Your Guide to Better Project Communication, Part 2: External Communication

Communication is critical for accounting and bookkeeping firms that want to satisfy their clients, grow their bottom lines, and stay around for the long term as a business. In the first part of this guide, we covered some key points on internal communication between members of your team who are tasked with carrying out project responsibilities.

In this second part of the guide, we’ll discuss what you should know about improving your external communication. That includes the project correspondence you have with everyone outside of the firm—primarily clients and their representatives who are responsible for overseeing the scope of your services.

This kind of communication is typically the front line of all interactions you have with clients. Creating a good foundation here will make every part of the client relationship easier, so it’s important to get it right early if you want to keep clients around for the long haul.

Set expectations for regular check-ins.

A good client will likely look for signs of progress toward their goals, but they also won’t want an extremely detailed briefing that takes a lot of time to read and understand. They’re paying a third-party expert (that’s you!) to manage these details for them, so there’s no reason for them to also take on these concerns. However, they will want to know that you’re on track to deliver what was promised on the agreed-upon timeline.

It’s up to your firm to determine the best way to strike a balance between informing clients of progress and not overwhelming them, but a lot of firms do this with recurring check-in meetings. Depending on the nature of your project, you can host these recurring check-ins on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis. These meetings are a great vehicle to provide clients with progress updates that aren’t overwhelming.

Emphasize the requirements you have for them.

At one time or another, all bookkeeping and accounting firms will need to get input from their clients. It could be a complex matter that requires their subjective opinion or something as simple as a quick signature or approval. Whatever the nature of the request, this is often the point where many bookkeeping firms get bogged down and see slowdowns that negatively impact their deadlines.

To avoid this kind of bottleneck in your project communications, be clear about what you need from your clients well before you need it. To paraphrase a common saying from the world of speeches and presentations: “Tell them what you’ll need, tell them you need it, and tell them what you’ve provided.”

You should be reminding clients of their responsibility to you at every possible chance so that they don’t unintentionally cause a bottleneck in the process.

Give them an accessible platform for communication.

Here’s a hint: that doesn’t mean you should send everything through email!

While traditional email correspondence does have its place, many firms we talk to prefer to use quicker, more informal communication channels. This is especially valuable for clients, who may already be dealing with lots of emails on a day-to-day basis from other areas of their business and probably don’t want to have yet another message in their inbox.

We suggest incorporating some kind of async communication system that allows clients to write and answer messages on their own time without having to dig through other emails. Whether you decide to set up a complete client collaboration portal or just a messaging system depends on your firm’s bandwidth and the needs of your projects.

However you decide to allow clients to communicate, we recommend making it as easy as possible for them so that there’s no struggle when it comes time for them to provide you with the things needed for the project to run successfully.

Last word on external project communication

The way you communicate with your clients and their representatives has a massive impact on the success of your projects, which in turn has a huge effect on the overall success or failure of the firm. If you can settle into an effective rhythm when it comes to communicating with clients, you’ll find it much easier to secure long business relationships with all types of organizations that come to trust and value your input.

A final recommendation we can provide for this piece is to take advantage of the power of technology. With the right kind of accounting practice management software, you can handle not just external client communication but also important tasks like eSignatures, invoice collection, and monthly reports. Well-designed accounting practice management software will help you tie together all the different elements of your business—including external project communication—to ensure you are making the most out of every internal resource available.

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