client

25 Things Customers Love

By

The best strategies from the best companies.

By Arnold Sanow
arnoldsanow.com

Arnold Sanow
Sanow

In today’s fast-changing and competitive environment, excellent customer service is not only nice but essential for success.

In fact, the only way to differentiate yourself and to become less of a commodity in the marketplace is through outstanding customer service.

After studying more than 500 companies and organizations – as diverse as Lexus/Toyota, Bristol Meyers Squibb, Lockheed Martin, Homeland Security, Forever Broadcasting, The Medical College of Georgia, Aspen Institute, Marin County Realtors Association, and Choice Hotels – a few strategies emerge again and again.

Here are 25 of the best practices used by some of the world’s best companies to get new customers, keep them, and turn them in enthusiastic fans and referral sources: READ MORE →

Check Yourself: How to Reality-Test Client Satisfaction Levels

By

Arnold Sanow
Sanow

To keep both your staffers and clients happy, tax and accounting firms need to gain a thorough understanding of their perceptions and perspectives — and to make they align.

Customer service guru Arnold Sanow suggests 15 questions to ask yourself, your staff, and, above all, your customers. serviceThe biggest opportunities will surface when you compare and contrast their responses.

Be prepared for an eye-opening, sometimes gut-wrenching, exercise in hard truth: READ MORE →

Enhancing Client Financial Health through Collaborative Services

By

Clients benefit when CPAs and investment advisors work together.

By Martin E. Levine, ChFC, CPA, MBA
4Thought Financial Group, Inc.        

Martin Levine 4Thought
Levine

Even if the client isn’t always right, helping clients understand and make the best financial decisions is always the right course of action. 

CPAs understand the implications of financial decisions and strive to advise clients in ways that improve their financial well-being.  However, clients frequently have multiple – sometimes conflicting – financial goals, and use other financial professionals, including financial advisors, attorneys and business consultants, to achieve them.  READ MORE →

Will Obamacare Penalties Kill Your Small Business Clients?

By

drug in syringe on white background

Fines run $100 per day, per employee.

By Stephen L. Nelson, CPA
and Elizabeth C. Nelson, CPA
Small Business and the Affordable Care Act

By now, many of your small business clients understand they don’t have to provide employees with health insurance. The employer mandate starts when a firm employs 50 or more full-time-equivalent employees.

But here’s an awkward follow-up question: Do your small business clients understand that many of the ACA’s rules still apply to them and that they may still be vulnerable to the ACA’s 4980D excise tax penalty—which runs $100 per day per employee?

LEARN MORE: Small Businesses and the Affordable Care Act: What Every Tax Practitioner Needs to Know (55-page PDF digital download)

Can We Talk IRC Code Sections?

People sometimes hear references to the 4980D penalty and scoff, say you can’t believe everything you hear on talk radio or read at some blog. So let’s look at the actual Internal Revenue Code Section in question.

Here are the first few sentences of IRC Sec 4980D: READ MORE →

It’s Not Sales. It’s Your Duty

By

Ed Mendlowitz CPA The Practice Doctor Q and AHow to suggest additional services to clients and why you’re doing them a disservice if you don’t.

By Ed Mendlowitz
The CPA Trendlines Practice Doctor

QUESTION: I always feel awkward telling clients they need additional services that I should perform for them. Can you tell something that could “rev” me up for this?

MORE PRACTICE DOCTOR Q&A: Yes, You Should Send Rejection Letters | When to Hire an Admin Assistant | 7 Ways to Lose a Client’s Trust | How Much Should You Pay To Buy, Sell or Merge an Accounting Practice? | Why the Average Fee Doesn’t Matter | No More Printouts at CPE Programs? | 6 Ways to Take a Client Beyond Tax Prep

ANSWER: Actually, by suggesting additional services you are doing the client a favor and a good deed. Also, you are in business and the easiest way to generate additional revenues is to cross-sell services to present clients.

READ MORE →

Savvy CPAs Focus on the Constants

By

Don’t be distracted by the hot trend of the moment.

In “10 Things That Accountants Didn’t Need to Worry about 10 Years Ago,” CPA Trendlines contributor Hitendra Patil generated reader reactions with some provocative thoughts about a tsunami of trends. Today, he looks at the other side of the coin, starting with a quote from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos:

“You should build a business strategy around the things you know are stable in time and then invest heavily in ensuring you are providing those things and improving your delivery of them all the time. If you want to build a successful, sustainable business, don’t ask yourself what could change in the next 10 years that could affect your company. Instead, ask yourself what won’t change, and then put all your energy and effort into those things.”

By Hitendra Patil
Pransform Inc.

What has remained unchanged in the tax and accounting profession over the last few decades? And what will not change over the next couple of decades?

More on The Entrepreneurial CPA by Hitendra Patil here.

Being a futurist is not easy. Being a realistic futurist is even more difficult. But being a person who knows the foundational value of his or her profession is relatively easy, if you know why and what customers buy from you. A CEO of Black & Decker once said the almost proverbial “customers don’t buy a drill machine, they buy a hole in the wall.” As an accountant and tax professional, you must figure out what your customers buy from you and why they buy from you rather than from your competitors.

Now is the time to think about what they will continue to buy in the future. READ MORE →

7 Ways to Lose a Client’s Trust

By

Are you about to do any of these? Is it worth it?

By Ed Mendlowitz
The CPA Trendlines Practice Doctor

QUESTION: I believe I have a very high degree of client trust. But somehow I feel it is not 100 percent. Any comments?

ANSWER: This person has a common problem. The trust is very high – probably higher than any other profession – but not complete. It is rare for trust to be 100 percent. But here are seven ways to lose a client’s trust:
READ MORE →