Stop Trying to Delight Clients
Updated: February 2026 | Originally published: June 2012 | 6 min read
The professional services industry has been obsessed with ‘client delight’ for decades. Law firms, accounting practices, and consultancies compete to exceed expectations, provide white-glove service, and become "most trusted advisers." But research from Harvard Business Review reveals a surprising truth: delighting clients doesn't drive loyalty. In fact, it often backfires.
The problem? "Delight" is expensive to deliver, difficult to sustain, and - most importantly - not what clients actually value most.
Here's what works instead…
THE CORE INSIGHT
Client loyalty doesn't come from delighting clients - it comes from reducing their effort.
Key Principles:
Delighting creates unsustainable expectations and burns out professionals
Clients value reliability and ease over spectacular gestures
Focus on reducing client effort: thorough preparation, clear communication, proactive service
Strategic paring back of non-essential activities benefits both parties
Being easy to work with is more valuable than trying to exceed expectations
Based on: Dixon, Freeman & Toman (2010) HBR research on Customer Effort Score
The Delight Delusion: Why "Exceeding Expectations" Fails
'Delighting' clients is a goal that puts Herculean pressures on professionals, offers low marginal value to clients, and increases costs of doing business. The push to delight creates three fundamental problems:
1. Herculean Pressure On Professionals
When "good enough" isn't good enough, professionals burn out trying to constantly exceed expectations. Weekly personal calls, immediate responses at all hours, elaborate client entertainment, over-servicing on every matter - these consume enormous time and energy that could be invested in delivering excellent core work.
The race to delight creates a culture where professionals feel they must always go "above and beyond," leading to unsustainable work patterns and diminishing returns on effort.
2. Diminishing Returns for Clients
Once you've delighted a client, that extraordinary service becomes the new baseline. What impressed them last year is merely expected this year. You're on a treadmill of escalating effort with diminishing impact on client satisfaction or loyalty.
The bar keeps rising, but client loyalty doesn't rise with it. As Dixon, Freeman, and Toman discovered in their 2010 Harvard Business Review research, exceeding expectations has minimal impact on client loyalty compared to simply meeting them reliably.
3. Increased Costs With Unclear Benefits
Time spent on delight activities is time not spent on billable work, business development, or professional development. These costs either get passed to clients (making you uncompetitive) or erode your margins (making you unprofitable).
Worse still, many "delight" activities don't actually strengthen client relationships - they're performed out of habit, fear of losing clients, or misguided attempts to differentiate in crowded markets.
What Clients Actually Want: Reduce Their Effort
When I speak with buyers of professional services, the vast majority provide examples of outstanding service in terms of very straightforward and human interactions - from the act of visiting the client at their premises or work site, to remembering important meetings for their client and considering what is required beforehand.
They rarely cite grand gestures or "delight moments." Instead, they describe professionals who make their lives easier:
Lawyers who visit them at their premises to understand their business context
Accountants who proactively remind them of deadlines before they become urgent
Consultants who prepare thoroughly before meetings so client time isn't wasted
Advisers who translate complex legal or financial concepts into plain language
Partners who anticipate questions and address them before being asked
The pattern is clear: clients value professionals who reduce their effort - the work they must do to get their jobs done.
This aligns with Dixon, Freeman, and Toman's Customer Effort Score research, which found that the single biggest driver of client loyalty isn't delight - it's how easy you make it for clients to work with you.
Practical Ways to Reduce Client Effort
1. Make Communication Effortless
Respond within promised timeframes (consistency beats speed)
Provide clear next steps after every interaction
Summarize complex information in plain language
Anticipate questions and address them proactively
Don't make clients repeat information you should remember
2. Simplify Processes
Minimize administrative burden on clients
Handle routine matters without requiring their constant input
Create templates and systems that work smoothly
Streamline approvals and decision points
Make it easy for clients to give you what you need
3. Be Reliable Over Spectacular
Deliver on commitments consistently
Set realistic expectations, then meet them
Don't overpromise to win work
Make steady competence your brand
Build trust through predictability
4. Visit Their World
Meet at client offices to understand their context
Observe their workflows and pain points firsthand
Learn their business rhythms, deadlines, and pressures
Align your service delivery to their actual needs
Show genuine interest in what makes their work difficult
As Casciaro and Lobo's research on professional networks demonstrates, people value partners who are both competent AND easy to work with. Likeability - often expressed as simply being pleasant and low-maintenance - matters as much as expertise.
What This Looks Like in Practice
So rather than trying to delight clients in the jostle for the 'most trusted adviser' trophy, focus instead on reducing their effort. Here's how the shift plays out:
Instead of: Weekly check-in calls that interrupt the client's workflow
Do this: Monthly written summaries with "reply only if issues" approach - respecting their time
Instead of: Immediate responses at all hours (training clients to expect 24/7 availability)
Do this: Consistent response within 24 business hours - setting sustainable boundaries
Instead of: Elaborate client entertainment events clients feel obligated to attend
Do this: Relevant industry briefings that help their business (or their client’s business).
