Don’t Let Your Clients Make You Sick

Source: Possibilities for CPA Firm Leaders

Following are excerpts from a blog entry by Rita Keller, reproduced with permission.

“I am sick and tired of these darn clients!” I am sure you have never heard this uttered in your firm. Or have you?

Everyone is tired, stressed and losing their patience for those few clients who:

• Are always last minute, year after year
• Waltz in on April 13 (maybe even 14) and expect their return handled immediately
• Never pay their bill on a timely basis, yet are super demanding
• Seem to think they are the only client you care about
• Seem to think you have been sitting around just waiting on them to call

For the remainder of 2009, client service is going to take on increased importance and increased focus. Winning firms might even make client service the focus of their retreat this year—it is THAT important.

Clients will be looking for a more economical choice. Your competition will be knocking on their doors with renewed enthusiasm. You may have the opportunity to secure larger clients from the largest firms in your area who are curious about the service they would get from a smaller firm with lower rates.

Light the fire of passion for client service in your team. How? Here’s a site that will give you some info on the Ritz Carlton Gold Standards. As you read them, you will see how they can apply to a client service business like a CPA firm.

This is only the beginning of the battle of 2009—for good people and for clients who are on fire with a passion for your firm. Those clients will become, without a doubt, your best referral source.

To read the entire blog entry, click here.

From Possibilities for CPA Firm Leaders, March 10, 2009, “Would You Ever Hear This at the Ritz Carlton of CPA Firms?” the blog of Rita Keller, president of Keller Advisors, LLC, [email protected]. Visit http://cpamanagement.blogspot.com.