Tips for Accounting Practices- Keep Your Best Clients

Stores can offer low prices and interesting products to earn repeat customers, but accounting firms and CPAs need to be especially creative to keep their clientele from jumping ship. Cultivating a highly professional image with CPA websites and completing error-free returns are a couple ways to impress clients - but they're only the beginning. Accountants often find they need to take extra measures to ensure their clients don't migrate to competing practices. Otherwise, they have to spend too much of their time attracting new work.

Here are several tips for how to retain clients.

Connect with Clients Through CPA Websites and Other Tricks

When the job is all about numbers, a personal feel is sometimes difficult to establish. Here are some steps you can take to humanize your business:

• Utilize social media and answer easy accounting questions on your Facebook page or blog.
• Make follow-up calls to ensure clients have no further questions, that their tax forms were processed correctly, and that their business is doing well.
• Keep small personal notes on each client. Make it a habit to review the material before a meeting so you can chit-chat about your clients' kids, their new summer home, or their recent travels; it may seem gimmicky, but this one really does help make your more likable and approachable. People are more comfortable trusting financial issues to those with whom they have personal relationships.
• Set up a web presence. Savvy CPAs invest in CPA websites so they can offer their clients the latest in convenience, such as client portals and the ability to pay their fees online.

Set Their Expectations

Be very careful not to promise the world to your clients. For example, if they turn in their tax materials on April 13, you don't want them to be disappointed when you need to file an extension.

Of course, don't become complacent; work hard to deliver the best possible service in each case. And if you make a big push and DO get taxes done by the 15th even though materials were late, be sure to point out your extra effort.

Another way to exceed client expectations is with fine CPA websites. If you invest in a high-quality site with a client portal, online bookkeeping, QuickBooks support, and similar features, your clients will benefit. The increased efficiency and convenience of online tools make a great impression.

Clients Stick with Trustworthy Accountants

Let's face it: finance professionals don't always have a reputation for honesty and high ethical standards, especially these days. Since the deck may already be stacked against you, you must work that much harder to provide honest services.

So you must be vigilant: never lie, and always be as upfront as possible with unpleasant news, rather than beating around the bush.

Make Prompt Communication a Priority

Firms that are difficult to contact end up losing business. When clients are worried about money, waiting hours or days for a return phone call provides ample time for increased fears.

Make sure your office is able to deliver prompt communication on all issues. Get in touch by email or phone - you don't need to have the answer, but at least assure them that you're looking into their question.

Be Yourself

People like to work with other human beings, not robots. So if you like to tell jokes, then tell jokes. If you're more reserved, be warm and friendly, but don't force yourself to be more talkative than you feel. Of course you won't be a perfect fit for each and every client, but that shouldn't be your goal. When you try too hard to be likable to everyone who comes through your door, you end up being unlikable to most.

Practicing the finer points of client retention is critical for all service professionals, accountants included. The more you can use CPA websites, social media like Facebook and Twitter, and your own winning personality to keep your clients satisfied with your services, the easier it will be to keep folks from defecting to another firm. If you work hardest on catering to the clientele that generate the most money, then it should become possible to cut back on drawing in new clients, or even cease altogether.