There are many things you can be certain of in business. One is that the easiest form of business development is to grow your existing customers.  Another is that your staff will not stay with you forever – staff turnover is a fact of life, which brings with it both opportunities and some risks.  

The risks of staff turnover are important to consider from a customer and public relations perspective.  Does your staff member have relationships with people outside your business?  Chances are they do, and how you manage your staff member’s exit from your organisation will definitely impact on how your organisation is perceived.

Last month I tried to contact our business banking consultant regarding our account.  I got an out of office reply to my email, stating that she had left the bank, who I should contact, and that my email had not been forwarded.

This is someone that I had met, and who I had pretty regular contact with – where was the courtesy phone call or email before the consultant left, to let me know that she was leaving and who would be looking after our business once she’d gone?  And that should be the minimum standard – for a valued customer, if it’s at all possible, there should be a face to face meeting to introduce the new account manager, no matter the type of business.

This morning something similar happened; after twice going straight to the voicemail of our telecommunications account manager, which said that he couldn’t take my call, I resorted to an email.  The out of office reply told me that our account manager had left his company, and gave some names of potential people that might be of use.

This is someone who I met only three weeks ago, who invested a lot of time in meeting with me, researching a better set of call plans, and some new mobiles.  I was just starting to think that I was getting great service, and developing a bit of loyalty to the company … what a let down.

Staff members often lose focus when they resign their jobs.  They’re excited about what happens next, and start to invest less in their current job because it’s now an impediment to getting on with the next phase of their life.

It’s human nature – I’m pretty sure that most people can empathise with the situation.  But it’s the job of the people who remain – managers, colleagues, business owners – to protect the reputation of the organisation by ensuring that existing customers, clients and contacts are kept aware of developments and know who they should contact once the staff member has left.  

In a business environment which is still relatively fragile as we try to emerge from recession, who can afford to risk damaging their reputation and existing relationships by neglect?