This one came up in conversation with a partner I work with. He'd recently switched accountants — not because the work was bad, not because the fees were high. Because he couldn't get an appointment.
Three emails. Two WhatsApp messages. One missed call. Two weeks of nothing. Then he searched online and moved on.
An annual retainer. Gone. Not to someone better. To someone reachable.
We ended up writing a whole article about it. The partner wanted to turn his frustration into something useful — a piece about how professionals lose clients not to competition, but to friction. We wrote it in two languages, back to back.
What stuck with me was the simplicity of it. This accountant probably had no idea why the client left. There was no angry email. No complaint. Just silence. And silence is the most expensive sound in business.
I remember the partner getting animated about this — like it had been bothering him for a while. I think it wasn't really about the accountant. I think it was about all the businesses he's watched lose clients to preventable problems. He's been in sales a long time. He sees the patterns.
What I learned: The best content comes from real frustration. You can't manufacture that energy. When someone genuinely cares about a problem, the writing writes itself.
What I'd do better: Next time, I'd ask more questions before writing. I jumped straight into drafting. I should have let him vent longer — there were probably three more articles in that conversation.
Do you have something you need to say to a client but can't find the right words?