Connect with us

Accounting

Cultivate a positive client experience with these strategies

Published

on

A poor client experience is the reason why 49% of consumers left a brand in the past 12 months. Improving the client experience can lead to happier clients who may be less likely to switch firms.

For a moment, think about your favorite restaurant. If you frequent the location often, the waitstaff may know your name, your favorite dish and where you like to sit. All of these elements create an experience, which, when the food is excellent, keeps you coming back time and time again.

You likely even recommend the restaurant to other people you know, driving more business to the eatery.

The same idea applies to accounting firms.

Client experience is something every accounting firm must work on. Why? An experience that clients enjoy leads to:

  • Brand loyalty;
  • Deeper client relationships; and,
  • Increase in referrals and revenue;

Your clients have options, and the experience you offer can make and keep you the clear choice. I’m going to show you how to create the ultimate client experience for your firm using a simple, step-by-step approach.

First map out your client journey

Every client your firm has will have a journey that they go through. If you don’t know what your clients are experiencing, you can’t focus on improving it. You might even be so busy managing your firm that there’s been a cultural shift that you overlook.

What can you do to map out the journey?

Sit down and ask:

  • Why do clients need your services?
  • Why was your firm chosen over others?
  • Where are clients finding your services?

Once you have these key pieces of information, you need to understand the client’s experience from onboarding to your service delivery. If you don’t have answers to these questions, send surveys to your clients and work with your team to gain these insights.

Next, it’s time to review your tech stack, which many firms need to do to stay relevant.

Review your tech stack

If your technology is outdated or causes any level of friction, it will impact the client experience. Let’s say your firm offers online communication and a portal to upload documents. If you end up asking the client to print and sign a contract, it will look like you’re a bit dated.

Why print, scan and send documents when you can send contracts with e-signatures?

Clients want convenience. 

You need to look at what technology they’re interacting with in your marketing efforts, when signing on as a client, while they’re utilizing your services, and even when they are offboarded. Your team also needs to use the right tech stack to boost productivity and efficiency, which leads to better client experience.

Ideally, you’ll review your tech stack annually because behaviors change, and expectations evolve, often growing higher.

For example, consider the client experience around tax organizers. Firms often struggle during tax season because clients do not complete tax organizers. Your team will spend excessive time contacting the client and filling in the “blanks” in the information the client sends over.

Low completion rates are often due to tax organizers being clunky, frustrating and time-consuming, and requiring clients to print documents

With the technology available today, your tax organizers shouldn’t ask clients to print and bring papers to the office. Integrating the right tech stack and software can streamline the entire experience and increase completion rates.

For example, StanfordTax’s personalized client questionnaires are designed to focus on the client experience by skipping over irrelevant questions. By integrating with your tax filing software, it can use prior-year data to determine what questions to ask and what questions aren’t necessary.

Even form reminders are sent automatically, alleviating many of the mundane tasks that accountants waste time on.

Your tech stack needs to simplify processes, reduce errors and hold clients accountable when working with your firm, all of which contribute to a better overall client experience.

Multiple areas of your tech stack may need to be improved, and once you’ve identified these weak links, you can pivot into client communication.

Communicate, communicate, communicate

Communication is often at the heart of client complaints. Clients can easily become frustrated if they don’t receive a timely response or their accountants don’t take a proactive approach to communication.

Having a clear policy can help create the ultimate client experience. Make sure your clients understand:

  • When they can expect a response (one business day, two business days, etc.), even if it’s just to let them know that you need more time. 
  • How often they will hear from you. Will you touch base every month, week or quarter?
  • Which channels you use to communicate. Will you touch base via email, in-person, Zoom calls, phone calls or some other way?

Communicate your policy during onboarding so that clients know what to expect right from the start. 

Request and utilize client feedback

To create an amazing client experience, you need to know what’s working, what’s not working and what clients want or need that you’re not delivering on.

The best way to get this information is to implement a feedback loop into your client workflow. 

Gathering feedback doesn’t have to be complicated. You can request it at a cadence that works for your firm and your deliverables. It could be monthly or even yearly after you complete their taxes.

The simplest way to request and gather feedback is through email. You may even want to include a net promoter score to track how clients feel about your firm.

Your feedback request can also include important questions, like:

  • How can we be most helpful to your business?
  • What’s going well in your business?
  • What’s not going so well in your business?

If you want to keep things simple, send a personalized message asking each client about their satisfaction with your services.

Requesting feedback is half the battle, but when you do get it, make sure that you put it to work and start improving your services.

Final thoughts

Creating the ultimate client experience will take time, effort and a solid plan, but it’s worth it. Happy clients stick around and may even send referrals your way. Great experiences can also lead to positive reviews from clients, which can bolster your reputation and help you attract more clients. 

Remember, 50% of consumers trust reviews as much as recommendations from family and friends, so make it a priority to deliver the best possible client experience using the tips above.

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Accounting

Trump win may threaten IRS funding

Published

on

The Internal Revenue Service may be facing steep cuts in its budget with the win on Tuesday night of President-elect Donald Trump.

Funding for the IRS has become a political issue, with Republicans successfully pushing to cut the extra $80 billion funding from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 already during battles over the debt limit.

“I think IRS funding is at significant risk right now, both the annual appropriation funding as well as the remaining IRA funding,” said Washington National Tax Office principal Rochelle Hodes at the Top 25 Firm Crowe LLP. 

