10 Ways to Lose A Client

Accountants are the absolute worse dealing with people.

They are in the losing client business.

Don't believe me?  Why else would Accounting Today write this:


From Accounting Today:


Everyone knows how difficult it can be to find new clients – but the flip side of that is how easy it is to lose the clients you already have, through inattention, complacency, or worse.

“There are challenges that we all face, especially as we get comfortable in our client relationships,” noted Maureen Schwartz, executive director of BKR International (http://www.bkr.com), a leading global association representing  more than 160 independent accounting and business advisory firms in over 500 offices and 80 countries. “CPAs must be mindful of how they talk and act in order to keep client trust and loyalty.”



1. Only talk about yourself. Your clients do not really care that your firm won “Best Places to Work” for three years straight. Clients want to talk about their business and how you can help them. Do your homework. Review their Web site, social media pages and research their industry’s key business trends and challenges. Bring key questions to ask so that you can get the information you need to provide value.

2. Constantly check your phone. Turn your phone off and keep it in your pocket/purse during meetings. Do not keep it on the conference table or in your lap, where you will be sure to look at it. Give your client your undivided attention so you can play the role of trusted advisor.

3. Arrive late to client meetings. Always give yourself plenty of time to deal with traffic, street closings, accidents and other potential time-robbers, especially if you are meeting a client for the first time.

4. Only communicate by e-mail. Know how each of your clients wants to communicate. If you’re not sure, ask them and then note it in their file. Most importantly, know when to pick up the phone.

5. Only communicate when it’s time to bill or renew. Send relevant alerts, timely articles and specific industry information on a regular basis. Show that you’re thinking about them and share why you thought they would find the information interesting.

6. Send a large invoice with no details. Clients hate getting a large bill all at one time. Prepare accurate time reports and send interim bills for work in process on a timely basis.

7. Never own up to mistakes. Once you realize a mistake has been made, contact your client right away. (This would be the time to pick up the phone.) Apologize and offer a swift remedy. Never ignore the problem and hope it goes away. It will come back much bigger, more complicated and more difficult to fix.

8. Eat alone. Instead of wolfing down a cold sandwich or wilted salad at your desk, designate one day a week to take a client to lunch. Make it breakfast if your time or budget is tight. You can easily catch up with your clients in an hour and get to work before the business day begins.

9. Never give away free information. If you bill for every client call, you’ll never hear from them. This creates missed opportunities to discuss new products and services and ways in which you can help. These conversations also help expand your personal relationship. Marketing experts say it takes 14 touches to establish a buying relationship.

10. Excuse yourself from social events. Invited to a special client event where you won’t know anyone? Want to make a flimsy excuse and rationalize to yourself that you won’t be missed? Spoiler alert: You will be. Go prepared with information that everyone can engage in. Popular conversation starters include sports, community initiatives, kids, travel and television shows. Avoid conversations about politics and religion.

Lessons from Chik-fil-a

From our friends at Tax Coach.

"Saturday afternoon, my girlfriend and I spent much of the day painting my daughter Margaret’s bedroom. (Apparently the bright green she picked when she was 10 years old was a little “robust” for her 16-year-old taste.) At one point, I ran out for another set of rollers and some more painters tape. My girlfriend asked me to pick up a Chick-fil-a sandwich for her on my way back. I said “sure,” and headed off to Target for supplies.

 

After I picked up the supplies, I pulled into the Chick-fil-a, and my heart sank. There was a long line of cars waiting at the drive-through. I knew that a line that long at the McDonald's down the street signaled a long wait, and I would be better off parking and going in to the store.

 

But then I saw a couple of staffers approaching the cars at the end of the line with iPads in hand, and I decided to give the drive-through a try. Sure enough, taking orders like that really did speed things up, and I was back on the street with Liza’s sandwich in a jiffy.

 

That experience got me to thinking, as I often do, what lessons it might hold for us. And I started musing on the nature of franchises like Chick-fil-a in general.

 

What do you really get when you invest your start-up money ($280 - $815K, in the case of Chick-fil-a) and ongoing fees in a franchise? Mainly, two things: 1) branding and advertising, to help jump-start your sales, and 2) systems, to jump-start your operations.

 

I’ve always enjoyed Chick-fil-a’s advertising, with desperate cows begging us to “eat mor chikin.” (Who doesn’t like cows painting billboards?) But seeing those kids with iPads running outside to take orders and speed up the car line, now that’s a system.

 

Successful systems are the heart of any franchised business. They’re the key to ensuring customers are treated uniformly from store to store. When they work, customers zip through drive-throughs with smiles on their faces. And when they break down (as seems to be the case with that McDonald's I was talking about earlier and its bloated menu), customers gripe, grumble, and give up.

 

What do your systems look like?

 

Let’s say you thought about franchising yourself, just to take a good hard look at your business from an outside perspective. What sort of systems do you have in place for your franchisees? Are they written, or just verbal? Do your staff all understand them identically, or does one employee understand things one way and the other understand them a different way? (And if that’s so, does either employee get it right?) Are your systems effective enough that you could use them to attract franchisees and justify ongoing fees? Are you adapting them to keep up with technology and client demand?

 

If not, why not? Are you just “winging it”? If so, how’s that working out for you? Is a lack of clearly delineated systems slowing things down, making life harder, and keeping you from delivering your services or growing your business the way you’d like?

 

Take a few minutes to think about how you would organize your systems to franchise your business. You’ll find it makes life easier and more profitable even without taking that step!"