Why engaging clients early on will help you grow your accounting firm

People in general are not exactly known for their loyalty. Irrespective of industry, there are way too many options for them to choose from. A typical consumer hates bad customer experience and don’t repeat the services of a business after a foul incident.

Therefore, if your accounting firm wants to thrive, you should address the fact that anything related to your clients is a valuable catalyst to boosting revenues. It is necessary for you to adopt a strategy that helps you engage with your clients early on.

So, say “hello” to having a meaningful contact with your most new clients to maintain a consistent flow of revenues:

1) To gain actionable insights

Client conversations are a wealth of information. They provide insights that you can use to improve your services and your overall operations. Simply put – without a reliable data source, there’s no way you will be able to gain the trust of your clients.

Therefore, try to collect information from all digital touch-points – their reviews on social media, emails exchanged and telephone conversations with your staff, survey responses, etc. Fill that gap by digging out the much-needed info.

Once you have figured out what your clients really want, hand over that to them on a platter. They will trust your accounting firm even more.

2) To keep the clients happy

Happy clients, of course, the promoters of your business! A lot rides on how real their praise is for your firm. If they find you constantly making impactful changes to the business, always improving the after-sales services, always striving to give an experience better than the last – they will become your biggest fan.

A Walker study states that by year 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator. Therefore, decide the offline activities are critical to measuring your client’s satisfaction and create a system from which they can benefit.

Even if it requires you to invest money to buy them a cup of coffee every now and then or take them out to lunch, you should do it!

3) To minimize client acquisition costs

It may sound unreal but it is 6 to 7 times more expensive to acquire a new client than it is to keep a current one. The most unfortunate bit is many businesses overlook their existing clients in search of converting new ones.

How about stepping back for a minute and giving some credit to those who gave you your business in the first place?

Focus on increasing your existing client spend through proper feedbacks. Try to create a strategy where the probability of holding on to them to is more than finding new clients for your accounting firm. Focus on building client loyalty.

4) To keep negative PR at bay

If you want to better your services, listen to your clients. Get their feedback more frequently. Use SurveyMonkey surveys to reach out to your new clients and to learn about their experience.

If their comments are positive – great. But if they don’t have nice things to say about your services, identify the gaps and immediately act on them. Don’t give them a second chance of venting out their frustration on an online platform.

A negative online review of your accounting firm reaches twice as many as compared to a positive one. Therefore always remember how much of a difference a small change can make! Make all efforts to keep negative PR at bay.

Conclusion

Early engagement not only helps businesses sustain client relationships for a longer period of time but also adds to the brand equity. What processes are you following?