Why Don’t Clients Leave

Source: CPA Insider

About half the financial executives contacted by CPA Insider say they would not refer their CPA firms to others. Yet CPAs typically keep their clients for a long time. The implication? A lot of CPA clients would like to leave. Clients often complain that their CPAs give them no advice, no alerts about forthcoming tax or accounting regulations, and no help in improving their businesses.

Financial executives give the following reasons for firing their CPA firms (in descending order):

• Unsatisfactory service.
• High cost.
• No rapport.
• Passive attitude.

Practitioner Joe Marchbein, with Jack P. Fitter, CPA, APC, in Chesterfield, Missouri, observes that his clients want the following:

• Knowledge of the business operations and what it needs.
• Phone calls returned promptly.
• Advice.
• Assignment of the right people to engagements.
• Honesty.

From CPA Insider, September 25, 2006 (www.cpa2biz.com). For the complete article, click on the following link: https://www.cpa2biz.com/News/Columnists/Telberg/Who+Keeps+Clients.htm.