The Client You Take for Granted (And Why That Costs You)
- Jun 10
- 7 min read
When did you last feel valued by a service provider you've been loyal to for what seems like ever?
You’ve almost definitely seen service providers you use offering all sorts of incentives to attract new clients. It could be better rates, special packages, or bonuses. Whatever they are, they're things existing clients don't get.
It’s easy (and perfectly reasonable) to feel like you’re getting the rough end of the pineapple.
It happens a lot.
You're a long-term customer, paying more or getting less while new customers get the red-carpet treatment. It's a strange way to say thank you to the people who've been helping keep the lights on all those years.
While those special deals and “for new clients only” promotions are very visible, many business owners don't realise they're inadvertently doing the same thing. Not with aggressive new-customer promotions. But with their attention, energy and focus.
Key Takeaways:
Growth at the expense of loyalty is a false choice - you don't have to choose between attracting new clients and keeping existing ones, but too many businesses do exactly that
You can't assume you know what your clients value - the gap between "we think they value X" and "they actually value Y" is where businesses get blindsided
Clients leave when you don’t give them a reason to stay – clients who feel like you’re indifferent to them and their needs won’t hang around long term
The cost of taking existing clients for granted is hidden until it's too late - by the time you notice they're gone, the damage is already done
The assumption you just can’t make
In most businesses we work with, there’s surprisingly little fact-based knowledge about what their clients truly value.
When asked directly about their core clients, the ones closest to their ideal, responses go along these lines:
"We think they value our attention to detail."
"We think they appreciate our quick turnaround times."
"We think they like working with us because we understand their industry."
"We think" doesn’t cut it. You can’t read the minds of your clients. The only way to know for sure why they keep coming back is to ask them.
Unless you’re consistently doing the things you know your clients value and appreciate, they’ll start to feel like they’re being taken for granted. If you don’t give them a good reason to stay, they won’t.
That’s the real risk when you go chasing new opportunities and new clients. You won’t mean to of course, but you may pay less attention to the relationships that helped you build your business. You won’t notice it happening. But they will.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t pursue growth through new client acquisition. Of course you should. It’s just that it's important to do so without putting your existing relationships at unnecessary risk.
It’s not hard, but you do have to know with certainty what your clients really love about you so you can keep doing it.
There’s a paradox in this
Most business owners know intuitively that they need to protect, and do more of, what's working. They also know there’s a need to build for the next stage of growth.
But putting what they know into practice sometimes comes unstuck.
Protecting what's working needs you to do something that feels counterintuitive when you're trying to scale: to slow down a little and invest time and attention in the relationships and processes that are already delivering value.
As you grow, it’s important to check in with your best clients and make sure they’re still being looked after as they’ve come to expect.
When you’re busy launching new services, it’s equally important to ask if you're delivering what your clients actually want? Or what you think they want?"
As you focus on acquiring new clients, make sure you're spending energy on the people who've already chosen you.
You get the drift.
And even though you know it’s how you should be working, it still feels odd. Like you could be leaving money on the table. Or that you're not being aggressive enough about growth.
The reality? We see businesses that effectively protect “the good stuff they're already doing” grow faster and more sustainably than those that don't.
The attraction to new client incentives
Let’s go back to that consumer frustration mentioned earlier. The one where a service provider (pretty much of any kind) offers amazing deals to new clients. Meanwhile, their long-term ones miss out on all the goodies.
The new client gets a better deal. The loyal client? Has to fight to get recognised in the same way.
That’s a terrible dynamic for any business to create. But it happens constantly.
And while that kind of behaviour is horribly obvious, many business owners have created their own version of new client preference without even realising it. It happens because of where these owners focus their energy, time and resources. New business is king while existing relationships suffer.
It's not intentional. But it's what happens when you're so focused on growth that you become less deliberate about protecting what's already working.
The client you take for granted: questions you're probably not asking but should
We’ve already suggested you have to know, with clarity, what your clients value about their relationship with you. It’s what separates businesses that effectively protect what's working from those that don't:
Acting on the basis of assumptions, and what you think, is doomed to fail.
Here are just some of the questions you should be asking…regularly:
"What keeps you coming back to us?"
"What could we do differently to make our relationship even stronger?"
"What's working for you in our relationship? What's not?"
The answers to these questions and others like them matter enormously.
Why?
Because too many business owners have a view of their clients in their heads that doesn't quite match reality. Sometimes it's close. But all too often it's not even in the same postcode.
And decisions are based on those inaccuracies.
Capabilities are created that clients don't need, want or value. Pricing is based on assumptions about what clients will pay. They're competing on things that don't matter to the people who buy from them.
They’re doing all that and more because they’ve never asked.
What protecting what's working looks like
It's not terribly complicated, but you do need to be deliberate about it.
First: (Really) Know your clients and what they value.
The reason many businesses don’t get specific with clients on this is that deep down, they’re a little afraid of what they might hear. But the alternative is they’ll walk anyway and you’ll never know why.
There could be some surprises. You might discover the thing you thought was your competitive advantage isn't what keeps clients coming back. Or that something you've taken for granted is actually what matters most.
That's valuable information. You can’t properly protect what's working without it.
Second: Make sure your best clients feel like your best clients.
This means they get access to you (or to the right people in your business), even as you’re heavily focused on new clients. It means their requests continue to be dealt with as a priority and that if something goes wrong, they know it matters to you.
Let’s be clear…your existing clients have earned your respect and attention (well, perhaps not all of them, but that’s a conversation for another time). And don’t forget that it’s more expensive to acquire a new client than to keep an existing one and do more business with them.
Third: Build your growth strategy focused on protecting what's working, not instead of it.
As we’ve said, acquiring new clients is important. You can’t grow sustainably without them. But when it’s at the expense of existing client engagement, that’s a problem. A big one.
So you should absolutely do both and you need to ensure your strategic focus supports this dual effort.
The cost of not doing this
What you won’t realise until it's too late is that the cost of taking existing clients for granted is largely invisible.
Because most clients who leave you don’t do it with any fanfare. They drift away over time. They don’t answer your calls as quickly as they used to. If they were in the habit of referring people to you, that stops. The relationship might still be there, but not the enthusiasm.
Six months later, they're likely to be working with someone else as well as you. You won’t know that because they won’t tell you, even if you ask. A year later, they’ll have moved on and you’ll still be wondering where it all went so wrong.
Usually, the answer is simple: you didn’t give them a reason to stay.
The businesses that grow sustainably
Businesses that successfully navigate growth without destroying what made them successful in the first place are very deliberate about it.
They know who their best clients are and understand – with certainty – what those clients value. They protect those relationships fiercely while they pursue new opportunities.
Rather than assuming loyalty they consistently work on earning it by ensuring clients know
they’re valued.
Protecting what’s working doesn’t get in the way of growth…it enables it. Through referrals, higher per client revenues, higher client engagement and fewer client defections. It's not a choice between growth and protection. It's understanding that protection is part of growth.
The question you need to answer
Do your best clients feel like your best clients?
Not in theory, but in practice. In how you allocate your time, attention and resources.
If the answer is "not really," you know it’s a problem. And more importantly, you know what needs to change.
Ready to protect what's actually working?
This is a core consideration in our Growth Breakthrough Program—helping you understand what your best clients actually value, and building your growth strategy around protecting those relationships while you scale.
Not at the expense of growth. Alongside it.
Contact us to arrange a conversation about how to protect your foundation while you build what's next.
Alternatively, you can book a time for an initial discussion.
Because the clients you take for granted are often the clients you can't afford to lose.
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