What Do Clients Want

Clients think the ideal CPA will recognize a problem and offer a service to help solve it. If a CPA firm wants to expand, there are two ways to do it: sell more services to existing clients or find new clients. Conventional wisdom is that the former is more efficient because the relationship and track record already exist. But not all clients want additional services. Is the disposition to obtain additional services a characteristic of the client? Or a reaction to the CPA who serves that client? During the work of the American Institute of CPAs special committee on assurance services, we explored why clients obtained enhanced CPA services by questioning satisfied clients and the partners who serve them to find common elements of their relationships. We learned that many companies would welcome more input from their CPAs. Practitioners need to take the initiative to learn what clients need--and then inform the clients of what services they can provide to meet those needs. THE CPA AS TRUSTED BUSINESS ADVISER The client that receives more than traditional accounting, auditing and tax work sees the CPA as a trusted business adviser. The committee ran a series of focus groups to elicit clients' opinions of what they value in this adviser. (See the sidebar on page 77 for the kinds of clients most likely to purchase enhanced services.) The participants were clients of small to midsize CPA firms in different parts of the country that purchase nontraditional services from their CPAs, including business advice, strategic planning, coaching and mentoring, mediation, mergers and acquisitions work and computer consulting. Many use the CPA as a referral source for help with just about any business need. The focus groups served as a reminder that clients relate to people, not firms. When participants discussed their relationships with the CPA firms, they invariably spoke in terms of specific individuals in those firms--generally the partner on the engagement. This suggests, of course, that excessive or unexplained staff changes can have a detrimental effect on the client relationship. An important component of the relationship is a factor most people called "chemistry." Relationships with the right chemistry usually involve a partner who takes a genuine interest in the client and his or her business. Both the client and the CPA are comfortable enough with each other to allow For a free exchange of information and ideas. It is when this special chemistry between partner and client is missing that staff changes should be made--until the relationship works for everyone. The relationship also involves trust. As one client said, "I always walk away saying, 'That's going to be handled right.' I feel I've left part of the burden there and it's going to be okay." Conversely, clients complained about CPAs who * Don't take the time to understand the client and the business other than in a narrow way. * Are sloppy about details and don't think situations through. * Are unenthusiastic with a tendency to dismiss ideas before hearing them out. * Don't follow through on commitments. * Offer only textbook or packaged solutions without much creativity or customization. KEY INFLUENCES Three factors influence clients to obtain additional services. They are listed here in descending order of control-lability--or the CPA's power to change them: Client interaction. Clients put a premium on responsiveness and dependability. They told us that a trusted business adviser * Is accessible whenever needed. "He managed to let me know that he was on my side," one client said. "Eventually, if a problem came up, I'd ask him for his advice and it grew from there." * Follows through; does what it takes to get the job done and what he or she says will be done. One client said about a non-CPA adviser, "He was interested only in selling; he didn't want to follow up and do the things that needed to be done. …