Clients want meaningful relationships with their accountants. Firms need to find ways to nurture their clients and network, but how? I’m going to explain how you can go beyond just the numbers so that you can:
- Provide a better service
- Improve client relationships
- Create a great impact on your clients
So, where do you begin? First, you need to focus on the client and their needs.
Understand Your Clients and Their Needs
How well do you know your clients’ needs? If you don’t know them well, how can you have a meaningful relationship that can help the client’s business grow? You need to do a few things:
Understand clients’ short and long-term goals
Ensure there are ongoing touchpoints with your clients
- Create services to meet client needs
You need to ask your clients tough questions, what their pain points are, how their business or financial profile is growing, and what they desire both in the short and long term?
Why?
It allows you to offer the services your clients truly want, and as a result, it enables you to become a one-stop shop.
Become a One-Stop-Shop
Offering a one-stop shop creates a great client experience. And what does this do for your firm? It leads to 86% of clients being willing to pay more for the services you provide.
You can only become a one-stop shop when you know your clients’ needs. Meaningful relationships benefit:
- The client
- Your firm
For example, maybe you find your clients are wanting to figure out how to retire earlier or create a lasting legacy, so you add financial planning services to the fix. From here, you can help business owners with their business and personal financial planning needs.
Expanding your services allows you to create longer-lasting relationships with clients that are deeper because you are helping them in unique ways, such as:
- Tax planning
- Financial planning
- Consulting
- Creating a legacy
- Etc.
If you offer personalized services that hit on your clients’ pain points, it will be easier to maintain deeper relationships.
Develop a Communication Framework
One of the main complaints in the accounting industry is that communication is lacking. If you talk to your clients only during the busy season, you are not providing the intimate service clients crave. Instead, try to create a communication framework that offers:
- Easy communication, file sharing, and feedback
- The ability to respond to clients rapidly
- The option to reach out to clients more often (more on this shortly)
You should make it known what your preferred method of contact is and have tools and technology in place to make collaborating together easier, such as online portals.
Creating a framework for communication ensures that your staff follows the framework and that your clients know exactly how to stay in contact with you.
Check-In Regularly
Checking in with your clients is one of the points that is crucial in building deep relationships between you and your clients.
If you only reach out to clients when things go wrong or they need to submit documents, they won’t feel valued.
To bolster client relationships, check in regularly. If you want to serve their financial needs, you need to understand how their professional and personal lives are changing. Decisions and milestones can mean having to adjust your services or provide new ones.
If you are not communicating with clients regularly and staying up to date with their needs, you won’t be able to build a strong relationship or the trust you need to keep them as a client.
I recommend setting recurring check-in meetings based on your scope of work. For example, maybe you have check-in meetings once per quarter, or maybe it is even more frequent, such as once a month. In between these calls, your clients know they can reach out to you if the need arises.
Be Proactive About Advice
To build strong relationships with clients, take a proactive approach to advice rather than a reactive one. Addressing client needs before they become a problem will help foster and bolster trust.
You can take a proactive approach by:
- Meeting with clients regularly to brainstorm and strategize. Doing so will allow you to stay ahead of issues and help clients reach their goals.
- Keep clients informed about changes to tax regulations or financial laws that impact them personally.
- Provide recommendations and insights on how to optimize their individual strategies.
By taking a proactive approach, you position yourself as a trusted advisor and you also show clients that you care about their success.
Take a Personalized Approach
Every client is unique. Each one has their own challenges and long-term goals. As their accountant, it’s your job to know and understand these pain points and goals.
Your services and communication should be tailored to their needs. Why? Because taking a cookie-cutter approach to communication and services won’t allow you to develop deep and meaningful relationships with your clients.
- Offer solutions that meet the client’s individual needs
- Send personalized and thoughtful messages that are relevant to the client’s situation
- Get to know your clients on a more personal level
- Provide resources that are relevant and valuable
Clients want to work with a person, not just a suit. So, get personal. Aim to over deliver and always be honest with clients. When you pay attention to their needs and that thoughtfulness comes through in your communication and offerings, clients will feel valued. Most importantly, you will earn their trust and find reward in helping them solve problems or accomplish goals.
Building strong client relationships is crucial to the long-term success of your firm and your ability to create a long lasting impact. Clients need to feel valued and want an individualized approach to their accounting needs. Getting to know your clients, communicating regularly, and becoming a one-stop-shop for their financial needs can help you nurture relationships and maintain a loyal client base.
John Graziano, CPA, PFS, CFP®, and FFP Wealth Management are not only servicing the financial planning needs of his growing list of clients, but he is actively mentoring and offering advice to over 80 CPA’s firms around the country, who wish to transition their business to include Financial Services for their clients. He has written several articles and held seminars on the subject. John has appeared on Fox Business and was mentioned in Business Week, Investment News, Newsweek, Senior Market Advisor and other local publications. If you have questions about expanding your accounting firm’s services, you can contact John at: johngraziano@ffpinc.co.
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