Client Service Ideas? It’s in the Doing.

Hoisted from Comments: Edi Osborne, Kevin Phillips.

Four Tough Client Service Problems: And dozens of possible solutions from staffers…

Osborne

…is getting a lot of buzz.

But some of the best has come from two, coincidentally, West Coast consultants.

Edi Osborne of MentorPlus writes: “I love all the ideas the group generated. I have only one thing to add. All the questions are more easily answered when you are only dealing with ideal clients.”

And she links to this checklist  to help choose the right clients in the first place:

Kevin Phillips, Director of Consulting Services, ProHorizons Network Inc., writes:

Phillips

There are a lot of great ideas here. The only problem is that lots of great ideas are impossible to execute.

Developing excellence in client service requires a change in organizational culture. And culture change is very difficult.

As valuable as a brainstorming session might be in shaking loose new ideas, of greater value is landing on identifying one or two behaviors that will move the entire organization in a new direction.

If the firm is profitable, it is probably doing a lot of things right. If the firm is human, there is probable one or two adjustments one could make to make it even more profitable. The trick is to identify them.

Before brainstorming solutions, it might be helpful to invest some energy in really understanding the firm’s culture.

To get at culture ask these questions:

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Posted on January 29, 2010
Filed Under BSG [CPA TRENDLINES] | 1 Comment

It’s China, Stupid!

Grant Thornton International’s revenues drop 9%.

But the real news is that for the first time the US and UK combined make up less than half of GTI’s fees. That’s “hardly surprising given the crisis everyone has been grappling with,” Gavin Hinks writes at Accountancy Age:

But its the shift in the balance of power that is fascinating. China and Hong Kong has for the first time become one of GTI’s top ten performing territories… Are we looking at a time when those territories are so successful that GTI has to run the organization out of Beijing? HSBC’s chief executive Michael Geoghegan has just relocated to Hong Kong to be closer to the bank’s center of main interest. How long before other multinational CEOs find they have to do the same thing?”

Financial Director has the rest:

Revenues for GTI’s 96 member firms stood at $3.6 billion for the year ended Sept. 30, 2009,  compared to about $4 billion in 2008.  Assurance services fell 4% to $1.6 billion.

“Grant Thornton, like all businesses, saw its revenue hindered by a difficult global economy in 2009, However, I am encouraged by these results. We knew the last 12 months would be challenging and many member firms had to make tough decisions to cut costs and refocus their businesses,” said new GTI CEO Ed Nusbaum.

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Posted on January 29, 2010
Filed Under BSG [CPA TRENDLINES] | 1 Comment

HR Advice Column Offers SWK Clients Directions and Solutions

Sage accounting reseller helps controllers with some tough issues.

By Scott H. Cytron
for SWK Technologies Inc.

Dear Abby … watch out! There’s a new gal in town giving advice, and her name is Kathleen Weiss, SPHR, of SWK Technologies, Inc.

1Weiss, who heads up the HR Advisory Practice at SWK, works mostly with small businesses who are not large enough to have their own Human Resource departments. She consults one on one with companies, many of which are SWK’s clients, to assess their needs and provide HR knowledge, solutions and tools. SWK, a Sage Software Authorized Business Partner and Sage Gold Development Partner, provides strategies and solutions to its clients’ information and business management needs.

“If a business has more than seven or eight employees, it needs HR guidance, but doesn’t have the means or resources to maintain these positions in-house,” says Weiss. “In many cases, the responsibility falls on the controller. Quite frankly, this person would rather be stranded on a desert island than deal with HR issues! Numerous companies assign a non-HR person to perform these duties, and in today’s volatile economy, that’s a dangerous decision, especially since employees are becoming more and more employment law-savvy.

As a means to market the HR Advisory Practice and provide advice on a client-wide basis, Weiss began writing her “Dear Kathleen” column last fall in the company’s eNewsletter, the SWK Insider. Weiss felt that if one company was experiencing a problem with a certain matter, other companies would also benefit from learning how to solve that problem.

Here’s are several sample questions Weiss has received from readers:

“No matter what size the company may be, I have yet to encounter one that hasn’t dealt with these kinds of issues,” says Weiss. “Human Resource professionals are not attorneys, but they almost have to be. If we don’t keep current on employment law, we’re not doing our jobs. It’s similar to CPAs; they aren’t attorneys, but they had better keep up with tax laws.”

