a result of it.

Be well.

Jeff