We've put together this comprehensive guide to customer relationships for accounting firms. It explains the uncountable benefits of the client experience through customer service enhancements, and how powerful tools, such as client management software with a client portal, can make life easier for your accounting practice clients.

Client accounting services best practices

Before diving into the specific tools and accounting practice management software, such as client management software that can help accounting practices enhance their client experience, it's important to understand what client experience means.

More commonly this is known as the customer experience (CX), but we're using industry terminology here. 

So, the client experience encompasses every interaction that a client has with an accounting practice, from their first contact as a new client to ongoing communication and service delivery.

A positive client experience is characterised by:

• Clear communication and transparency at every step in the accounting process,
• Solving problems for your clients,
• Timely and efficient service delivery,
• Personalised services and attention,
• Trust and accountability,
• Ease of access to information.

Poor communication, no personal touch and a lack of trust experienced by clients during accounting services could spell serious trouble for your accounting practice if you lose a client of considerable value.

Here are five tips to improve the client experience for your firm:

1. Define your client profile

To improve your client experience, you must first define who you are trying to target.

Our recent study surveying other firms in Australia highlighted that approximately 1 in 5 (22 percent) of surveyed accounting practices in Australia had a completely defined client profile.

Accountants who truly understand their ideal clients, are more likely to scale, grow and bring in more money.

2. Become a one stop shop

To remain relevant and increase the value of a firm’s connection with a client, it’s even more imperative to become a multidisciplinary firm with a range of services. 

A client can come to professional service firms for business advisory services, superannuation concerns, general accounting, property advice, business model reviews and forecasting services, the value of your relationship and the importance of your services balloons.

Firms managing customer relationships carefully, where they are the only point of contact their client will ever need, result in repeat business and natural word-of-mouth marketing.

3. Set a framework for communication

You should be the one laying down a communication framework for your accounting firm.

Ensure your client is abundantly aware of the best methods of contacting you. Better yet, ask and record the preferred methods of your clients. Meet them where they’re comfortable and make sure they know that there’s no such thing as a ‘stupid question’.

Be casual, contactable, and proactively reach out if you haven’t heard from your client for a while.

Make sure you never reply late to a message, miss important calls or respond in an unsatisfactory or cursory manner.

Most of all, make sure you’re a good listener. People need to know their concerns and ideas are being taken seriously and, of course, the better you listen and empathise, the better your insights and advice will be.

Read our article on this topic: How good communication can lead accounting practices to success.

4. Be a source of knowledge

Clients want to know you’re the expert they need. Ensure you’re creating content for your website and social media (such as blogs or videos) that shows you have your finger on the pulse.

Accounting firms need to be a thought leader to develop trust and add value to a client. For example, if a new government support package or budget measure comes into play, write a think piece and share it with your clients.

5. Add personal touches and exceed expectations

You need to be a person, even a friend, not just a suit. You don’t form relationships with an email address or a set of forms – you need to get personal.

Reach out with thoughtful and personalised messages and tips that are relevant to their specific situation, have relaxed lunch meetings instead of impersonal phone sessions, and point your client at great sources of information.

Above all else – under promise and overdeliver. Great relationships for accounting firms are based on not only avoiding disappointment but creating positive surprise. Honesty and excellent service delivery will keep those top clients coming back.

Read how accountants can apply creative thinking at work.

How customer service can build client relationships for accounting firms

Good customer service is key to retaining your clients and generating more work from them. So how can you enhance customer service at your accounting practice?

Here are five tips accounting firms can implement today to provide more value to your customer relationships:

1. Be proactive about giving advice

Good customer service in accounting practices involves being proactive and addressing client needs before they become problems. This includes setting reminders for follow-up communication and time tracking any service requests.

One of the key reasons clients will switch accounting firms is because they don’t receive any proactive advice, just reactive service. It’s clear that delivering advice is not only a great opportunity to generate more business but to ensure your clients are satisfied with your service.

2. Communicate with them regularly

Communication is key to cultivating a good relationship with your clients, staying up to date with their changing accounting needs, and generating work from them. 

Staying up to date with your client's changing accounting needs is critical to retaining them. A major reason that clients are likely to switch accountants is when their needs change.

3. Respect their time

Time is money for your clients too. Be punctual for meetings and ensure you have an accounting process in place to track time, so they don’t need to play phone tag or send countless emails back and forth. Also, try to respond quickly!

4. Seek feedback

Seeking feedback shows you value your clients’ opinions. Whether positive or negative, client feedback is key to improving your service. It can help you highlight problem areas that you may be unaware of and let you know what your clients value.

By not seeking feedback, many firms are missing a valuable opportunity to improve their services. So make sure your accounting firm is doing so.

5. Be upfront about your fees

Be fully transparent with what you’ll be charging your clients. If you need to increase your fees, ensure you notify your client in advance.

Knowing exactly what they will be charged will help your clients budget properly. Laying on unexpected fees can sour your relationship or even cause them to switch to another firm.

