Clients are different. Are you treating them the same?
I was speaking with a small business owner recently and our conversation switched to his CPA. Though admittedly the business owner wanted help to better understand his business, he expressed frustration over his relationship with his CPA. His CPA had approached him several times wanting to benchmark his company with others in the industry. This was the CPAs attempt to help the small business owner beyond the traditional services delivered to the client.
For this business owner, the benchmark service offering was just more of the same. The CPA knew very little about the client’s business, investing in client time only when he delivered this business owner’s tax return. While the CPA was discussing the benchmarking service, all the business owner could think about was “you don’t even understand my business. I don’t want to be compared to other businesses in the same industry because my business is different.”
As it was, the business owner saw the offering as another opportunity for the CPA to treat him like all the other clients in the same industry, not recognizing that the business owner had a very different business model and strategy, not to mention different personal and business aspirations and interests. This is what the business owner wished his CPA understood.
General industry knowledge supports traditional service offerings, but for value-added advisory services a more holistic and detailed knowledge is required and expected by CPA clients – no matter what type of client. This knowledge comes from planned, continuous client engagement efforts throughout the year. And though the quantity of client contacts is important, the quality of the contacts determines if value is created. How does your firm do on really getting to know your clients? What opportunities would open up for you and your clients if you had an effective way to really get to know them?