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About a year ago, my longtime insurance company really ticked me off. As a result of its poor service, I began shopping around and ultimately decided to move all of my policies to another company. The first company handled all of my agency’s commercial insurance needs as well as my family’s insurance. My monthly premiums for all those policies added up to a sizable amount.

I sent the obligatory letter canceling my accounts. I was ready for their phone call in response. I had my speech prepared. I thought the least I could do was to tell them how they lost my business so they could fix the problem. Only one snag in my plan: No one called.

Hard to imagine. But it happens every day. Customers choose to leave, but the business owner or manager doesn’t bother to care. He or she doesn’t pick up the phone and ask the questions that would provide those “aha” moments of insight.

In many cases, the client might just need to vent and happily come back. But even if that doesn’t happen, you can learn more from talking to one disgruntled customer than a roomful of happy ones.

Can you identify a handful of clients you have lost over the past year? Do you really know why they left? Did you even acknowledge that they left? Take some time this week to reach out and ask.

Sound unpleasant? Are you going to ignore it? Imagine this. Your former customer is going to tell a story about your business. Would you prefer they talk about why they left or how impressed they were that you called and asked why?

Drew McLellan is Top Dog at McLellan Marketing Group and blogs at www.drewsmarketingminute.com. He can be reached at Drew@MclellanMarketing.com. © 2008 Drew McLellan