Re-thinking Client Loyalty. What Really Keeps Them Coming Back?

Recently, I was conducting a Client Listening interview for a Firm, when the Managing Director stopped me to say he really didn’t think about the service provider. “I don’t have to think about them because their service is so good.”

Many professionals believe client loyalty is something you earn and keep through great service. But research suggests otherwise.

Loyalty, at least in the way we think of it, is overrated. Clients don’t stay because they’re devoted to your firm. They stay because it’s easier than switching. The more familiar a firm becomes, the harder it is to leave.

So, the real challenge isn’t just attracting clients—it’s making it effortless for them to stay.

Here’s how to build that advantage.

The Power of Inertia

Client retention isn’t about constantly adjusting to new demands. It’s about reducing the need for clients to make another choice.

Decision fatigue is real. Faced with too many options, most people default to what they already know.

Psychologists call this automaticity—the tendency of the brain to favour habits over active decision-making. Every time a client sticks with a firm, that choice becomes more ingrained. Meanwhile, switching becomes harder.

As long as a firm consistently meets expectations, client inertia works in its favour.

This is why a long-term client relationship feels natural - until it isn’t. A disruption, a re-brand, a service change, or even an alternative provider with a smoother process can break the cycle.

The key? Make staying seamless and switching difficult.

Two Ways to Keep Clients

1. Design for Habit

The goal for increasing ‘sticky’ client and referral relationships, is to create repeatable, effortless interactions.

Clear communications, automated updates, familiar reporting formats, and intuitive service touchpoints make engagement a habit rather than a decision.

Tip: Reduce unnecessary friction in processes such as the ease of contacting you (especially on ‘non-work’ days) and the layout and narratives of invoices when using different services from your firm.

Reduce unnecessary friction in communications by making sure clients can grasp your message in a moment.  Stick to plain language, cut the jargon, and get to the point fast. Complexity doesn’t make you look cleverer – it just forces clients to think harder. And, as Daniel Kahneman’s research in Thinking, Fast and Slow shows, the brain resists effort.

If your clients have to think about how to work with you, it’s already too complicated.

By the way – effortless interactions are a team effort. Every person in your firm who interacts with a client can help make the experience easy. From remembering names to proactively scheduling return calls.

2. Innovate Within Your Brand

Most clients of professional services firms don’t want ‘new.’ They want ‘better’ and they also want ‘reliable.’

So, radical changes to your offer (for example, moving a hands-on service to an online platform or moving your practice to a new firm), makes clients pause. They have to learn a new system, adapt to a different style, or reconsider their relationship. The more work this requires, the more likely they’ll delay trialling your offer.

For incremental innovation, evolve within familiar structures and provide options to stage changes.

Xero, an online accounting software provider, has been doing this with it’s 4M+ subscribers with subtle changes to layouts and choices for ‘new’ options users can launch when they are ready.

If however, your innovation is disruptive or radical, and you’re champing at the bit to get it to market quickly, then a House of Brands strategy would be a way to go. Package it distinctively, and appeal to the early adopters eager to move with you.

Tip: Frame innovations to existing services as an improvement, not a reinvention.

FINALLY

Client loyalty isn’t about emotional commitment. It’s about reducing friction and reinforcing habit. If you make it easy for clients to stay, they will. If you make it hard for them to leave, they won’t. But if you disrupt that balance—even with good intentions—you give them a reason to rethink.

The firms that win don’t just earn trust. They make sure clients never have to think about switching.

WANT MORE?

If you’d like to know more get in touch or book a private meeting with me to brainstorm ideas at BD45.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING

By Sue-Ella

Is Word Of Mouth Dead? Rethinking Referrals in the Digital Age (2024)

How to Get Old Clients to Follow You To A New Firm (2018)

Bargh J. A (1994) The Four Horsemen of Automaticity: Awareness, Intention, Efficiency, and Control in Social Cognition, Handbook of Social Cognition: Vol 1.  Wyer R.S. & Skrull T.K (Eds), Psychology Press.

Csikszentmihalyi M Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Harper Collins

Kahneman D (2011) Thinking Fast & Slow, Allen Lane

Lafley A.G. & Martin R.L. (2017) Customer Loyalty is Overrated. Focus on Habit Instead. The Theory of Cumulative Advantage. Harvard Business Review Magazine, Jan-Feb Issue

Sue-Ella is the Principal of Prodonovich Advisory, a business dedicated to helping professional services practices sharpen their business development practices.

She works with Law Firms and Business Consultants that focus on positive client relationships, and with individuals who want personal, intelligent support.

Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/sueella-prodonovich/

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