Every small business owner should constantly be looking for ways to strengthen relationships with their customers. But for accountants and CPAs, this is even more important. Why? Because as an accountant or CPA you are privy to all of your clients' personal and financial information. You are entrusted with this information by your clients, so it is imperative that your relationship with them is built on trust and loyalty.
Before the internet, that personal touch with accounting clients was prominently seen. Accountants regularly met with their clients in real life. As the technology overtook the traditional methods, the connectivity has grown but the personal connection between CPA and client suffered distortion. However, the importance of the customer relationship has only kept growing. Therefore, for an accountant or CPA to keep this parameter soaring, adopting the following tips can help:
1. Be Quick and Effective With the Communication
The impression that the client makes of your ability largely depends on the way you communicate with them. Different clients have variety with the choice of communication medium, ranging from paper-based mails to smartphone-based IM apps, en route social media, email, etc. As an accountant or CPA, you ought to be available on all the platforms the client feels comfortable with. And being available is not enough as you should also be prompt, responsive, polite, and effective with every inquiry the customer may have.
2. Protect Customer Data and Let Them Know
Accounting data is immensely crucial for the client. Most accountants and CPAs understand this fact and try to keep it protected. As the current trend is witnessing lesser usage of paper in accounting, digital storage is taking the center stage. Good news is that digital storage offers better and security features in the form of automatic backup and password protection. So, it is the high time that you went with digital options to safeguard the customer’s accounting data.
While you choose for safer ways of data protection, do not forget to mention it to the customer. Knowing that their data is protected with you, clients are more likely to trust your offerings.
3. Promise Deadlines and Achieve Them
Businesses perform better when they rely on facts, figures, and deadlines. CPAs and accountants can adopt the same practice to keep the clients happy. Analyze the services that the client needs along with your resources to calculate the right timeframe that will be required to execute the given task. Then set a certain deadline and let the customer know about it.
Announcing the deadlines shows your professionalism and seriousness with the services, which will eventually back up your client relationship. Possibly the client will ask to pull the deadlines closer. So, be honest and choose the achievable ones because if you fail to deliver on decided timeframes your reputation will be taking the spoil.
4. Work in the Cloud with Clients
Collaboration on the cloud is new the method of business productivity and accounting has not shied away from it. Desktop versions of most accounting software can be hosted on the cloud to gain a number of benefits, such as – multiuser collaboration, anytime & anywhere access, etc. Implementing such a solution with your services will allow you and your client to work together on the same files. Not only this will save you from the repeated email exchanges, but also fasten the speed of operations.
It helps in the customer relationship because the customer will always be able to access their accounting information and that too from the different location. Thus, the customer will gain more sense of involvement and control of the situations, which adds to their trust in your abilities.
5. Use MoneyThumb to Convert Financial Information
Let your client know that you are using the best PDF financial file converters on the market to handle converting all of their banking and other financial information. They will rest easier knowing how efficiently you handle your accounting or CPA practice by using the MoneyThumb tools.
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