When Love Goes Wrong for the Advocate Customer.

This week I was saddened, but not surprised, to hear that a marriage of 32 years would shortly come to an end.

In total disgust, my father had decided to quit the relationship he had had with his bank since 1970. I had estimated that over that time their relationship had been worth millions, but as of today it is no more.

It hadn’t always been this way. There was a time when they had been the best of friends. They believed in his abilities. They supported his ambitions.

In return, he paid them in interest and, more valuably, with his loyalty. As far as my Dad was concerned, they were more than just a bank.

They were his bank and his partners.

My Dad was what every business dreams of having, the advocate customer. The type of customer that refers you business. The type that tells their friends and colleagues how great you are.

When other businesses let you down, the advocate customer leaps up and advises you to see "his guy"…The guy guaranteed to look after you.

What my father doesn’t understand is that the bank literally spends millions each year attempting to get new customers, but at the same time has no concept of his lifetime customer value to them and why it has become a relationship they will do almost nothing to keep.

But this article isn’t about bashing banks (though some could probably do with a good kick in the pants). The tale itself is a metaphor for many business relationships we once had that are no longer.

Like most relationships that end, the prime cause for this situation is that the two parties just don’t talk any more… a crime that yours truly is guilty of from time to time. But we don’t do it on purpose. Like most business owners, we get busy doing the business rather than building and looking after the business.

I once heard a speaker, Martin Grunstein , ask an audience, "When is it the best time to tell your partner that you love them?" The answer was, "Before someone else does."

It’s an expensive lesson many of us aren’t learning. Don’t believe me? Try calculating what this is costing your business each year:
• Go through your past invoices for the past 2 to 3 years and calculate how many former regular customers have now stopped using your business.
• Add up what they used to spend on average per week, per month, per year.
• Ask yourself, "If we still had them as clients, how much more business would we be turning over right now?"
• Work out how much it cost to replace these lost customers in terms of sales calls, advertising, etc.
• Finally ask yourself the question, "What would it have taken to have kept these customers on?"

If you’re like most business owners, the results will more than surprise you. It will be immediately obvious that your business needs a system for keeping existing client relationships not just going, but vibrant, close, and passionate!

It is at least ten times more expensive to get a new customer than it is to keep an existing one. My advice to you is this – go through your client list, send them flowers, a slab of beer, or even a card. Tell them that you love and appreciate them and do it before someone else does.

Patrick Lumbroso is a business development expert and CEO of Patcorp Power Business Systems www.patcorp.com. He can be contacted at patrick@thementorprogram.com.

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