The response so far to “Dear Kathleen” is strong. Although the column is only published 12 times annually, Weiss often answers questions offline.

“Questions run the gamut from one-off hiring scenarios to working with clients to develop an employee handbook, customized to their company’s culture or industry,” says Weiss. “I’m glad I can provide advice and help companies with their HR problems.”

Got a question for Weiss? Send her an e-mail and she’ll respond.

For more than 20 years, Scott H. Cytron, ABC, has worked with CPAs and accountants, providing public relations, marketing and communications services. He is a frequent contributor to industry publications covering professional services industries, including accounting, healthcare, legal, financial planning, collections and debt, and high-tech. Find him at  www.absolutecytron.com.

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Posted on January 28, 2010
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IRS ’10,000 Letters’ Program Angers CPAs

Intrusive and intimidating IRS initiative.

by William Stromsem, CPA, JD

Stromsen

Stromsen

CPAs are complaining about an intrusive and intimidating Internal Revenue Service (IRS) initiative that began in early January when the IRS started sending “over 10,000” letters to tax return preparers (commercial and professional), with follow-up visits to “thousands” of letter recipients. This is part of an IRS program to be sure that preparers are “assisting clients appropriately” and part of Commissioner Shulman’s overall effort to increase oversight of return preparers. The IRS may intend this as an encouragement to do a better job, but CPA practitioners see this as poorly timed and intimidating during the busy tax season as they seek to apply the tax law correctly to client situations.

…continued at the AICPA Corporate Taxation Insider:  IRS ’10,000 Letters’ Program Angers CPAs.

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Posted on January 28, 2010
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CCH’s David Bergstein Gives Back

Bergstein

Bergstein

Teaching for the Good of It

David Bergstein CPA, CITP, loves his job at CCH. As director of strategic relationships, he is actively engaged in networking, building partnerships with CPA associations, and establishing relationships that are win-wins for CCH and its partner CPA firms. He also has been involved in products like CCH CompleteTax®, an online tax preparation and e-filing service for the do-it-yourself taxpayer.

Outside the office, Bergstein’s passion for more than 40 years has been teaching and giving back. “I want to leave a legacy where I’ve helped people become more successful,”

via CCH’s David Bergstein Gives Back | CCH.

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Posted on January 28, 2010
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Four Tough Client Service Problems

And dozens of possible solutions from staffers…

At a recent staff workshop, there was a brainstorming session to answer some key questions about what constitutes excellence in client service. Four questions were placed on the table:

1. How can we make it easier for our clients to do business with us?

2. How do we meet and exceed expectations?

3. How do we overcome an attitude of indifference on our part towards the customer?

4. How do we make the workplace a more positive place to work?

Here are the results from the attendees. How many of these items could you deploy in your office?

Read more

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Posted on January 28, 2010
Filed Under BSG [CPA TRENDLINES] | 4 Comments

Tax Season Client Service Opportunities

These busy days offer a chance to get to know your clients better.

With a few quick questions, every client meeting can turn into a new relationship-building opportunity.

  1. Ask how the firm is doing as a whole to assess satisfaction.
  2. Ask some open-ended questions about the client’s current situation, challenges, and goals for the year.
  3. Delve a little deeper into potential specific services, such as multi-state tax requirements or pension plan audits.
  4. Request referrals.

Keep it short and be sure to have a mechanism in place to follow up on the information that you learn from these interactions.

Source: IOMA (subscribe here: www.ioma.com/CPA) via ConvergenceCoaching

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Posted on January 27, 2010
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Just in time for tax season…

Show them how you really feel about busy season.

1040 toilet paper via prankplace

A collage of the 1040 IRS Form printed throughout the whole roll. Available at PrankPlace here.

Or try their best seller:

8511.5168.full

Ahh. Now doesn’t that feel better…?

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Posted on January 27, 2010
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Where to Find New Clients? At Home

Census data shows 25% increase in home-based entrepreneurs.home_based

The number of people who worked at home increased by nearly 2 million, from about 9.5 million in 1999 to about 11.3 million in 2005, according to new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. Nearly half of these home workers had college degrees and nearly half of them earned $75,000 a year or more.

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Posted on January 27, 2010
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keep looking »