Clients are going to be unhappy sometimes. It might be our fault. It might be their mental state. Clearly, we have client’s that are in a tough emotional condition. They get angry and upset about their situation and sometimes take it out on us rather than on the source of their upset.

Sometimes those upset clients turn in to former clients when they terminate our services. It’s distressing when we try to appease them and it doesn’t work.

There are certainly circumstances where it’s better to let them go than to try to hang on to the relationship. Some client’s simply aren’t going to be satisfied no matter how hard you try.

It’s important, however, to recognize the true cost of losing the client. Those costs include the obvious loss of revenue, but they also include less obvious costs that can, in fact, be more substantial than the lost fees.

The indirect loss includes –

1. The damage to your reputation caused by the bad word of mouth generated by an unhappy client. That damage will cost you money for a long time and you won’t even know it’s happening.

2. The injury to the morale of your staff. Employees don’t feel good about getting fired by clients. It’s depressing and it brings down the overall mood of an office. That results in turnover and makes it hard to recruit the best team.

3. In addition to the word of mouth damage, you also lose the opportunity for positive word of mouth. We only have time to represent so many people. Our hope is that, with each new client, we create an ambassador of goodwill that will go out and spread the word. The unhappy client won’t ever say anything nice about us.

4. Finally, we lose the marketing costs incurred to generate that client. Plus, we now have to incur those costs again to replace the client. It’s a double whammy.

When you’re dealing with that unhappy client, and deciding how hard to work to get them back on track, it’s worth engaging in the complex calculation required to determine the value of the client to your firm. Many times it would be easier to simply let them go. But, don’t do it until you decide that it’s an option you can afford after thoroughly considering the real costs involved.