Tax season is about providing superior , high-value services to clients. That means doing everything necessary to make the experience of working with you pleasant. It also means considering everything you do from the vantage point of the client.

It’s about the client. That means user-friendly engagement, processes, communication and availability. It’s also a matter of exceeding expectations, treating deadlines as promises, keeping your promises, avoiding unnecessary extensions, never bad mouthing or blaming the client, and looking to add value at every opportunity.

It’s about your internal processes. Your processes should be established to facilitate your work and what your staff does. This includes major initiatives on error avoidance, sequential work scheduling and checklists. That’s all good, but the focus needs to be on how what you are doing will affect client services and deliverables. For instance, are the instructions clear? Can they be downloaded effortlessly by the client? Are the deliverables carefully labeled and identified? If paper documents are to be returned or forwarded, are clear instructions and envelopes provided? If there is a rush, were stamps put on envelopes, or a courier envelope provided (using the client’s account number)? Was your invoice presented with clear payment instructions? The point is that what you do is your business, but what the client receives from you is also your business. Do not sacrifice user-friendly client processes for internal expediency. 

It’s about your staffing and training. Staff longevity with your firm is important, but it is also important to your clients. Revolving door staffing is upsetting, disconcerting and wasteful for you, but also for the clients who work with those staff people. Turnover is inevitable, but slowing down turnover can be very helpful on your internal processes as well as with client service. Clients have deep relationships with the partners but develop comfortable working relationships with the staff they regularly see and who they know do the bulk of the work. They open their books, share their concerns and in many cases look forward to their visit, be it in person or virtually. For that reason, reducing turnover is important. However, do not keep underperforming, undergrowing and underachieving staff for these reasons. Clients know who the dead heads are, but as long as they know there is a pipeline from that staff person to the partner, they overlook the staff person’s inadequacies. For that reason, you need to train your staff to let you know everything the client says to them and what is going on with the client. Everything! Staff who do not do that should not be permitted to continue working for you. Staff that do, regardless of their deficiencies, have a value to you. You need to manage this segment of the relationship because it is important.

It’s about making more money. This means pricing your services appropriately. You need to communicate the need for additional services before you perform them, explaining the reason and need for the added work, value or benefit to the client. It’s about the value. Provide value and you will make more money. Morphing into a commodity service practice will work great for you if that is what you want. Hey, H&R Block does quite well with that. However, if you want to be above the commodity level and be the true professional service provider you studied and trained to be, then you need to look at adding value at every interaction with the client. Also, bill promptly and if a special bill is necessary explain it to the client before you perform the services, so the client becomes empowered with making the decision. Doing the work because the client needs it, and charging for it afterward, does not work, is not a good best practice and will not have you get paid for the value you conferred to the client. One more thing (for now — there are a million more things, but not for now) is to call for payment as soon as the invoice becomes past due. My definition of past due is 10 days after the invoice was provided to the client. Make the call. It’s your money. Also, clients find comfort knowing you approach your practice as a business and also by knowing they are current with you. Yes! Comfort!  

It’s about your culture. Your culture permeates everything you do and everyone you interact with and every minute anything is done in your practice. Your culture should include keeping every due date, responding promptly to every text, email or call from a client, and making the call when there is something unpleasant to tell the client or when something is on the client’s mind, and you know it is the kind of thing they will call you about. If you don’t know what’s on their mind, then you need to be in better touch with your client, so work at this. Also train your staff to understand how to anticipate questions about what is on your clients’ minds. They are part of your team. 

It’s about having fun. What we do is work, but it also should be fun. Fun is contagious. If you are not having fun, the clients will sense that, and it will cause a fissure in the relationship. All fissures start small until they burst. Communicate that fun, and so should your staff. That way, your clients will look forward to your calls, not dread them. 

Make your plans for tax season now based upon happy, pleasant and fun relationships with your clients while figuring out how to add value to every interaction with them. This works. I know this for sure!

Do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected] with your practice management questions or about engagements you might not be able to perform.