5 ways to keep accountancy clients happy

Clients: keeping them happy can be a tricky affair. As a business accountant, the services and products that you offer should have your clients’ best interests at heart. Yet, sometimes, you’ll need to go that little bit further in order to grow and maintain high levels of customer satisfaction. This all comes down to knowing who your client base is and how best to tailor your approach. Something that every business owner strives for and is certainly vital when running a business accountancy. But how?

Keeping your accountancy clients happy

No two customers are ever the same. Each will have situations and circumstances unique to themselves. But armed with the correct knowledge and know-how, catering toward their exacting demands can be made much more manageable. That’s why we at Rangewell have come together and are, once again, offering you our 5 top tips for keeping your clients happy!

1. Know your clients better

Clients absolutely love having a service that’s tailored to suit them, covering every detail of their business and personality. Each client may have different tastes and may prefer doing things in a certain way. Take, for example, the development of technology. Some clients may choose to resort to having everything on paper whilst other are more than happy to go online. Although you may be tempted to grit your teeth when they come to you with piles upon piles of paper, don’t. Think about how you can do things differently. Could you give them a nudge towards exploring the benefits of going online? Or could you, instead, make your meetings with the client more frequent, helping to keep the paperwork at manageable levels each time?

Another way of keeping your clients happy and getting to know them better is through meeting at their premises. Think about how special this will make them feel as opposed to having to make it all the way to your offices and back. Plus, this gives you a thorough understanding of their business’ needs by being able to see their day-to-day operations in action. Perhaps it’ll even inspire you into finding new ways to manage their accounts, taxes, cash flows and so on. With your presence and effort to arrive there on time, they will feel they’re receiving the highest standards of care from your accountancy.

2. Quick replies

Nowadays clients don’t like to wait, not one bit, especially when it comes down to communication. Whether it’s via a phone call, email, SMS text or even a WhatsApp message, quick responses are always appreciated. In essence, one of the golden rules for keeping your clientéle happy is responding within 15 minutes, but if you can manage faster than that, all the better. Understandably, there will be moments when you can’t answer them straight away. Maybe you’re in a meeting, driving in your car or you’re with another client. During such times, just answer them as soon as you get the chance and present them with a legitimate reason for the delay.

Other times, the issue that they’re presenting you with may be complex and require you to do further research. As such, rather than have them wait around, acknowledge their correspondence. Explain that it’s a complex matter but that you fully intend to investigate and will return to them as soon as a development or resolution occurs.

Lastly on this point, keep client communications within working hours. Although it may seem like a good idea, answering calls and messages during the evening or at night can quickly spiral out of control. However, certain exceptions can be made at your discretion. If this happens, calmly explain that you’ll get back to them as soon as the next working day starts and ensure that you do exactly that.

3. Be proactive

If there’s one thing your clients will absolutely adore and can be used as a unique selling point, it’s the ability to be proactive. Why wait for your clients to ask inevitable questions? Just give the answers to them. If you see a potential issue regarding their tax arrangements or cash flow, rather than just simply announce they’ve got an issue why not take the time to form a workable resolution? Ever greater efficiency is something that every business should strive for. If you are able to do that, you’re incredibly lucky and should reward such behaviour, encouraging it to continue.

4. Refine tech skills

A diverse client base is something that every accountancy should be aiming for. But keeping up with each of their unique differences can be challenging at times. That’s why refining your business’ tech skills should be an absolute must, enabling you and your staff to keep up with whatever changes may occur. After all, isn’t that the least your clients can hope to expect? Besides, by furthering tech skills within your accountancy, you’ll be able to operate far more efficiently, allowing you to complete far more tasks throughout the course of each working day. Ultimately this will save you money and endear you in the mind’s of your clients, promoting word of mouth recommendations. If necessary, sending staff members on IT courses may also be a worthwhile investment.

5. Always offer value for money

Being seen to offer value is something that your accountancy must achieve if it’s to maintain high levels of customer satisfaction. As well as the usual tasks associated with an accountant, your list of services must now push back against what was conventionally perceived as the domain of a business accountant. So on top of managing accounts, tax arrangements, cash flow, finance and so on, you may be called upon to develop business plans, succession strategies and business valuations. Each of these is important for various reasons and, by embracing them with open arms, your accountancy can offer so much more, including a means by which to access alternative business finance.

Business finance is something that each of your clients will be striving for, granting them the ability further develop and expand their business horizons. However, sourcing the right finance package for your clients can be tricky. With thousands upon thousands of business products available, choosing the ideal finance package is no simple walk in the park. But, by pointing your clients to the services of Access to Finance providers such as Rangewell, they can source the perfect finance solution to meet their exact needs.

Our values are simple – We’re on your side.

At Rangewell, our values are simple – We’re on your side. Our services are clear and transparent. We support a wide range of SME businesses of every shape and size, for finding every type of finance. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn for business tips and tricks, and feel free to call us on 0203 637 2340 if you’d like to chat about what we can do for you.