Experience has shown that clients who are satisfied with your service pay and will pay quicker than those who are not satisfied. The second part of my experience is that if you can make money for your clients, they will pay you even more. While most firms today are concerned about client satisfaction and loyalty, few have a goal of making more money for their clients.

What makes clients happy?

Based on my personal experience and research I have seen, there are several factors that make clients happy. Here are the most common ones mentioned:

1. Communication. The more you communicate with clients, the happier they will be. It seems that you can never have enough communication with clients, provided it is always client-centered. In other words, you always want to be discussing the client's needs and concerns, not your services.

2. Responsiveness. In today's world of 24/7, clients expect and demand even more responsiveness to their calls, e-mails and even text messages. While this can pose a certain amount of stress on the service provider, it is critical that you allocate time during the day and even weekends to respond to client requests. If a client contacts you on the weekend, you should assume that it's important and respond immediately.

3. Value for fees. Value is in the eyes of the client. A client pays $800 for a tax return preparation, and she wonders what value (benefits) she received for what she just paid. The value may just be peace of mind, rather than any actual tax savings. It's up to you to constantly explain the benefits the client is receiving, and not spend time explaining how you do things.

4. Accuracy. Mistakes in one area, such as typos, sloppy reports, etc., give the perception of mistakes in other areas. While your quality of advice may be superior, the lack of accuracy in your reports gets the client thinking about the overall quality and accuracy of your work.

5. Timeliness. Doing what you said you would do and doing it on time. Meeting client expectations for turn-around and delivery is a key component for making a client happy. Each client has different expectations. You need to ask each client what they expect from the relationship.

6. Specialized knowledge. The more specialized knowledge you have, the more satisfied the client tends to be. Specialization is the buzz word of the day. Clients want to know that you have more than just general tax or accounting knowledge. They want you to understand their industry or niche issue.

There is one critical element that is missing from this list and I would suggest that it is how much more profitable you made the client during the last year. How would focusing on client profitability change the way you operate, the way you compensate owners and the firm's net income?

FOCUS ON THEIR PROFITABILITY

The traditional way of ranking firm clients is inward-looking. "A" clients are those who pay us the most, "B" clients fall next in line and "C" clients last. But there is another way of looking at your clients, and it's outward- rather than inward-looking

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