Client Retention: Closing the Communication Gap
Source: Partner's Report
Client retention is critical to the survival of CPA firms today. Unfortunately, there's a significant disconnect between CPAs and their clients on this issue. According to a survey by the Bay Street Group, 63 percent of accountants believe that clients generally change firms because of high fees. But 66 percent of clients say a change is more likely to be related to poor service.
Even more disturbing, the survey indicated, 25 percent of clients who leave do so because they need new services, even though 75 percent of the time their CPAs offered those services.
- Strategies for closing this gap include:
- Calling your top clients periodically to see how things are going and to identify any problems you can help them solve.
- Using social media sites to stay in touch with clients.
- Using portal technology to provide a secure channel for communicating with clients and providing them with access to tax and financial documents 24/7.
- Developing an industry niche and becoming the “go to” CPA in that field.
- Adopting a team approach so you can become more responsive to client needs.
- Exploring alternatives to hourly billing so that clients don't feel they're paying for your inefficiencies.
For the complete article, read “Five Keys to Better Client Retention.”
From Partner's Report, The Monthly Update for CPA Firm Owners, Institute of Management and Administration, Inc., [email protected], November 2010, p. 1.