Lost my biggest client because I missed their Reddit complaint - a $50k lesson in humility

I've seen this one on reddit and I will quote from the OP


"I've been running a small software development agency for the past 3 years. We had a steady stable of clients, but one in particular made up about 40% of our revenue - about $50k annually. Everything seemed to be going great until last month.

Turns out, their CTO had posted about some performance issues on Reddit three weeks ago. Not even a complaint really, just asking if anyone else was experiencing similar issues with their integration. A competitor saw it within hours and jumped into their DMs with a solution. By the time I found out about the post (through a casual mention in a meeting), they had already started migrating to the competitor.

The worst part is the issue they posted about was something we could have fixed in 15 minutes. It was a common configuration problem we'd solved for other clients dozens of times.

I got cocky. Thought I had a great relationship with this client and they'd always come to us directly with issues. Learned the hard way that customers don't always complain to your face - they ask their peers first.

Now I'm religiously checking Reddit, industry forums, and review sites daily. Probably overcorrecting, but losing your biggest client has a way of changing your habits.

Anyone else learn an expensive lesson the hard way? I'd rather learn from others than to run into another seemingly simple but expensive oversight again."




You can learn 2 things from this
1 You can get good clients from reddit if you check the weak points of your competitor and get advantage of it
2

Yup. Big money available on Reddit. Focus on relationships and remember you're dealing with real people. Primarily USA audience too.

What is the second thing to learn from it?

don't hestitate to contact your clients regualry to check if everything is ok

RichMedusa said:

What is the second thing to learn from it?

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He is still trying to find out. Give him some time.

It is reddit so profitable? Hmm

Will take a look

Damn, that's a tough lesson.
A lesson in being proactive, just because they're your customer doesn't mean that will always be the case.
Prevention is better than cure/reactive. Regularly check in.

As a client, I have often found certain services through Reddit. It’s no surprise that many people today prefer Reddit results over SEO-driven websites.

Always something to be learnt.

Seems like the CTO was not happy about him anyway, instead of emailing him as a client he went on Reddit to post about it, does not sound as a happy long term client to me, blaming his own slow response on Reddit for loosing the client was just weak as a seller since the underlying problem was probably his history as a seller rather than slow response on Reddit.

RoiBox said:

Seems like the CTO was not happy about him anyway, instead of emailing him as a client he went on Reddit to post about it, does not sound as a happy long term client to me, blaming his own slow response on Reddit for loosing the client was just weak as a seller since the underlying problem was probably his history as a seller rather than slow response on Reddit.

Click to expand...

Yeah, we bought a new car last month and the front end was not right so I posted on Reddit.

I'm sure they will fix it now.

BassTrackerBoats said:

I'm sure they will fix it now.

Click to expand...

As long as you don´t mention the fckn tree you hit, they will certainly fix it.

This is why companies send out feedback emails and prompt users for feedback inside the application

I suspect this guy is leaving something out.

This client probably tried to contact them. Perhaps not for this particular issue, but so often that they weren't taken seriously. I've managed large accounts before and that is typically how it goes. If nothing ever breaks you don't mind paying a little extra for stability. But if things are breaking all the time then it doesn't take much to push you over the edge one day, especially if you have a better alternative peaking over the next hill.

Just like owning a cellphone. No one wants to pay double for a trash data network. The day comes when a competitor shows up and offers you twice the stability for half the cost and what are you going to do? Tell the first people to fix their shit.... again? And again? And again?

They shouldn't have had to complain. The provider should have already known.

Reddit is a goldmine to find client but Reddit ads seems not to convert good.

That is why you should keep checking with clients if there is an issue.

It's a tough lesson, but a valuable one. Definitely shows how important it is to monitor what’s being said about your business online. Also, the takeaway about using Reddit to spot competitor weaknesses is gold, it’s a great opportunity if you stay proactive.

Its bad to lose such a valuable clients, Felt Sorry !! But its just a day and you learned to avoid such things may it would help you to get more clients in future who's been seeking for a real help. In the IM industry we all face such issues but we grow day by day for sure...


Goodluck for your future ventures.

hard lesson over something simple

RichMedusa said:

What is the second thing to learn from it?

Click to expand...

That op needs money




How to fight against this:

Pick top 5-10 social platforms, and on top of that, you go with your company kw in google

Example:

niche keyword reddit.com (last 7 days filter) type this like twice per day in google search (a habit thing)

All platforms index instantly under seconds, you don't need to worry if you are missing anything that happened in the near past


Use your domain keyword and do the same

niche keyword mysitecom (apply desired time frame filter) and see if anybody mentioned you anywhere.


This can also easily be automated to alert you when certain keyword appears, so you don't need to click anything