Treat Every Client Like They Have Cancer

The word cancer conjures up a variety of imagery and connotations, mostly vividly dark and negative, but every now and again we can find an interesting twist in the dark side of the universe, and turn it into a positive torrential force.

Let me explain.

I have a client that I’ve been doing business with for about a year.  He always drops off payments in person, and stays a bit to chat.  I always look forward to his visits, and make the time when he stops by.  He’s an SEO kind of guy, so we have a lot to chat about.

One day he calls to tell me that he’s going out of town for a few months to get treatments for cancer.

I instantly had a rush of feelings, and some questions.  He was swift to reassure me that everything was fine, they caught it early, and the prognosis is very positive.  Whew! I was relieved.

What happened next, over the course of a few months, was something that happened in my business that was so powerful, and yet so obvious, I couldn’t believe it.

I started treating his company, in his absence, as royalty.

If they had an email problem. I’d travel to their site, and help them figure it out.

They had their IP address blacklisted (it was a dynamic IP, so the previous leaseholder was being naughty with it), and I helped them resolve the issue.  It wasn’t my problem, and I certainly could have passed the buck that way, but I spoke with their ISP for 30 minutes, and helped resolve it.

The epiphany was this…

If I treat every client as if they are sick or wounded, and deserve better treatment, then they feel better for the services they receive, and I feel better for delivering them, AND who do you think they’re going to refer to when someone they know needs my services?  Somehow I doubt it’s Joe Blow down the street.

So next time you think you’re too busy for your clients, think again about how a cancer can become your friend.

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