5 ways to deepen client relationships

March 14, 2023 11:50 AM

In today's world, building strong relationships with clients is more critical than ever, especially for CPAs and accounting firm owners who want to improve client retention. Surveys show that clients are demanding more from their accountants, with 87% wanting greater flexibility and better services.

The accounting industry has undergone significant changes since the pandemic, with face-to-face meetings being replaced by virtual or hybrid options. Clients want to work with their accountants in the most convenient way possible, and they are looking for a wider range of services. If you're not meeting their expectations, it can be challenging to establish long-term relationships.

To prevent current clients from leaving and create a better overall client experience, it's crucial to focus on deepening your existing client relationships.

The following are a few of the many ways you can begin deepening client relationships and improving your services:

Be proactive with outreach and stay in touch

Communication operator dialing a telephone number while holding a handset on a classical landline phone about to make a call.

Clients have a resounding complaint that accounting firms and CPAs can no longer ignore: lack of communication. If you want to deepen your client relationships, you need to communicate with your clients more, whether it's about a new tax law they should be aware of, the status of their tax return, or proactive guidance on how to grow their business.

For example, you may want to:

Implement automated systems to send emails to clients when the status of their tax return changes.
Send out timely alerts to clients when there is a tax law change that impacts them or their business.
Touch base at least every quarter on the phone or a video call to see how you can better see your client.

Become a trusted advisor

A staggering 82% of accountants state that their clients are more demanding than they were five years ago. Clients want more from their accountants, and becoming a trusted advisor is one way to start deepening your relationship with clients.

You can do this in numerous ways:

Offer additional services that are in high demand among your clients.
Become a one-stop shop by providing advisory services, such as financial planning.

When you become a one-stop shop for your clients, they'll value the relationship that you build together. For example, perhaps you can offer financial planning that allows the client to save on taxes now and be confident they'll reach their goal of retiring in 20 years with a specified amount of cash in the bank.

Ask for feedback

When was the last time you asked clients for feedback? If you ask for feedback, it will help strengthen your relationships — if you listen to their responses.

Unfortunately, if you ask for feedback and never make changes, it can cause your relationship with clients to unravel.

Instead, you should:

Review all of the feedback you receive.
Make changes to your firm based on these responses. Not all feedback should lead to firm changes. For example, if only one person doesn't like your onboarding process, then that doesn't mean you need to change it.
Reach out to clients about negative feedback. Own up to where mistakes were made and let them know what changes they can expect going forward.

Feedback shouldn't be taken personally. It's better to use the comments as a way to improve your operations without letting emotions get in the way.

Make working with your firm easy

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Workers aren't the only ones who want flexibility — your clients do, too. It's impossible to know everything that's going on in a client's life, but offering them flexible ways to communicate and interact with your firm will improve your relationship.

There are a lot of ways to make working with your firm easy, a few of which include:

Offering Zoom or virtual meetings in addition to in-person meetings;
Using an online calendar application, like Calendly, that allows clients to easily schedule meetings; and,
Making use of collaborative technology, such as using a portal to make it easy for clients to upload files and check the tasks that they need to complete.

You'll still have clients who want to come in to drop off tax files or want to meet face to face for a meeting. However, offering them options will improve your relationship with clients over the long term.

Create genuine connections

The last point here is one of the most important: You should work on creating genuine connections with your clients. These connections take a long time to form, but you can begin building them by:

Maintaining frequent contact with the client;
Asking the client about their business or personal life; and,
Finding new ways to help clients.

When your relationship with clients is all about business, it is built on transactions. If you suffer a setback or another firm offers more for the same price, clients are more likely to leave your firm when it's "all about business."

Genuinely caring about your client's success, life and accomplishments will allow you to forge genuine connections that are profitable inside and outside of business.

Deepening client relationships is something CPAs and accounting firms should be working on to build a strong, long-lasting client base. Going above and beyond for clients and helping them in new, exciting ways is the key to firm success in 2023.