Robin Hall
Follow Up with Clients
The accounting profession is infamous for waiting for our clients to let us know that they need us. Over the years, I have learned to take some of the common accounting practices and flip them to find a different way. It has proven to be a successful tactic. We have taken the stance that reaching out and proactively talking to our clients and seeking out their needs has opened more doors and consulting opportunities than anything else. Some of the typical responses that we get from our clients are, “We have been making a list, because we knew you were going to call” or “We are good right now but we really appreciate the call, we know that you are looking out for us.”
At VARC Solutions we make it a practice to make sure that we have contact with each client at least every 90 days. That may seem like a lot, but it is really only four times a year. In our CRM (NEXT), we have a report that shows up for us on the dashboard that lets us know if we have not had a timesheet (visit with the client) or an activity (phone call or meeting) with them in the past 75 days, that gives us about 2 weeks to squeeze in a phone call to that client and just check in on them. As part of NEXT, we have included the “Clients with No Activity within 90 Day” Report to help guide in this principal. Don’t worry, we do sometimes have an ulterior motive, we also a have a theme of the week that we touch on during that call. The theme of the week is something that we verify with them when we call them like the version of QuickBooks that they are on, have they hired any new employees, or a question that will either spark more conversation or help keep our database up to date.
About 70% of these calls will result either in more consulting hours or a software upgrade, but 100% of the time it makes the client feel import and know that we care about them and their business.
Robin Hall is the President and Principal Consultant of VARC Solutions in Friendswood, TX specializing in QuickBooks training and consulting, and also QuickBase development. Robin has been a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor since 1999 (Advanced Certified since 2007) and an Intuit Premier Reseller since 2006. She is also member of the Intuit Advisory Council and a QuickBase Certified, QuickBase Solution Provider. Robin has been an expert presenter at Scaling New Heights, and at the Intuit Premier Reseller Conference to almost 600 of Intuit’s top Solution Providers.
Robin has earned several awards including Intuit’s 2010 Payroll Partner of the Year, Intuit’s 2009 Partner of the Year, Intuit’s Customer Satisfaction Award 2008, Bob Scott’s Insights 2009 VAR Stars (for valued-added resellers in the mid-market financial software space), Intuit’s Customer Delight Performance Award, and Friendswood Chamber of Commerce Business Woman of the Year.
To check out NEXT, visit www.varcsolutions.com/NEXT or call 281-412-6914 for more information.