Each year, I conduct many personal interviews with high value clients of professional service firms.
Every interview is different and each turns up something unexpected - often a new service opportunity.
While interviewees are often effusive in praise of their lawyers and other professional experts, there is a pattern to irritations, annoyances, and things which damage relationships.
It drives your clients nuts when: o you should understand, but don't o you don't build that understanding into your advice, strategies, and tactics o you're not prepared to change from how it's been in the past o you take the relationship for granted - or appear to o you resist their decisions, preferences, processes, and standards - instead, you just keep wanting to do it your way o you don't look after their money (including their investment in your services) o you don't do your best to minimise what they need to spend with you to get the right result o you don't understand their financial constraints and budget cycles o you don't bear the cost of team churn o you leave it to the client to get your early-career people up to speed with their work and their organisation o you don't bear the cost of your own mistakes, wrong-turns, and errors of judgement o your behaviour reflects poorly on the executives and teams with whom you deal, leaving them with lots of "please explains".
All these irritate, annoy, and damage relationships: I recommend a long, hard look at whether you're transgressing.
Better still, invest in some research to see how a client's reality compares with your perceptions of what you're delivering, and how.
Don't drive your clients nuts - and drive them away.