Tips for CPAs: Delivering Exceptional Customer Service

As an accountant or a bookkeeper, you know better than anyone else the importance of providing outstanding service to your clients. After all, accounting is a service oriented profession. Customer service and providing great client experiences is the key to your success. 

​As a top provider of QuickBooks Hosting, we know all about matching the expectation of our clients. Here are tips on how you can deliver a top class experience to your clients. 

Don’t Hesitate to Go the Extra Distance

With QuickBooks on the Cloud, you can take on more clients and more responsibilities than you were able to in the past. This is great news. Cloud accounting has certainly changed how CPA firms operate.
However, there is a risk that you might spend less time on each customer. This could lead to a dampening of the client experience. That’s why it is so important to go the extra distance. Take every step possible to help out your clients in any way you can.
The point is, you must always maintain a high level of service. You will need to look for ways to deliver a great interactive experience for your clients. How do you do this?
Take a quick stock of your assumptions. How do you interact with clients? Do you provide a great experience with each interaction? If you cannot, consider eliminating the interactions where you cannot deliver an outstanding experience. Perhaps you can try automating such interactions. Wherever you have to get involved, always go the extra yard to provide a great experience for your clients. 

Remove Yourself from the Equation

Removing yourself from the equation is a theory that was tested by Tim Ferris in his book, the 4-Hour Work Week. Ferris talks about how he spent time dealing with issues that were escalated to his by his staff or suppliers.
 His solution to this problem is to authorize your staff or suppliers to handle anything that costs $100 or less by themselves, without contacting you about it.
Now, this is a major risk, and it can cost you a lot of money. But it saves your time and actually, as Ferriss found out, the technique works very well.
So don’t be scared of giving your staff or business partners the authority to act on your behalf, when it comes to handling interactions with customers. Consider outsourcing the customer support, if possible. This would free you up so that you can focus on providing a high value service.

Give Free Advice, Wherever Possible

​A lot of CPA firms are afraid to provide free advice to clients, because of the fear that it would affect their revenues. Actually, offering free advice is a hook to garner more business for your firm.
The payoff from the goodwill created by offering quality advice for free is very much worth it. It helps your firm grow and does wonders for you in the long run. We hope you liked the tips given here.