Balancing The Client Relationship

Focussing fully on the needs and expectations of your clients is a crucial ingredient in the recipe for the success of your firm.  The old adage that ‘the customer is always right’ may be a little literal but its message has always been clear…you must keep your customers happy if you want your business to be a success.

Most accountants want to keep their clients happy. Why would you not? Life is a whole lot easier if you have a happy client base. Unfortunately, this desire for client satisfaction has brought with it over the years a significant downside for the accountant:

The result is that our profit levels suffer because clients don’t value the service, our workflow suffers through poor client collaboration and our risk levels increase through blurred lines of responsibility.

The client is happy. They don’t have to work too hard at the relationship, fees are okay and you take their hassle away from them. We don’t want to change that feeling but, in reality, the client is happy at their accountant’s expense.

For a relationship to be sustainable and successful it needs to be balanced. Both parties need to be happy, benefitting and contributing in equitable measures. Many firms need to achieve a much greater buy-in from clients in this respect.

Here are seven steps to establishing greater equilibrium without destabilising the relationship you’ve built to date:

Step 1. Share the plan

Emergencies apart, your client doesn’t drop their car off at the garage and expect to get it serviced there and then. Neither do they drop in at their dentist and walk in to a check-up on the spot. They agree an appointment, turn up on time and expect to re-arrange if they can’t make it.

Agreeing a work plan with your client, with all key dates and obligations highlighted, is good planning for you both. It formalises the service, shows that you both have busy lives and introduces a degree of accountability and responsibility for the client. This is a joint plan, agreed and signed up to by both parties. Compare that to the one-sided way that many firms currently plan their compliance and then chase up the client. It’s all one way. There’s no sense of ownership or involvement for the client in this, just the hassle of being chased by you.

Step 2. Establish the rules

There’s no point in having a plan if there isn’t then a discipline to applying it. Incentivise those who play by the rules they’ve signed up to and penalise those that don’t. Fair?

Having agreed a plan for an assignment or time period, wouldn’t it be great to then reward the clients who stick to the agreement. Those who deliver on time, provide the right content and take ownership for their agreed responsibilities. Discount, gift, letter of thank, whatever works for you and them, but recognising and rewarding their role is a great way of maintaining it.

Now, how about the clients who don’t play ball. Those who miss delivery dates, keep incomplete records, don’t respond to your requests and generally have to be chased on a regular basis. Well, let’s revisit that dentist appointment. Miss an appointment and there is every chance that their terms and conditions explicitly allow them to charge you for it. And when it comes to rebooking a new appointment, now you’re going to have to fit in with them. Do you change dentist? No, because you know the deal and you know its your fault.

Why should less diligent clients get the same level of service at the same price as those who are trying to work with you? Interest, penalties, pushed to the back of the queue…clients need to know that there is a price to be paid for not playing the part they’ve signed up to. If a client knows that the price goes up after a deadline has passed, or that a quote increases if they’ve not met their responsibilities then they are more likely to play ball with you. Most clients don’t intend to abuse the relationship, you simply don’t make yourself enough of a priority in their busy world. Apply fair pressure and change that.

Step 3. Bring clarity to the deal

If we want our clients to actively involve themselves in the relationship, take their responsibilities and value the service that we deliver for them then we need to make it as clear as possible exactly what is expected of them and what we are going to deliver.

The average engagement letter may well be legally compliant but it does little to enhance the client’s understanding of who does what and why.

Plans should be written in simple English. The value of what we do should be spelt out. Actions required of the client need to be laid out so that they understand not just what they have to do but why it is important and the cost of failing to do so. All along, you can couch it in supportive tones that show we understand their challenges and are here to help but we should be confident that we’ve made the client’s role and actions perfectly clear to them.

Remember, just because accountants love checklists doesn’t mean to say that everyone else does. How about training videos, workshops, written guides etc to help clients play their part.

Step 4. Don’t let other people’s failings become your problems

The classic “the customer is always right” conundrum. We want to help our clients and make life as easy as possible for them but, if your answer to every last minute notice, deadline squeezed delivery, botched record keeping and client silence is “no problem, we’ll sort it” then you will continue to dig a deeper and deeper hole for you and your firm.

We are all busy. If someone is happy to sweep up after us then, generally, we’re happy to let them do so, even if we feel guilty about it.

Clients need to understand that you will always go the extra mile for those who help themselves but you are not an excuse for them not to shy away from their own responsibilities.

If a client has left something to the last minute, despite your best efforts to support them, then you should not let that become your problem….at least not without making it worth your while. Those words, “No problem” should be banned in your firm. “It is a problem…but we can help. Let’s me explain what that will cost”.

Step 5. Demonstrate your true worth

Clients don’t appreciate our true worth because we don’t tell them what we do and we don’t make the value clear to them. It’s as simple as that. It’s also very easily fixed:

The truth is that every time you deal with a client you deliver value. Make sure they know it and don’t take the relationship for granted.

Step 6. Engage with your client

If a client doesn’t know what you are doing for them then they can neither appreciate nor value it. Keep them informed on activities and progress, on challenges and outcomes. Help them to appreciate just how hard you work for them.

Step 7. Don’t suffer in silence

When you have a client relationship that isn’t working well for you then do something about it. Talk to the client. Stress the positives and why you are happy to have them as a client but explain your challenges and frustrations and the impact they are having on you. Explain how this then has a knock on effect with the service that you offer.

Be prepared for criticism to come back the other way, this could well be a two-way problem, but only by discussing it can you satisfactorily resolve it. Compromise may well be required, as in mot relationships, but if you are going to build a successful relationship with this client then it is a conversation that you need to have.