I recently had to leave my car at the shop for a week to wait for new parts. It's hard to get by in the Dallas area without a car, so I looked into renting. Big mistake. The rental car companies make it as difficult as possible to find a decent car at a fair price when you book at the last minute. Then you have to go out to the airport, wait in a long line and end up overpaying for a car that smells like cigarette smoke. It's not a high-quality service (Strike 1); it's not a high-quality experience (Strike 2); and it's not cheap (Strike 3).
So, on the recommendation of a friend, I decided to try Turo, the online car-sharing app. Think Airbnb for cars. Creating a login was easy. I set my filters for a midsize SUV, a five-day rental and an economical price point. In seconds I received 100 midsize SUVs to choose from within 10 miles of my location — all in my price range. The cars were nicer than what I would have received at a traditional car rental franchise, and I could see every renter's rating of the car in terms of cleanliness and condition, etc. Note: The author receives no compensation or promotional consideration from products or services mentioned in this article.
After selecting the car I wanted, I took a 10-minute Uber from the car repair shop to pick up the rental. As I got close to the location, the app pinged me with a message from the owner: "When you get here, just let me know. I'll unlock the car electronically and the keys will be in the console." Sure enough, the doors opened, I got in the car and found the keys exactly where the owner said they would be. Off I went. The car was great. I brought it back five days later as promised and gave a great review.
This is yet another example of how "convenience technology" is disrupting so many businesses by giving customers what they want, when they want it and how they want it. The rental car companies spend billions on advertising trying to differentiate themselves from the other rental car companies. But their real competition is convenience technology such as Turo, which doesn't even own cars. Turo is a technology company that connects people who need short-term car rentals with people who have excess capacity (i.e., a nice car they're not using).
Why am I sharing this story with you? Because many individuals and businesses just want their financial statements and tax returns done quickly, accurately and for a fair price. They don't care where the work gets done or who does it for them as long as they are competent. They just want the outcome.
So, ask yourself: How easy is it for clients to connect with us via our portal or messaging app? What are we doing to make the client experience easier and more efficient when they work with us?
After my experience with Turo, I'm never going back to a rental car company again. I'm not sure rental car companies are paying attention to their real competition these days, but accounting firms can.
Hertz and Enterprise were not expecting an app to disrupt their fleet. They were focused on having the newest fleet and the most locations. They weren't concerned about providing the best client service, which has nothing to do with the car.
I don't need a rental car from an out-of-the-way airport Enterprise lot. I just need a clean, safe, reliable car. My priority is convenience. Likewise, your clients don't need to have a specific person on your team filling out boxes on their tax return from a desk in your office. They just need the work done quickly, accurately and for a fair price. Again, they want the outcome.
Work is no longer a place that you go; it's something you do. If you need team members physically sitting in your office 40-plus hours a week to get their work done, you're going to have a hard time finding the right people. And once you do, you better start paying them very well and be ready to compete with other firms to keep them on. Clients are expecting a better experience from you whether it's booking an appointment, delivering documents, getting their returns back promptly, or reading your client newsletter. When used correctly, technology reduces so much of the friction that exists with old business models, and clients are increasingly expecting Amazon-like convenience from their CPA.
Is it harder to change things? Sure. Is it absolutely required to do so? Yes. Our natural instinct is to shy away from threats and to try to protect ourselves from danger. But you must learn to lean into changes rather than duck away. You must learn to use those changes and disruptions to your advantage. It's just like what good baseball hitters do. They've trained themselves to lean into a curveball that looks like it's heading right for their head when it leaves the pitcher's hand. It's scary at first, but curveballs don't travel as quickly as fastballs. Good hitters know if they stay in the batter's box, a curveball will break over the plate. Then they can put a good swing on the ball and drive it a long way. But if you keep bailing out of the batter's box, hoping the pitcher's not throwing strikes, he will eventually have your number and you're out. Likewise, you can continue to hang onto the old business model and hope clients don't notice as you charge the same price and deliver less value. But eventually your number will come up.
For more about leaning into change, see my article,
Blockbuster Video kept trying to defend its turf from other video rental services but ignored its real threat: streaming services. Rental car companies keep trying to build a moat around other rental car companies when they should be paying attention to the car sharing apps. For accounting firms, the real competition is not other firms or discount tax prep services — it's technology. More specifically, your real threat is other accounting firms that have adopted technology to their advantage. Technology is changing how our teams work, where they're located and how we work with clients.
If tech is not at the top of your priority list, I guess you could try to hold on for a few more years and then move on to something else. But for everyone else, the time has come to lean in.
I'd
