Your Clients

This week, MYOB has taken a big step in helping New Zealand’s businesses embrace social media, by fully integrating social media platforms into our existing enterprise suite.

We want to see social media more widely used by New Zealand businesses because it can help them to stand out in the online space, find new ways to communicate with their customers and generate sales leads.

By allowing them to interact with their customers in a more real and enduring way, social media allows businesses to increase customer loyalty, get instant feedback about what is working and what needs to change, and benefit from an ongoing dialogue with potential customers. Read more

Thank you to William Shakespeare for the above title (sorry I just couldn’t help myself). In an earlier post on the The Pulse I banged on about the importance of asking questions when meeting and discussing issues with clients and pitching for new business. Now we visit the other side of the communication coin – listening.

Listening is perhaps the most important skill any accountant or professional adviser can bring to a discussion with a client, potential client, staff member, government department, supplier and so on. When you listen … really listen … to the other party some quite amazing things begin to happen. Here are just three to think about: Read more

With the busy lives that we lead it can be so easy to fall into the trap of going hell for leather at work and simply not paying complete attention to what we are doing.

Here’s an example of what can happen when you don’t concentrate properly when replying to emails at work…

Minutes ago, I sent a quick note out to my database to advise when tickets would be on sale for an upcoming event.  Read more

One of my favourite maxims is  – “If you want a better answer … ask a better question.”  I love it so much it appears in the header graphic of my own blog . If you don’t believe me, just look up whatdoclientsreallywant.com.

Clients are impressed by accountants and advisers that ask questions they weren’t expecting or that they haven’t been asked before. It shows preparedness on the part of the questioner that he/she has invested time and effort in understanding the clients business and circumstances.

One of the best questions one can ask is “why?” If asked in the right way, the question of “why” can uncover a treasure trove of insights. There is a school of thought that claims that asking “why” at least 3 times in the one meeting or conversation can uncover the root cause or motivation behind any aspect of business activity undertaken by people both internal and external to an organisation. Read more

I’m assuming, if you’re reading this article, that you’re an accountant or at least working in the industry in some capacity.  Let me ask you a question … “As an accountant what is the most important thing you do for your clients?”  Over the years I’ve been given any number of responses to this question.

Some say, “Keep my clients safe & compliant”.

Others say,  “Make their lives easier”.

While many say, “Get them a big tax refund”.

However, the most common response I receive to this fundamental question is, “to add value”. Read more

For anyone who knows me out in the ‘real world’, they’ll definitely know that anything by Michael Buble has never been on my iPod play list.  And that’s not due to me having no appreciation for what it is he has to offer to the musical world and his adoring audiences, his music is just not my cup of tea. Read more

It can take years to bag an elephant (i.e. win a huge, lucrative customer).

But mere seconds to frag* one.

My latest dead behemoth could’ve paid off my mortgage.

In light of our recent trilogy of tears, its termination seems incautious.

So what triggered this lethal response?

And would you have done likewise?

Happy trails

This client had all the hallmarks of a keeper: big, stable, well funded. Read more

Alexand, a Sydney taxi driver, had never received a $10 tip before. And I’d never given one of that size.

But that’s exactly what happened on a trip I took to the airport recently.

I’d had three hours sleep and was facing a flight and running two events that same day. Typically I don’t describe myself as a morning person.  Alex laughed, telling me he is up at 1.30am every day to drive his taxi.

Alex then went on to provide sensational customer service. He offered me the option to sleep during the trip or for him to stop and buy me a coffee or energy drink. Read more

When I am conducting firm technology and process reviews I ask them to show me the final product that is produced for clients. Typically it is a bound set of financials with a covering letter and some documents for the client to sign. I then ask the firm what they thing the client does with these reports. Responses vary from “the client loses them”, “the throw them out”, “they send them back to us” or the worst response so far is “they use it as a doorstop”.  What intrigues me is that it is almost universal that practitioners acknowledge that clients do not value the financial statements and tax returns produced. They are treated like hygiene, something they don’t really want to have done but they know they have to have them prepared. What surprises me is that so few firms have done anything about it by trying to produce information for clients that they would truly value. Read more

Some clients like to put their foot in it.

Last month, kind souls referred two new clients to me.

Both needed job application letters.

One was a triumph, the other a disaster.

I think the second client was a tyre kicker.

But I need your view to be sure.

Read more