We lost a group of clients. The retainer fee? RM 100,000+ per year. RM 100,000+ may seem like a big number, and believe me, it is.

But over the years, we’ve lost many clients for all sorts of reasons :

1. some because of group instructions,
2. others due to changes in shareholders or board preferences.
3. many felt our fees were too high.
4. a few moved on to the Big 4.

The most common reason, though? “No support.”

We hear it often—“No one could help,” or “The support wasn’t there.” or “Everyone too busy to answer me.”

In short, it always boils down to customer service.

When this RM100,000-fee-client told us the same story—“No support”.

We knew it was time to sit down with the management team to evaluate what went wrong.

It all started with an issue around SST (Sales and Service Tax). We had given our opinion in writing during the MCO period on their SST standing.

We advised that the client should seek confirmation from RMDC at the time. They forgot and we forgot bersama-sama.

The consultation and the written opinion were provided for free, as part of our service as an SMP (Small and Medium Practice) firm to SME.

Emm… should we charge?

Fast forward to the present, and this RM100,000-fee-client got audited by RMDC and hit with a hefty compound.

We weren’t informed right away. But the moment we found out about the compound, we quickly presented the client with our previous opinion on their SST standing, the one we gave during the MCO period.

We sat down with them, discussed the situation, and advised them to appeal the compound.

The client eventually won the appeal, but after that, they terminated our services.

Was it solely because of this incident? Maybe. Or maybe there were other “no support” moments that we weren’t aware of.

As I told my management team during our post-mortem, “We might not be the best firm in town, but we try our best to be.”

And we will keep trying.

Before closing the chapter, we made one final call to the client and their MD, expressing our gratitude for their trust and understanding over the years. “Thank you for your support. We appreciate everything…”

The truth is, we know that one day, clients may leave. Nothing lasts forever. In the end, impermanence (無常) is something we must all come to terms with in business and life.

It’s about constantly striving to improve, to be better than we were yesterday, and to provide the best service possible, even when things don’t go as planned.

We’ll keep working harder.