Donald Trump during an election night event in West Palm Beach, Florida
Donald Trump during an election night event in West Palm Beach, Florida

Win McNamee/Getty Images

So far, Republicans have mainly called for cuts in the IRS’s enforcement budget. The increase in enforcement is supposed to be used to pay for the cost of the IRA, but the funding increase is also supposed to be used for taxpayer service and technology improvements.

“The only question for me on funding is, will any portion of the funding remain available for taxpayer service-related improvements at the IRS?” said Hodes.

The Direct File free tax prep program that the IRA funded could also be targeted, even as the IRS makes plans to expand it beyond the original 12 pilot states this year to 24 next tax season.

“I don’t think that will be in the sight line, but the IRA money is part of what’s being used for that,” said Hodes. “As we’ve seen in appropriations bills, there could be language directed at that, that no money can be spent on that initiative.”

A more important priority will be the extension of the expiring provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. “Getting TCJA resolved is going to be the first priority,” said Hodes. “The second question is, how will the cost of that endeavor be determined. If the view that is held by several Senate Republicans wins the day, then the cost of extending the expiring provisions will not be counted under those particular budget rules that are created dealing with extending current policy. If, however, that view is not adopted, then there is a high cost just to TCJA, and so any other provisions with cost will sort of stretch the boundaries of what many in Congress would be comfortable with. I think it will be necessary to see how the scoring goes for extending TCJA provisions.”

Trump has also called for exempting various forms of income, such as tip income, Social Security income and overtime from taxes.

“I also am not sure which of the ideas that were put forward on the campaign trail, other than extending TCJA, are provisions that have true champions who will want to pursue those,” said Hodes. 

That may depend on who ends up in Congress, with several important races in the House yet to be decided.

“Although the House remains undecided, the Republicans’ control of the Senate makes it much more likely that Republicans will be able to implement many of Trump’s proposed tax policies, such as making parts of the expiring 2017 TCJA provisions permanent,” said John Gimigliano, principal in charge of the Federal Legislative & Regulatory Services group within KPMG’s Washington National Tax practice, in a statement. “The pressing question now is how the Administration and Congress will fund such an ambitious agenda and what additional measures they might introduce, such as eliminating taxes on tips and overtime. These items will only add to the hefty $4+ trillion price tag they face. Until then, taxpayers should continue to stay apprised of developments and scenario plan for the different outcomes to get ahead.” 

Continue Reading

Accounting

Firms plan to raise fees next year

Published

on

Over half of accounting and tax firms plan to increase fees across all services in 2025, according to a new survey.

The survey, released Wednesday by practice management technology company Ignition, found that the majority (around 58%) cited rising business costs as the main motivator for their fee increases, while only 5% are raising prices to increase revenue. Most of the nearly 350 firms surveyed intend to increase fees across services by 5% or 10%.

Some 57% of the respondents plan to increase fees across all services. With regard to tax preparation specifically, 90% of the survey respondents plan to increase fees for individual tax returns, and 87% plan to increase fees for business tax returns. In addition, 70% plan to increase fees for tax planning and advisory services;. 85% plan to increase fees for bookkeeping and accounting services; and 76% plan to increase fees for CFO and controller services.

“While accounting firm owners are embracing price increases in 2025, the report shows that the majority (around 58%) cite rising business costs as the main motivator,” said Ignition global president Greg Strickland in a statement. “Only 5% are raising prices to increase revenue, which indicates an opportunity for firms to leverage pricing as a strategic tool to unlock revenue growth.”

The report found a shift from hourly billing to fixed-fee and value-based pricing, with 79% of the survey respondents indicating they use fixed-fee or value-based pricing for bookkeeping and accounting services. Over half (54%) use fixed-fee or value-based pricing for tax preparation services, 67% use fixed-fee or value-based pricing for tax planning and advisory services, and 75% use fixed-fee or value-based pricing for CFO and controller services.

The report benchmarked current fees for tax, accounting and advisory services, which varied based on firms’ annual revenue range. The biggest variation in pricing was for tax planning and advisory services in particular. For firms with revenue of as much as $250,000, approximately 23% said they charge less than $500 for these services, while a nearly equal number (around 21%) indicated they charge more than $2000.

Continue Reading

Accounting

Millionaire tax backed by Illinois voters in threat to Chicago

Published

on

Illinois voters approved a nonbinding proposal to add an extra 3% levy on annual incomes of more than $1 million, which could fuel a new effort to raise taxes on the state’s highest earners.

The ballot measure – which was an advisory question – won 60% of support, according to the Associated Press. About 90% of the votes have been counted.

“The vote is a gigantic step in the right direction,” said former Governor Pat Quinn, a supporter of the measure. 

quinn-pat-bl020212-357.jpg
Pat Quinn

Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

While the proposal has no legal effect, the vote opens the door to a new debate over ramping up taxes on the rich even as Illinois and Chicago, its biggest city, contend with population declines and a string of departures by major companies and wealthy residents. In 2020, voters rejected a separate measure backed by Governor JB Pritzker to replace the state’s flat tax on incomes with a graduated system that would raise rates on higher-earners.  

The Pritzker plan drew staunch opposition from billionaire financier Ken Griffin, who donated about $50 million to help torpedo the initiative. Griffin then left Chicago for Miami in 2022, moving the headquarters of his Citadel empire there as well. Companies from Caterpillar Inc. to Boeing Co. have also departed amid rising concerns over public safety, regulation and taxes. 

This year’s referendum asked voters if the Illinois Constitution should be amended to create the additional tax on income over $1 million. It called for using the proceeds to ease the state’s notoriously high property levies. 

Continue Reading

Trending