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OPINION
The trouble with familiarity
Consistently nurturing long-term client relationships and adding value are essential to maintaining loyalty and avoiding complacency.
T he joke goes something like this: A man passes away and has to choose to spend eternity in heaven or hell. He visits heaven and has a beautiful time connecting with family and friends. He then visits hell and is surprised. He sees some old friends, and they spend the day playing golf, enjoying whisky and cigars, and capping the day off with a big steak dinner. He returns to St. Peter and decides to pick the latter destination. When he returns downstairs, he’s met with a blast of heat and the odor of brimstone. Everything around him is burning and horrible. He sees Satan and asks, “What happened? Yesterday, there was golf and good times, but now it’s all gone. Why?”
Brad Thurman, PE, FSMPS, CPSM
Satan replies, “Yesterday, you were a prospect. Today, you’re a client.” FUNNY, NOT FUNNY. The story above usually elicits a chuckle or two followed by a bit of a cringe because it can ring true. In the AEC industry, we often quote the percentage of our business that comes from repeat clients. And repeat clients are fabulous because you can build long-term relationships with them and work together for years. The other side of the sword is that you can start to take them for granted, to think they’ll always be around. In 1989, United Airlines released a commercial titled
“The Speech,” and it’s one of the best ever. Thanks to the interwebs, you can still find it today. In it, a manager calls his team together and informs them that a 20-year client has fired them, saying, “They don’t know us anymore.” He believes it’s because phone calls and faxes (remember…1989) have replaced personal attention. He passes out plane tickets to everyone to see their clients and heads himself to the client who fired them. Fast-forward to 2024. One can argue that phone calls and faxes have been replaced with email and text
See BRAD THURMAN, page 4
THE ZWEIG LETTER NOVEMBER 18, 2024, ISSUE 1562
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