When a client of ours leaves, the first thing we must assume is that it is bad news. We can look for millions of justifications, but the bottom line is that one less customer always hurts. Therefore, the command is to find the reasons why he left. The reasons can be very varied, from internal causes of the client themselves that are beyond our control to those for which we are one hundred percent responsible. That is where we must pay more attention.

The reasons that are outside our scope of competence must be known and see what level of risk they represent for our own business. We know that in the field of business there are countless reasons that we cannot control, and although they are not under our management umbrella, we must be aware and forewarned. Although certainly, it is those that are in our area of responsibility that we should be interest in, pay attention to, analyze and, if possible, solve.

It is said faster than it turns out to be understood. Why did my client leave? In general, we can classify the answers into the following aspects: they chose another alternative to our product or service because they offered a better price/quality ratio, they replaced it with something similar that was better for them, they stopped needing it or they felt mistreated and opted for a better experience. Understanding these reasons sheds light on what is happening in our business and therefore, we must be clear about what led our consumers to abandon us.

The loyalty of our consumers is an intangible asset that we must treasure and take care of because it is very fragile. Market preferences are fickle, changing at breakneck speeds. When we understand what makes us preferable over the other options and remain true to our value proposition, we will retain our clientele. Yes, we will retain it if and only if we meet your expectations. To do this, we must know our consumer very well.

Customer proximity is an effective strategy that is becoming increasingly rare and scarce. What we used to do in person, is now done online. The screen between my customer and my product or service raises the bar for the challenge. Also, the demand to give answers as soon as possible, to attend to our consumer throughout the process: to seduce them to buy what we sell them, advise them to make the best possible use of it and attend to any doubts that may arise once they have acquired our product or service.

What we are looking for is that our client stays with us. A successful project is one that sells one, two, three and an infinite number of times to the same person. The one who completed an operation and has no repeat business is in trouble. The work to retain a customer starts before they buy from us, continues while the transaction is going through, and continues until they buy something from us again.

The serious mistake we make is to try to retain a customer when we have already disenchanted them, when we stop listening to them and lose connection with the reason for their preference. Recently, I changed banks. I had several services contracted with the institution: credit card, bank account, afore, investments, direct debit payments. The experience as a customer was declining and the main thing was the obvious lack of interest that I caused them as an account holder. It took me a while to make the decision and when I finally paid off my accounts, the interest began: they called me on the phone at all hours, they wouldn't leave me alone; it was annoying. The calls turned into almost threatening messages not to go to another bank, then trying to sow fear and finally almost begging me to stay. Each call increased my annoyance. I wonder why they try so hard when there's nothing left to do and they didn't do it when I was still in their client group.

Disillusionment is one of the most frequent reasons why a customer leaves. In the sales period, we tend to promise. If the promises made about price, service, and quality do not match the expectations that were generated—bad luck, they will lose the customer. Most of the time, proper customer treatment can solve problems.

They sold me a membership of a platform for the management of entrepreneurial projects. Even the owner came to talk to me about the benefits of his product and I believed him. Not a week after acquiring the product, the disappointments began. The system is not friendly, you have to rework outside the platform to reconcile data. I thought it was a failure in use, so I asked for training. The trainers were not trained to explain, they repeated the information as if they were reading a script, the problems were not solve—in fact, they became deeper. The owner informed us that if we wanted to stop doing rework, they would charge us extra to generate a module. I noticed that other users were in the same condition. Goodbye. And, magically, just like the bank, efforts to retain us began. Too little, too late.

The last visit I made to Guadalajara, I stayed at the Intercontinental. The franchise is managed by Presidente Hotels who advertise themselves as an organization with high quality of service. On their website they claim to be “high quality hotels that combine comfort and excellent service. We build trust and authenticity. Service Attitude – The satisfaction of our customers is the most important thing." False. They could never issue me an invoice for the days I was staying with them. Neither the branch manager nor his staff were able to generate a document as simple as the one they are obliged to give. When I complained to higher levels in Grupo Presidente, I received evasive and then rude answers. When I complained to Grupo Intercontinental in Atlanta, Ga., they returned the problem to those who had generated it and refused to solve it. Goodbye, they lost a customer.

When a customer leaves, they leave a gap that didn't exist before. Many try to throw dirt on the matter and look the other way. Others want to recover what they lost when it is too late. To squander a customer is to see that our business shrinks, for whatever reason. Losing it because we didn't take good care of it, because we weren't up to the task, because we overpromised and underdelivered is a reason for analysis. Therefore, it is worth paying attention.