Instead of: Over-explaining every detail to prove thoroughness
Do this: Clear executive summaries with "detailed analysis available if needed"
Instead of: Surprising clients with unsolicited extras that create scope confusion
Do this: Asking "what would make this easier for you?" and delivering on that
Instead of: Requiring multiple meetings to cover straightforward matters
Do this: Thorough preparation so one meeting suffices
Extending the observations of Dixon, Freeman and Toman, telling client-facing professionals to "make it easy" for clients gives them a concrete, even liberating, foundation for action. After all, people like people who are easy to work with.
Permission to Pare Back: Strategic Effort Reduction
And in the current environment of over-worked professional services teams, Margaret Luciano's 2022 suggestions for strategically paring back effort is spot on.
Maybe that client doesn't really need a weekly personal phone call after all. Cutting a bit of slack might be good business for everyone.
1. Audit Your "Delight" Activities
Which gestures do clients actually value versus those performed out of habit or fear? Not every client appreciates being taken to expensive dinners or sporting events - many would prefer you simply do excellent work and bill them fairly.
2. Ask yourself about each activity:
Does this reduce client effort or just create activity?
Would the client notice if we stopped doing this?
Is this performed for the client's benefit or our anxiety about the relationship?
Does the time invested generate proportional relationship value?
3. Apply the Client Effort Test
Before committing to any service activity, ask: Does this reduce client’s effort?
If an activity doesn't make life easier for clients, question whether it's worth continuing. That weekly personal call might be interrupting their workflow rather than helping it. The elaborate quarterly business review might consume their time without delivering genuine insights.
4. Focus instead on high-impact basics:
Thorough preparation before meetings (so their time is used well)
Clear, jargon-free communication (so they understand without additional effort)
Proactive issue identification (so problems don't become crises)
Reliable delivery on commitments (so they can trust you without checking)
Examples of What to Cut
Excessive Status Updates Clients have email overload too. Unless there's news that requires their attention or action, resist the urge to "stay visible" through unnecessary updates.
Entertainment Events Clients Feel Obligated to Attend Not everyone wants to spend their time at a corporate shindig. Some clients would prefer you donate to their chosen charity or simply discount your next invoice.
Over-servicing That Creates Dependency Doing work clients should handle themselves might feel like great service, but it can infantilise the relationship and create unsustainable expectations.
The goal is sustainable excellence - service you can deliver consistently without burning out your team or inflating costs. Clients prefer reliable competence over intermittent heroics.
Quick Questions
Won't clients leave if I stop trying to delight them?
Research shows the opposite. Client loyalty is driven by reliability and reduced effort, not spectacular gestures. Clients value professionals who make their lives easier, not those who create unsustainable expectations.
When you shift from "delighting" to "making it easy," you often strengthen relationships because you're delivering what clients actually value.
How do I know which client service activities to cut back?
Ask yourself: Does this reduce client effort or just create busywork? Audit activities that don't directly help clients get their jobs done more easily. Pay attention to what clients thank you for - it's rarely the elaborate gestures. Focus on high-impact basics like preparation, clear communication, and reliable delivery.
When in doubt, ask clients directly what they find most valuable.
What's the difference between reducing effort and providing poor service?
Reducing effort means eliminating friction and making things easier for clients. Poor service is unreliability and lack of responsiveness. You're aiming for consistent excellence in the essentials, not spectacular performance in the non-essentials.
Think of it as going from exhausting yourself trying to score 10/10 on everything to reliably delivering 8/10 on what actually matters.
Want More?
If you’d like to know more about Client Experience Management in your practice, get in touch by email.
Book a BD45 consultation to develop a strategic approach that works for both you and your clients: www.bd45.com.au
For firm-wide approaches to client service and relationship management, contact Sue-Ella at sueella@prodonovich.com
References & FURTHER READING
Casciaro T & Lobo M S (2005) Competent Jerks, Lovable Fools and the Formation Of Social Networks, June Issue of Harvard Business Review
Christensen C; Hall T; Dillon K & Duncan D S (2016) Know Your Customers ‘Jobs To Be Done’ September Issue of Harvard Business Review
de Haan, E., Verhoef, P.C., & Wiesel, T. (2015) "The predictive ability of different customer feedback metrics for retention" International Journal of Research in Marketing, Volume 32, Issue 2, pp. 195-206
Dixon M.; Freeman K & Toman N (2010) Stop Trying To Delight Your Customers, July-August Issue of Harvard Business Review.
Donahue J (2022) Being Easy To Work With is the Single Most Underrated Career Skill.
Gartner (2023) What's Your Customer Effort Score? Gartner Research
Luciano M M (2022) Three Strategies For Managing An Understaffed Team, Harvard Business Review
Sills P (2019) Principles of Influence: Likeability, New Zealand Law Society Law Talk Issue 935
Sue-Ella is the Principal of Prodonovich Advisory, a business dedicated to helping professional services firms sharpen their business development practices.
©Prodonovich Advisory. Please respect our copyright and the effort taken to produce the original material in this article. This article, and any portion of it, may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author.