Client Retention: Grabbing the Low-Hanging Fruit

Imagine yourself craving a delicious orange. The fastest, easiest way to get fresh, ripe oranges isn't by planting new seeds and hoping they grow. It's by tending to the existing, fruit-bearing trees. Similarly, in legal practice, your existing clients are your most abundant source of potential revenue. This article explores the importance of client retention, strategies to nurture client relationships, and how to leverage those relationships for business development.

Why Client Retention Is Your Most Effective Business Growth Strategy

Various sources say that it can cost 10 to 30 times more time and effort to acquire new clients than to retain existing clients. On the other hand, spending that time instead on making sure that you keep your existing clients happy — tending your existing orange trees — can reap substantial benefits and generate significantly more revenue. In fact, research done by Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company (the inventor of the net promoter score) demonstrated that increasing client retention rates by just 5% can yield profit increases of 25% to 95%.

The Real Cost of Client Attrition: More Than Lost Business

Your existing clients are the low-hanging fruit of business development. They are right in front of you, ripe and ready. But even low-hanging fruit needs to be picked. If you become complacent or, worse, fail to provide the same high-quality service and attentiveness that attracted these clients in the first place, that relationship can rot pretty quickly.