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Monday, July 16. 2007
What Clients Want: Mostly, ‘More’
But when do you say ‘Enough!’? Join the study. Get the answers.
by Rick Telberg
At Large
CPAs do a lot of things in the course of their accounting work, from audits to tax prep to business advice to mopping up the tears of those who have been brave and foolish enough to venture into the jungle of American entrepreneurialism.
But in a certain way, all of these functions boil down to one: Satisfying your clientele.
by Rick Telberg
At Large
CPAs do a lot of things in the course of their accounting work, from audits to tax prep to business advice to mopping up the tears of those who have been brave and foolish enough to venture into the jungle of American entrepreneurialism.
But in a certain way, all of these functions boil down to one: Satisfying your clientele.
It’s highly advisable, then, for CPAs to have an idea of what they can do to keep these very important people satisfied.
Figuring that two groups of people know how to do that — CPAs and the clients themselves — Bay Street Group cranked out a survey asking them what CPA firms could be doing to better satisfy their clients.
It’s an open-ended question. And, as you might expect when you ask several thousand intelligent people a fairly big question, we got fairly disparate answers.
What is surprising is how often answers from CPAs and CFOs echo each other.
“Communication” was something that many professionals on both sides of the public/corporate accounting fence agreed on.
In fact, Dana L. Sutton, a sole proprietor in Hindsville, Ark., who is also a controller, makes exactly that point.
“Communicate!” Sutton says, complete with exclamation point. “Clients don’t care how much you know — they just want you to return their phone calls — or take them in the first place!”
We’re not convinced that clients don’t care how much their CPAs really know (after all, what are you going to talk about when you return the phone call, the weather?), but we’re certainly getting an earful about the need for better communication. Plenty of answers start with “communicate” or “communication,” and a slew of others include one of those words elsewhere in their answers.
Even more popular is the word “listen.” We were listening when we heard “Listening, listening and more listening,” from Mackey McNeill, chief of The Advisory Group, an accountancy firm in Covington, Ky.
But … listening for what?
“Listening to their clients’ problems and goals,” says Thomas Marsh, of Marsh & McConnell, a CPA firm in Alpharetta, Ga.
“Listening to clients and responding as to how to keep costs down,” says an anonymous vice president and compliance chief at a major corporation.
“Listening to their clients’ needs and guiding them through the challenges they are facing,” says Barbara Robison, a sole proprietor in Marion, Iowa.
The word “more” is mentioned in a lot of answers, too. As in “more contact” and “more education” and “more hours in the day.”
“More attentiveness to individual needs,” says Ron Mosocco, of Ronald A. Mosocco, CPA/PFS/CFP, in Williamsburg, Va. “More proactive in selling our ability to plan ahead, not just compliance work.”
“More calling to see if there is anything on their mind we can help them with,” says Mort Stroud, a partner with Watkins, Ward and Stafford in West Point, Miss. “This would let them know we are thinking about them.”
“More face time during the year,” says a senior staffer of a small government agency. “I only see the auditors right before the audit starts — no planning.”
“More interim work, more experienced staff or at least more supervision of inexperienced staff,” says a senior financial officer at Forrest General Hospital in Hattiesburg, Miss. “More real meat in the audit versus rote work.”
So that’s how you keep your clients satisfied. Communicate. Listen. Whatever it is you’ve been giving them, give them more.
Figuring that two groups of people know how to do that — CPAs and the clients themselves — Bay Street Group cranked out a survey asking them what CPA firms could be doing to better satisfy their clients.
It’s an open-ended question. And, as you might expect when you ask several thousand intelligent people a fairly big question, we got fairly disparate answers.
What is surprising is how often answers from CPAs and CFOs echo each other.
“Communication” was something that many professionals on both sides of the public/corporate accounting fence agreed on.
In fact, Dana L. Sutton, a sole proprietor in Hindsville, Ark., who is also a controller, makes exactly that point.
“Communicate!” Sutton says, complete with exclamation point. “Clients don’t care how much you know — they just want you to return their phone calls — or take them in the first place!”
We’re not convinced that clients don’t care how much their CPAs really know (after all, what are you going to talk about when you return the phone call, the weather?), but we’re certainly getting an earful about the need for better communication. Plenty of answers start with “communicate” or “communication,” and a slew of others include one of those words elsewhere in their answers.
Even more popular is the word “listen.” We were listening when we heard “Listening, listening and more listening,” from Mackey McNeill, chief of The Advisory Group, an accountancy firm in Covington, Ky.
But … listening for what?
“Listening to their clients’ problems and goals,” says Thomas Marsh, of Marsh & McConnell, a CPA firm in Alpharetta, Ga.
“Listening to clients and responding as to how to keep costs down,” says an anonymous vice president and compliance chief at a major corporation.
“Listening to their clients’ needs and guiding them through the challenges they are facing,” says Barbara Robison, a sole proprietor in Marion, Iowa.
The word “more” is mentioned in a lot of answers, too. As in “more contact” and “more education” and “more hours in the day.”
“More attentiveness to individual needs,” says Ron Mosocco, of Ronald A. Mosocco, CPA/PFS/CFP, in Williamsburg, Va. “More proactive in selling our ability to plan ahead, not just compliance work.”
“More calling to see if there is anything on their mind we can help them with,” says Mort Stroud, a partner with Watkins, Ward and Stafford in West Point, Miss. “This would let them know we are thinking about them.”
“More face time during the year,” says a senior staffer of a small government agency. “I only see the auditors right before the audit starts — no planning.”
“More interim work, more experienced staff or at least more supervision of inexperienced staff,” says a senior financial officer at Forrest General Hospital in Hattiesburg, Miss. “More real meat in the audit versus rote work.”
So that’s how you keep your clients satisfied. Communicate. Listen. Whatever it is you’ve been giving them, give them more.
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Rick,
Most CPAs would like to be more proactive and perform additional consulting services which would benefit their clients. However, there is one minor obstacle which prevents CPAs from becoming the ideal financial advisor to their clients. It’s called bookkeeping. Most CPAs are too busy fighting bookkeeping battles which most clients do not value and are unwilling to pay additional money in order to keep an accurate set of accounting records. And if the numbers in a client’s general ledger don’t have any integrity, it’s very difficult to properly perform the additional financial and tax planning services they claim they want to see us perform.
Just my thoughts. I enjoy reading your column.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey F. Estes, CPA
McPhillips, Roberts & Deans, PLC
Norfolk, Virginia
.
Most CPAs would like to be more proactive and perform additional consulting services which would benefit their clients. However, there is one minor obstacle which prevents CPAs from becoming the ideal financial advisor to their clients. It’s called bookkeeping. Most CPAs are too busy fighting bookkeeping battles which most clients do not value and are unwilling to pay additional money in order to keep an accurate set of accounting records. And if the numbers in a client’s general ledger don’t have any integrity, it’s very difficult to properly perform the additional financial and tax planning services they claim they want to see us perform.
Just my thoughts. I enjoy reading your column.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey F. Estes, CPA
McPhillips, Roberts & Deans, PLC
Norfolk, Virginia
.
Mr. Estes is so right on. He has pegged the issue within the CPA industry really well. This whole stuff about added services and client loyalty is junk. Client's don't want to pay for it. It's not fun. They pay $4,000 for a big screen TV - but the thought of $400 for a tax return chokes them up. Go figure.
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