I am aware of a company that is a veritable revolving door; losing hundreds upon hundreds of employees at a rate of, on average, one per month. Why? In addition to stressful working conditions, this company has never understood or appreciated the importance of staying out in front of its employees in terms of communications, career-pathing and pay. Thus, when an employee inevitably finds a more lucrative and rewarding position, they are gone—even when this company offers to match compensation.
But is this surprising? If an employer is willing to meet a pay increase offered elsewhere, what does this say to its employee? That they don’t want to lose them? More likely, it communicates what the employee already knows: They are underpaid and underappreciated. After all, if they are worth the extra money now, why not before? As I have written previously, employee loyalty is earned, not automatic.
So it goes with customers. The days of signing a new client and then putting it on “auto pilot” have long disappeared. Once again, true value, proactively demonstrated daily and unavailable elsewhere, is essential to retention.
Interestingly enough, that value is best communicated and demonstrated by talented employees through their relationships with clients built on trust and results. Both, as you can see, are inexorably linked. Lose one, and you risk losing the other.