Can your agency do too good of a job for clients?

Is it possible to lose your client’s business because you have done too good of a job for them? Should you intentionally underperform in an attempt to keep the client longer?

These questions may seem far-fetched, but they have actually been asked — so Chip and Gini address them in this week’s episode.

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The following is a computer-generated transcript. Please listen to the audio to confirm accuracy.

Chip Griffin 

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast. I’m Chip Griffin,

Gini Dietrich 

and I’m Gini Dietrich.

Chip Griffin 

And I want to apologize to all of you listeners for the fact that we’re just too good. We’ve done too good a job with this podcast. And so I know that this is the last time you’ll be listening. right after this. So today, Ginni, we’re going to turn to the Comedy Central of business advice. The read it read it small business subreddit. Yeah,

Gini Dietrich 

it is the Comedy Central of business advice.

Chip Griffin 

I the questions, the answers. There is much humor to be had. There are some nuggets in there, though. And so we’ve we’ve uncovered one that on the surface is all humor, but there is some substance that’s worth discussing from an agency perspective.

Gini Dietrich 

Are you ready?

Chip Griffin 

The bated breath, Jenny,

Gini Dietrich 

I’m still a little in shock, because I don’t know what to make of the situation. However, a client of mine who runs a service industry business recently messaged me saying he won’t be needing my SEO Services anymore. Essentially, I won’t read the whole thing. He says no, which is good,

Chip Griffin 

because he apparently doesn’t know how to use paragraphs.

Gini Dietrich 

So that I mean, or punctuation for that matter. He says, Now I’ve had this conversation with clients before who weren’t happy with their ranks or how their website was progressing early on. However, the difference with this client was that his website was killing it. So when I had the conversation with him, he told me something along the lines of, well, now that I rank on the first page, I don’t think we’ll be needing to pay you for your monthly services anymore. You broke my heart a little, as we’ve been working, working together for a while. But what should I do? Can an SEO service provide too great of results to where your customers might not need you anymore? What do I do?

Chip Griffin 

First of all, snap out of it, buddy. Because the idea that you’re too good at what you do, is like one of the most insane things I’ve ever heard from a business person, I know you cannot be too good, it is simply not possible to be too good. You can be too arrogant, which is what it sounds like maybe the case here, but you certainly cannot be too good. You may not do a good enough job, in fact, of selling the client on other things they should be doing, or maybe even understanding what they should be doing going forward. Because if you think they’re going to just pay you for everything you’ve done in the past, you are sorely mistaken. You got to have a plan for the future.