How to Meet the Needs of New Clients in 2022
As an accountant, you likely serve a variety of clients, not only in types of business, but in types of people. One of the challenges of client services, especially when taking on a new client, is learning how to care for the individual you are working with and giving them a level of service that makes them feel as if you have addressed their individual needs.
The challenge with client services is developing a standard that allows accountants to be efficient, while still making the client feel valued and cared for – not that they are just another cog in the machine of efficiency.
What’s more, you are likely serving clients from across generations, including baby boomers, Gen X, millennials and even Gen Z, who are now entering the workforce and starting their own businesses. Clients from different generations will have different preferences in how they want to be treated as a client, and how you interact with each of them will vary.
The most important way you can care for your customers is to communicate with them in a way that resonates. The reality is that most clients receive similar baseline services and have a similar desire: to better understand their “financial health.” As an accountant, you are serving a variety of businesses and a variety of individuals who have similar goals and projects.
Proactive services are relevant to this conversation. As an accountant, you should be pursuing every opportunity to be more proactive with your clients. A friend of mine who recently met with his accountant told me their conversation focused on how both of them want more real-time information. My friend wants to have fewer “last-minute surprises,” while his accountant wants more real-time access to his accounting. The most likely need across the board is more real-time relationships.
Ensure You Have the Basics
In order to create more real-time relationships, an effective communication methodology is essential. When discussing generational divides, avoid making assumptions or relying on stereotypes. Every person is unique, and serving our clients well requires an intentional approach to each client. There are some baseline communication techniques/mediums every accountant should use in order to serve their clients well, regardless of generation:
You should have a website. (A Facebook page doesn’t count.) Over the last few years, the number of accountantsI have worked with who don’t have a website has been shocking. A website is how people will find you and customers will seek you out. Even if it’s just a simple site with a contact form, your hours of operation and your phone number, it will allow people to find you and contact you.
You should have a platform for sharing content and updates. This is flexible; it could be a website, an email or any social media account. It’s a way to provide clients with updates, and it helps to establish trust with them since sharing important information gives you credibility. For example, the IRS recently released a notice regarding a letter being sent out about stimulus checks and Child Tax Credits, so our CPA firm snapped into action, sending clients an email about the notice and publishing information about it on our website.
These two strategies may seem basic, but many firms fail to use them. These channels provide a reliable, consistent way for clients to reach out to you and vice versa.
Consider What You’re Up Against
By this point, most of us have seen the TurboTax Live commercials in which a business owner is going about his day when his accountant suddenly appears like a genie and announces, “That’s deductible!” As a professional, you might find these ads irritating, but they create an expectation and leave clients thinking, “Why can’t my accountant do that?”
You might not be able to magically appear in a client’s office, but you can employ some techniques to help you communicate more quickly. Loom is a fantastic tool that allows you to quickly share your screen, record a video and send it to your client. Loom is not the only tool that does this; in fact, most computers now have a screen-recording tool built in by default. These tools allow you to more proactively communicate an issue you may come across when doing a project for a client. When we use these tools, our client satisfaction is consistently through the roof. An issue becomes much clearer when you can show a client directly.
Depending on the number of clients you serve, you may want to create a Slack or Teams channel, which will also allow you to interact with clients proactively. More and more, clients want to feel like you’re in their corner, so using new communication channels is going to resonate well with them.
Ask Current Clients for Feedback
As you take on new clients and try to improve services to address their needs, do not forget the value your current clients provide. Asking them for feedback during a meeting or seeking out their thoughts on how you could improve is crucial and will also help them feel cared for. Consider how seriously you will take that feedback and what you will do with it, though, as you don’t want a client to feel that they’ve been ignored. Your current clients likely know what is working and what isn’t. Gathering their feedback will allow you to make improvements in a more educated way.