How to Improve Client Experience in Your Accounting Practice

“Clients have many options to choose from when it comes to accounting service providers. It is the client’s experience with your accounting firm that will keep them from leaving or becoming raving fans,” says the CEO of Reconciled, Michael Ly.  

One crucial factor that can greatly influence your business is the overall client experience. When your small accounting firm prioritizes customer satisfaction and consistently meets or surpasses their expectations, it significantly boosts the likelihood of your business earning a positive reputation. Today, for tax and accounting professionals, it is not just about getting the job done and meeting deadlines. It is about understanding the customers’ pain points and coming up with solutions that benefit them.

The idea of including customer service-related roles within the tax and accounting firms has been increasing more than ever now. Clients have many queries that, in most cases, do not need the expertise of accounting or tax professionals. While accounting firms continue to strive to put their best foot forward in providing excellent customer service, it becomes difficult to engage as they get deeper into the busy season. 

Understanding the major challenges in accounting customer services: 

For accounting firms, whose main focus is always on meeting deadlines and staying compliant, providing 5-star customer service might not be as easy as it seems. Especially for small firms that are limited on resources, this can get further challenging. Some of the major issues that firms are posed with include:

Miscommunication: Accounting processes are complicated in nature. The requirements that each client of a small accounting firm has are diverse. One size does not fit all in this case and that is where the problem arises. Accountants often struggle to communicate important information effectively. Clients might need help understanding the details or relevance, leading to utter chaos, confusion, and misunderstandings.

Trust issues: As businesses hire professional firms to meet their accounting needs, there is always a chance of mistrust. Trust isn’t always given; it needs to be built over time. This can get challenging during audits. If results do not favor the clients, the chances are they would see you against them. It is one of the major concerns for accounting firms to remain unbiased in their pursuit and yet make clients happy at all times, especially during the initial days.

Delay in response: Small accounting firms do work on multiple projects at the same time. This may lead to a delayed response for some clients. This could make clients frustrated, affecting their relationship with the firm. Meeting expectations like this can get especially challenging with tight deadlines and peak periods like tax season or year ends.

Personalization and automation: In most cases, technology and automation work in favor of the accounting firms. However, no matter how easy they make your life, they often fail to give the human touch that clients seek; making customer experience disappointing.

The differentiation aspect: The accounting industry is competitive and all firms are constantly contending for the clients’ attention. For accounting firms, setting the value proposition, along with specialized services and customer experiences, becomes critical. Achieving this differentiation while balancing profitability and client satisfaction continues to remain the game-changing matrix. 

Tips to improve the customer experience

Map out your client’s journey - from onboarding to offboarding

As an accounting firm that deals with several clients, it is a good idea to have a standard process with some room for customization as to what a customer’s journey should look like. Having a SOP (standard operating procedure) helps everyone involved with the client/project stay on the same page. The key here is to be as detailed as possible, which helps avoid missing any significant steps.

It is not enough for just the leaders to have an understanding of the client’s journey. It should be common knowledge. To serve the clients better, everyone involved should be able to answer the following questions:

• What brought the customers to the firm?
• Where are the clients coming from?
• What made them choose your firm over others?
• What should their experience be from onboarding to delivery?

If the team members are unclear or unaware of either of these, it might be time for the leaders to sit with the team and walk them through it all. You might also need to speak with the clients to join the dots for certain things, ensuring a seamless experience for the clients.

Communicate better

For small accounting firms, it is easy to get lost in the day-to-day operations. While that is important, it is also essential to not lose contact with the client. Problems tend to creep up when they do not hear from the accountants or the firm leaders. Also, clear communication helps have multiple perspectives. Both parties might have incorrect assumptions on what the other will do or need. Firms must communicate with clients to:

• Provide regular updates on tasks
• Manage their expectations
• Build customer satisfaction
• Develop trust

The practice of proactive, instead of reactive, communication should begin right from the initial days of the partnership. Maintaining an open line of communication with the clients also helps the teams understand what works and what doesn’t, enabling quick improvement wherever necessary. Understanding your client’s experience with your firm will also help you strategize better and innovate to match your client’s goals and expectations.

Use your clients’ feedback to your advantage

Communication must remain both ways. Seek constant feedback from your clients and integrate it into your workflow to ensure you do not miss it. The customer feedback process doesn’t have to be complicated. You can send a few emails at a specific frequency with a detailed set of questions to get an in-depth understanding of where the clients stand.

The few broad-level questions that your feedback can help uncover are:

• What’s going well with their partnership with the firm?
• What’s not going well with the partnership or areas of improvement?
• How can the firm aid in the growth of the client’s business?

Make it a habit to do this at a frequency of your choice - monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly. The more frequently you conduct this exercise, the better you can amend your strategies. You can also build a checklist to understand how clients feel about you. Here’s a list you can use for your firm:

• How would you rate the overall quality of the accounting services provided by our firm?
• How effective is the communication from the firm, including responsiveness and clarity of information?
• Did our team demonstrate professionalism and expertise in addressing your needs?
• Do you feel you are receiving value for the price charged by our firm?
• Were the services customized to meet your individual needs?
• How would you rate the ease of conducting business with the firm?
• Do you feel confident in the firm's measures for data security and confidentiality?
• Did the firm proactively communicate relevant updates or opportunities?
• Do you have any suggestions for areas of improvement or feedback on how the firm can enhance its services?

Leverage tech to your advantage

Technology, when used the right way, will relieve you of the worry of losing the human touch. Use technology and tools to interact with your clients. Use automated messages, but only where they are relevant. Technology can help solve the issue of delayed responses. Some ways to use tech to your advantage include: 

Use cloud-based solutions: Using cloud technology to store information can help improve client experience. Task management software like Monday.com, Trello, Asana, TaxDome, etc., allows easy collaboration, better security, and access to data from anywhere.

Mobile application: Clients always want easy ways to get the information they need and interact with their service provider. A mobile application is a handy tool that gives accounting firms an edge. It helps streamline communication and allows the team to coordinate with the clients on the go.

Use social media: Today, social media is a tool to help your business grow. Clients tend to use social media to express their content or dissatisfaction with the accounting firms and their services. Being active on social media prevents issues from getting unnecessarily accelerated.

Self-service resources for clients: For busy accounting firms running short on time and resources, this can be a great way to equip clients with everything they need. This does not mean that you let the clients be by themselves. It simply means providing them with the resources that don’t need you to be involved. FAQs, working models of new tools and software, or elaborating the workflow are some of the ways to address customer concerns.

You can also introduce a portal for clients where they have access to everything they need to make the partnership successful and get the most out of it.

Improve your clients' customer experience - Conclusion

In efforts to provide excellent customer service, it is empathy that makes a huge difference. It not only helps accounting firms identify the needs of the clients and provide quick resolution but also helps create a friendly atmosphere. While it is okay to assume that your client’s needs are insatiable, taking practical steps while being empathetic can be instrumental in a long-lasting professional relationship.

Acknowledging the differences, practicing active listening, validating their concerns, providing clear communication, and referring to previous relevant information are some of the ways you can inculcate empathy in your business DNA. 

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