Cloud based time and billing software for accountants is a great invoice management solution that can improve the way you bill clients. Automated billing can be based on time spent on jobs or fixed fees. Time and billing software offers flexible time tracking and the capacity to create expense reports to track productivity.

What is client management software?

Many accounting firms face the problem that their client data is scattered across multiple disparate accounting systems, making it a challenge to identify trends, address client needs, and provide a superior client experience.  

One of the most effective ways to overcome this problem is by adopting a powerful online accounting software solution, which incorporates client management software.

Otherwise known as a CRM (customer relationship management), client management software is a cloud based solution that provides accountants with an integrated system where all accounting firm client data and interactions are logged.

Our recent study found that only 14 percent of surveyed accounting firms in Australia had client management software that is used in its entirety, and less than half of all accounting practices surveyed had a client management solution in place.

This means there is a huge potential for accounting firms to unlock the power of client management software, where employees are able to save time in how they view and analyse information about each client. This helps accounting firms to offer better customer care and generate more business.  

By providing a central view of all your clients and prospects, this collaborative practice management platform can help accounting firms boost productivity, discover more opportunities, send the most effective marketing messaging, and resolve problems faster. 

Let's look at the key benefits client management software can offer accounting firms.

Reliable client data

Client management software provides a place where all accounting firm employees can find detailed information on your clients and prospects – from contact details to the size of their business to the details of previous calls and email exchanges.  

With CRM software, accounting firms can also easily record personal details about their clients, like birth dates, family members, pets, interests and even things like coffee preferences. This information will help your team build personal relationships with your clients.  

Identify new business opportunities 

With all your client and prospect data easily accessible in your client management software, you’ll be spending time focused on those directly interested in your services.  

Whether your marketing programs involve referral networks, conventional and digital advertising, telemarketing or even direct mail, this accounting system allows you to segment client and prospect data to deliver more effective, tailored communications. 

Open data for all employees 

In many practices, information about clients is stored in the heads of crucial staff or in files only certain people can access. Client management software will be significantly improving visibility of the information available to everyone.  

With client management software team members can stay fully informed about clients, client interactions and outstanding tasks, which drives efficiency of practice management and improves the overall client experience.  

View interactions from all channels 

Today's clients make contact through a vast range of ‘channels’ – or contact points – whether that is by telephone, email or social media. Client management software gives you a central place where employees can get up to date with all interactions, regardless of channel. 

Client management software can also help you create simplified workflows that ensure all steps are followed promptly for particular tasks, for example, when onboarding a new client or marketing to a prospect.

Easily communicate with clients 

With your client management software providing visibility of all your client interactions and details, it's much easier to proactively engage clients to address potential issues they may be facing.  

Cloud based client management software often includes client community portals - more on this later. They can help provide a much more collaborative and seamless client experience. Client management software includes instant messaging, self-service, and document signing tools that can help enhance communication and make working with clients far more efficient.  

Avoid repetition with clients 

One of the biggest bugbears for clients is having to repeat the same information to different practice team members. Client management software can store all information from previous interactions in a central place that accountants can see, making this problem disappear. 

Always up to date with mobile 

When accountants visit clients on-site, mobile client management software lets them record the details of meetings in real-time and give them access to client information from anywhere.  

Provide great insight 

Client management software can provide accountants with powerful dashboards offering streamlined reporting, where you can understand exactly how your team is performing – from calls logged to marketing emails sent to customer enquiries resolved. 

You'll also gain valuable practice reporting and insights straight from the data in your client management software.

What are client portals for accounting practices?

For many accountants, remaining compliant means multiple, time-consuming interactions with clients. Those seemingly endless back-and-forth emails and phone calls to ensure all the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed.

Every project and every client brings reams of paperwork, in various stages of completion, passing through many pairs of hands. And without an integrated accounting system or portal to track and manage multiple interactions and versions of documents, the risk of error increases.

Client management software, with a built-in client portal can help you avoid all these frustrating tasks.  

How can a client portal benefit accounting firms? 

All best-in-practice client management software for accountants, should include a client portal that aids document management. This enables practices and their clients to download, sign off, and securely upload data files and reports online at any time. 

Through the accounting practice management software solution, a client portal can help your practice:  

• Improve client relationships by providing your expertise in a more efficient way. 
• Empower clients to self-service with secure access to documents at any time.  
• Save time with document management. Through simplified workflows, you will substantially cut down on emails and save money by not having to post documents.  
• Deliver more professional services by branding your portal with your logo.  
• Stay updated with automatic notifications when files are uploaded or sent. 

Using a collaborative practice management platform 

To summarise, if you keep your clients at the forefront of your strategy, you'll be effectively helping them to meet their personal and business goals, keeping them happy and engaged throughout the process.

Working on your client experience, customer service approach, and investing in best-of-practice accounting practice management software, with a client management software component, will position your accounting firm for future growth and success.

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Our client management software for accounting practices will take client relationships to the next level, with centralised data for all those meaningful conversations with your clients.