Accounting and advice practices have a greater chance of becoming profitable if they push beyond compliance and ensure clients feel looked after by offering value-add services and providing relevant content and information.
“A recommendable experience means you are so excited by the service or the experience of working with a company that you will tell others,” Investment Property Research Group marketing manager Matt Phipps told the Institute of Public Accountants Victoria Congress in Healesville on Friday.
“You guys have been growing your business by doing something similar, right? Referrals.
“But you need to create a recommendable experience and essentially through listening [to your clients] and having the right team you can really generate increased dollars into your practice.”
Phipps said research demonstrated 68 per cent of clients left because they did not think their service provider cared about them.
“I’m not saying to hire a new team, but build a team of trusted referrals, strategic partnerships and connections to be able to offer value-add services with you being at the centre, so when a client says they’re thinking of buying an investment property, for example, you have the perfect person for them to talk to, who you trust … implicitly,” he said.
“They’re going to thank you and feel like they were taken care of; you get a referral instead of being down a client [if you couldn’t offer them that service].
“Outsourcing may or may not work in your business, but it’s worth checking out, but also if they don’t know that you have this team, they won’t have any idea that you could’ve set up their SMSF rather than them telling you they’ve set one up online, for example.”
In addition, continually providing information to clients was necessary in this current age of marketing and business, he said.
“Content is everywhere, but they’re going to trust you so give them information and show them that you’re listening to them,” he said.
“When they’re clicking on these articles you send them, you can very easily follow up and send them information about that particular topic – you’re being proactive and catching them before they [potentially make mistakes].”
Accountants and advisers really needed to make changes to their practices and start better communicating with their clients, he said.
“There’s a real opportunity to do better by them and to do better business for your practice,” he said.
“If you aren’t growing your business, somebody else is growing theirs with your clients, so you always have to be aware of what you’re doing and how you’re taking care of your clients.
“Making clients happier means more revenue into your practice, so it’s a win-win all round.”
