Don't Leave Your Clients for Dead

Source: VeraSage Institute

The following contains excerpts, reproduced with permission, from a blog entry by Matthew Tol.

We are fortunate enough to be picking up a new customer (via referral) from a competitor who has “productised” their offering and built their model around cloud accounting. The customer has been working with their accountant for many years and supported them as they moved the model to an agreed pricing platform. They had been paying the monthly direct debit to cover all the services required. They had been providing all the information required to enable the firm to do what was required.

They were pretty happy with the quality of the work they were getting — when they got it. They were driven up the wall by the constant chasing to get information from the firm. They liked the accountant with whom they were working. But they felt like they had been “left for dead.” As they said, “We've paid for the work, why hasn't it been done?”

Many firms are making the move to productising their offerings and moving more to an agreed pricing model. They fall down badly though when their focus is on marketing and “brand building” rather than on service delivery. Having your customers pay into your account regularly is great for your cash flow. But when you're not delivering the services agreed to under that model, you have a problem.

We will be making sure we deliver our agreed services to them on time and support them up hill and down dale. We will also regularly check in with them to ensure they are happy with our delivery and service. They are wanting a heap more real-value services, and they are more than happy to pay for them. This is money the [previous] firm was leaving on the table by productising their offering. The firm's focus wasn't on the customer, and that has created a marvelous opportunity for us.

For the complete entry, read “Beware the Progressive Promise.”

From VeraSage Institute, June 29, 2016, www.verasage.com/index.php/community.