Communication is essential to retaining
clients:
|
 Strategies can
be simple or multifaceted
Communication
is paramount
Firm's message
must be relevant, meaningful, and applicable
For accounting firms, showing clients some love – or at
least that their patronage is appreciated – is not just
for Valentine’s Day or tax time. Client retention and appreciation
strategies are tools that should be employed year-round
to cultivate healthy, profitable, and long-lasting relationships.
Strategies to retain and show appreciation for clients do
not need to be overly complex. Industry experts agree simple
strategies can be just as effective. “Client retention isn’t
rocket science. It’s just showing that you care.
For some accounting and taxation firm owners strategies
are as simple as picking up the telephone or spending an
extra 30 minutes with clients. Freshly baked cookies for
clients who visit the office help, too.
“We return phone calls. That’s a huge thing,” a CPA firm
said. “When you’re dealing with clients who need to make
a decision right now and the partner doesn’t call them back
for weeks, you’re not going to retain the client.”
If failing to return phone calls is on one end of the client-communication
spectrum, some accounting and taxation firm practice is
most certainly on the other end. “We’re very proactive.
We bug our clients if we know there’s something that affects
them and we make sure they’re addressing it,” one of the
company owner said.
What’s more, some owner's allots 90 minutes for appointments
instead of the industry standard 50 to 60 minutes, “so we
really have time to spend with them even if [the appointments]
are for quickie returns. We give them personal attention,”
a firm owner said.
A CA-based public accounting firm believes in the importance
of communication between the firm and its clients. “We have
policies in place regarding client communication, such as
responding to e-mail and phone calls in a timely manner,”
firm administrator told “We train our newer employees on
business communication etiquette.” The firm’s internal culture
impacts client retention, too, according to the company.
has a flat management structure where everyone is encouraged
to collaborate on projects. We meet regularly for training
and team-building exercises. Appreciation for a job well-done
and constructive advice on areas that need improvement are
signs of the positive, rather than a negative, atmosphere
in the office.”
Face-to-face feedback
Approximately five years ago, a PA-based accounting and
taxation firm began what it calls its five-star client surveys.
Rather than sending clients a short questionnaire, the partners
will visit with the firm’s top 25 clients to solicit ideas
about ways the firm can improve and how it can better assist
clients with issues they are facing.
We’ve found it’s one of the best things that we do. We get
honest feedback and they recognize that we really care about
trying to provide great service, a partner at accounting
firm mentioned. There is good responsiveness to the outcomes
that are suggested and we make lots of changes. We have
found it to be extremely valuable in client retention, who
added that the 80-20 rule applies to his firm, in which
20 percent of the accounting firm's clients represent 80
percent of its profits. We never want to take for granted
our top clients. In the past, the firm sent short service
questionnaires in an attempt to monitor client satisfaction
with unsatisfactory results. Not only is visiting clients
more “powerful,” the visits are an effective cross-selling
tool.
Sometimes a client will mention something and we’ll say,
‘You know we can help you with that. Here’s how we’ve done
it with another client.’ And, oftentimes, we’ll come back
[from the visit] with new opportunities because of the conversation,”
the firm said.
The five-star client survey program evolved from the firm’s
efforts to measure employee engagement by applying concepts
from HumanSigma, a methodology for successfully managing
employee-customer interaction developed by research and
consulting firm Gallup, Inc.
“We’ve been measuring employee engagement for a long time.
That’s great but if it doesn’t make the company profitable,
it’s worthless. You have to compare employee engagement
with client satisfaction… so we have been trying to marry
these two concepts together. “Happy clients and happy employees
make happy partners. This mindset is not new, it’s just
trying to tie it together and evaluate it as one.”
In addition to the face-to-face meetings to gauge client
satisfaction, the accounting firm also engages the more
standard client-appreciation practices, including dinners
and tickets to concerts and sporting events. It is the only
accounting firm in the area with a luxury box in an arena
in nearby Hershey, PA. “Clients are very appreciative."
Communication is critical
Frequent and honest communication with clients is crucial
to retaining them. Showing that [clients] are front of mind
is important for any relationship you’re nurturing.
But client “touches” are only half of the equation. Being
upfront and providing them with substantive information
is the other half. Communication regarding the business
relationship – the scope of work and pricing – is imperative.
The practice of “bill and duck” will destroy a client relationship.
If a firm hasn’t been up front about extra work that needed
to be done or additional costs, thereby surprising a client
from a fee standpoint, “they lose trust in you and that’s
going to undermine all the touchy-feely stuff that you could
ever do.
As these accounting and taxation industry experts have illustrated,
client retention and appreciation programs can be as simple
or comprehensive as a firm wants them to be so long as the
overriding message to clients is, “something relevant, meaningful,
and applicable.”
Source: www.accountingweb.com |
