Hey there, happy Friday!
Most of what I post about are from real experiences at my firm and I’ve started to notice this drift happening at the 2-3 year mark with my favorite clients.
The longer you work with someone, the riskier I think this can become. More on this below.
Table of Contents
The Drift
I don’t know about you, but all of my problems typically have to do with communication/expectations.
Whether it’s clients, employees, or partners. This isn’t something you can leave alone.
Let’s picture a new client:
You’ve talked about their needs, you’ve priced it out, and sent them a proposal. They accept and everything is very clear.
Six months later, things are going great. You’re getting comfortable, they love your team and you’ve built trust. You say yes to a few more things, little tasks that are technically outside of scope.
Twelve months in, you find yourself on weekly calls instead of monthly, they love you & the team and start to rely on you for everything.
You raise rates to match the added work…
but by then, it’s just too late.
The expectations have shifted.
You’ve become the one who always says yes.
This is called expectation drift.
It doesn’t happen because anyone’s trying to take advantage of anyone else.
It happens because clients like you and want to keep utilizing your team.
You keep saying yes because you want to help. Because the more you help with, the stickier that client might become.
They keep asking because you’ve always delivered. And without a clear conversation, the relationship quietly shifts.
That’s how drift works.
Bit by bit, it erodes the boundaries that made the partnership work.
Suddenly, you’re accountable for things that were never in scope.
How to catch it earlier
You don’t fix drift by communicating more. You fix it by recalibrating often and watching for it.
For firm owners:
Build alignment checks into your process reguarly.
Create a client list of expectations and teach the team to update as things change.
Teach the team that flagging outside of scope items isn’t overkill, it’s good client management.
For employees:
When a client asks for “one more thing,” clarify the impact before saying yes.
Ask internally, “Do we want to add this to the engagement?”
It’s not pushback or saying no, it’s protecting the relationship and the clarity around what you do.
Healthy firms don’t avoid this type of drift. They simply realign faster and more often to eliminate potential issues.
Every “yes” adds more weight.
If you don’t rebalance regularly, eventually the relationship tips over.
It might feel awkward in the moment to have those conversations.
But trust me, it’s better than not addressing it for long periods of time.
Tool of the Week
This is an app that my friend, Logan Graf introduced to me. Basically it records your browser tabs, screen, etc and can differentiate between clients (most of the time). Which is pretty cool and saves me from the worst part of public accounting.
It takes a few weeks to really align with your processes but it becomes more and more valuable as time goes on with the insights it can provide.
I use it for my own time tracking but I feel weird about offering it to my team. It feels a little “big brother” to enforce.
Question for you
What clients give you energy and which clients drain your energy? Have you ever considered ranking client’s that way?
It’s just something I’ve been thinking about lately…
Upcoming
I’m doing an Linkedin Live with Intuit next month, stay tuned!
Guest writers coming soon! Working on the logistics of it this week.
Have a fantastic weekend! I’ll be eating my way through Chicago.
Tailor