Client Loyalty for Accounting Firms

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1 Client Loyalty for Accounting Firms Five Growth Opportunities You Might Be Missing

2 CLIENT LOYALTY FOR ACCOUNTING FIRMS 5 Growth Opportunities You Might Be Missing. How do you plan to drive growth to your firm this year? A recent Inavero study of more than 300 accounting firm clients identified 5 opportunities for accelerated firm growth using the value your firm is already creating, but might not be capturing. 1. Rethink the role of marketing and business development at your firm. Just 2% of accounting firm clients trust the marketing messages about your firm. It s time to rethink how we communicate to clients and prospects. 2. Identify strategies for clients based on their current satisfaction. It s imperative to know how satisfied individual clients are with your service and to build strategies based on their level of loyalty. 3. Spice up your process to make accountants look like heroes. Nobody talks about boring service. Marketers can help their accountants deliver memorable experiences by looking for ways to spice up the service delivery process. 4. Activate the real power of referrals. Most firms underemphasize the impact they can make on the most credible form of marketing word of mouth referrals. 5. Increase the impact of your testimonials. Just 3% of accounting clients have recently been asked for a testimonial. Unleash the impact of testimonials with more targeted and technology-driven campaigns. 2

3 OPPORTUNITY #1 Rethink the role of marketing and business development at your firm. Just 2% of prospective accounting clients trust marketing and advertising when judging the quality of an accounting firm (figure 1). If traditional marketing is no longer effective, how do you break through with your story? The answer is that you don t. Instead, accounting firm marketers must encourage and inspire the story of their firm s unique value through those who are credible; their existing clients. The role of marketing must evolve beyond traditional strategies to help loyal clients easily share their remarkable stories about your firm. Not a simple task, but it s certainly a key to unlocking the full potential of your existing client base and worth the effort. Figure 1. Resources that clients trust when gathering information on an accounting firm they may hire. A referral from a friend or colleague 94% Testimonials from their current clients 57% Third party awards (Best Places to Work, Best of Accounting, etc.) Affiliation with respected trade associations User-generated online reviews (Yelp, Google, etc.) The firm s website The firm s employees Marketing or advertising about the firm 32% 27% 22% 17% 9% 2% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 3

4 OPPORTUNITY #2 Identify strategies for clients based on their current satisfaction level. The key to growing your existing client-base starts with categorizing accounts based on their satisfaction with your firm. Use a simple yet effective 3-question satisfaction survey using the popular Net Promoter Score (NPS ) methodology 1. The average score for accounting firms is 31% (Figure 2). How do improve the satisfaction of your clients? The answer starts and ends with the responsiveness of your accountants. Clients who always have calls or s returned within a day score their firms nearly twice as high as those who work with less responsive partners. Equally important is how proactive you are in communicating how you ve saved your clients money. Figure Accounting Industry Client Satisfaction Benchmarks 75% World Class client satisfaction is 70% NPS Net Promoter Score 50% 25% 31% 51% 20% 0% Accounting Industry Overall Satisfaction Lead- Contact s Satisfaction with Firm Day-to-day Contact s Satisfaction with Firm 4

5 OPPORTUNITY #3 Spice up your process to make accountants look like heroes. As a marketer, you may feel like the client experience is outside of your control, yet you have more influence than it might seem. Start by mapping the client lifecycle and ask these two questions: What are the key moments of truth for our client experience, and what can we do within our process to make a client s day a little brighter? Loyal accounting clients are 4x more likely to get service that exceeds their expectations. A simple example is the delivery of corporate tax returns. This is a key moment for clients, often accompanied by apprehension, and at times unpleasant financial surprises. How much goodwill could you create with a process of delivering a coupon for a free lunch at a local restaurant and a message showing your professionals are empathetic to the stress inherent to this time of year? Simple, inexpensive, and repeatable. What can you implement that will make your accountants look like thoughtful heroes? Remember, sometimes the best marketing isn t even viewed as marketing by clients and prospects. 5

6 OPPORTUNITY #4 Activate the real power of referrals. If there is a tool available to us that is trusted by 93% of potential clients and impacts the decisions of half (figure 3), wouldn t we want to focus our resources in that area? Professional service firms have long understood the value of referrals, yet for many, they represent a bit of an enigma. The following three points identify how to proactively grow referrals for your firm. 1. Ask for it. Sounds obvious, but Inavero research found that only 7% of clients were asked for a referral in the past 6 months. 2. Pay it forward. Refer new business to your firm s current clients. Clients who received new business referrals from their accounting firm in the past 6 months were twice as likely to suggest their firm to a colleague. 3. Make it easy for your clients to tell your story. Figure 3. Top 3 resources that influence a prospective client s decision on which accounting firm to hire. Referral from family, friends, or colleagues 50% Referral from other trusted service provider 36% They have a strong reputation in my marketplace. 30% 0% 20% 40% 60% 6

7 OPPORTUNITY #5 Increase the impact of your testimonials. Testimonials are often easier to produce than referrals. However, Inavero research found that just 3% of clients were asked to provide a testimonial for their primary accounting firm in the past 6 months. To streamline the process of tracking down client testimonials, ask only your most loyal clients and try to incorporate the testimonial capture into an existing program, such as a survey or other wide scale outreach initiative. Once you ve built a library of testimonials, think more strategically about how to leverage them. Industry-specific testimonials are most influential (figure 4), though testimonials that specifically focus on issues relevant to a prospective client can be uniquely effective in persuading them to consider your firm. Figure 4. What causes a testimonial to be influential? Shared by someone in my industry 72% Addresses an issue important to me 56% Shared by a highly regarded company 55% Quality of the other testimonials 45% Covers a topic I am currently dealing with 44% The number of testimonials a firm has 11% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 7

8 WHO IS INAVERO? We make satisfaction surveys simple. Rooted in service quality research for accounting firms, our proprietary online surveying software leverages the Net Promoter Score methodology to help you easily measure your client s satisfaction. Additionally, you can capture testimonials to increase new business, discover how you stack up against your competitors, and earn an award for exceptional service quality. Satisfaction Survey 101: Download Inavero s guide to accounting firm satisfaction surveys for free at Notes for this Guide: 1 Net Promoter Score, NPS and Net Promoter are registered trademarks of Fred Reicheld, Satmetrix and Bain & Company. For more information, go to 8

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