Speaker 1: 0:05

and welcome back to accounts 2.0. I'm steve purpich and with me is ted williamson. Today is part two, or part b, of step nine onboarding and part b we're talking about they're on board now and let's, let's try to keep them all right. So, right off the bat, keeping people on board is about customer management. So client relationship management, crm, is critical. And why I even say CRM? It says well, steve, like CRM, okay, everybody's got a CRM, everybody's got a. You know a thing that handles pipeline? Blah, blah, blah. Well, yes, and that's true. Well, people think they do.

Speaker 1: 0:46

So many of them don't Well they install it, they have the default, so they think they have a CRM, but really they just treat it like a big, random Rolodex. Crm is not just a SaaS product. It is a baked-in process. A proper CRM being used handles all aspects of the customer relationship client relationship and not just right up to the sales signing contracts and getting them on board. It's all the post activity.

Speaker 1: 1:14

A CRM could be your platform to handle the onboarding. It's possible. A lot of platforms have that level of. You can create an onboarding pipeline after the sales. But you really have to have a process. Let's make a long story short on that. You have to have a process that's ongoing and cyclical after the fact that they're onboarded, to maintain the client relationship and also to identify opportunities when your client situation is changing. Your client's situation is changing if I are upselling, changing services and noting that as well as your staff changes and your clients get reassigned to representatives. It provides that history. So the new representative stepping in hits the ground running and doesn't have to re-interview and almost resell the client.

Speaker 1: 2:03

I've had that in my experience in the past where I was taking on a sales role in firms and they just hand you a client list of existing clients and you look at the notes, they're sort of poorly. It might as well just been a mailing list. You almost have to reintroduce yourself, reassess the client. That is completely unacceptable. And the whole idea of a CRM. It has to be client-centric. And when I say that, all contact points, all communication, notifications, it has to take the client into consideration. You're servicing the client. They're not just a number or something to push through the process, to farm for that monthly bill and you just respond to them. You got to check in on them. There's touch points, but again, that should all be baked into your process.

Speaker 2: 2:50

Absolutely, that's um. I think it's super important um to use, to have that, that constant communication um well baked in and getting um having that automation or or at least just understanding who they are, where they stand, all that kind of stuff right. So having a CRM that actually is useful, like not just a database of, or Rolodex, like you said, that that where the those contacts are tagged properly so they're an active client, they're an inactive client, they're a prospective client, like, all those things are very, very important because then you know what to do with that person, how to talk to them. Um, you don't, you can even tag them as, like what types of services they might have, right, so so then you know you can have a specific newsletter or anything like that in order to to keep that communication going and give them some sort of value. They understand what it is that they've onboarded to on an ongoing basis.

Speaker 1: 3:52

Well, this is where I take it to another level.

Speaker 1: 3:56

Proactive advisory services can be dovetailed in once you have a predictable cycle of communication and client-centric awareness.

Speaker 1: 4:08

And what I mean by that is if the representative, or even an enlightened operations staff, they know the situation of their client and based on those touch points, they're changing conditions, you can use a little, I should say, give them a little information, like a newsletter, to inform them. But if you identify a gap because of that and you'll be able to um, a little fear is healthy because you can say, look, you have a gap here because you're not doing x or you're not filing this on time, or your cash flow situation is this, and then you can either get right into why is this happening and it may result in another service, either an operational bullet on some type of efficiency, perhaps tax advisory and various other things and if you set up your, your, your affiliates and partners properly, that gives you the opportunity to show what a great expanded service you are and it is, and it strengthens that relationship with your client and obviously increase the chance of long-term retention because you're you're keeping them healthy in a financial sense.

Speaker 2: 5:10

Yeah, absolutely. I agree with you a hundred percent. So, um, so I think a good, a good opportunity when you're using like a CRM is to track referrals. So once you bring them on, you want to bring on more clients, so you? So essentially, what you need to do is make sure that your client, first of all, again, they're happy and you're getting reviews. Second of all, you are able to to get referrals used. You can automate that process as well and then track where they come from, how they got to you, all of that kind of stuff, right. It's super, super important and that onboarding you know a good onboarding can help you with their you know, the client sentiment and then, as soon as that happens, you should be looking at what other opportunities there are with them and and how to bring on more clients and and to share their, their experience, right.

Speaker 1: 6:15

Well, and again I'll go to my personal experience. You'll find that it's again the old 20, 80 rule. A group of your clients are going to be so happy with you because you're constantly providing feedback opportunities, You'll know the sentiment. They're going to have that relationship with you with a sense of pride, and people like to show off. So they're going to say, hey, my accounting firm's the best. You guys should talk to these, you should talk to so-and-so at my firm and they become a great referral source.

Speaker 1: 6:46

And that's where I'm reinforcing your statement is to track where these referrals are coming from, Because that client is a goldmine of future referrals If they are so happy with you. They're constantly being an evangelist and espousing virtues of doing business with you. You want to give them the attention that they need to maintain that. That because, as opposed to a client who I mean they signed up, their feedback is relatively neutral. Again, it's just how they view their relationship. They may see you more as a fixture service and try as you may, they may not rise above that and that's something you just have to deal with. And it's great. They keep you year in, year out, but they're not really providing referrals. But the client, that is, you got to focus, have them more in the dialogue, get more feedback. They're going to be very valuable because they're worth much more than what they're paying you, because they're bringing in opportunities.

Speaker 2: 7:42

Absolutely, and you need to show your appreciation to them. So I'm not saying like financially or anything like that, but but if, when you're, when you're tracking that and you're, and you, you have, you're able to identify them, uh, you're able to thank them, or or at least you know, uh, remember that. So there, there were times when I wasn't, I wasn't tracking properly where a referral would come in and I had no idea where that referral came from, because it wasn't tracked properly. Or, and then a client would come and be like, hey, did you meet so-and-so? And I was like, yeah, I did. And they're like, oh, yeah, I sent them. I'm like, oh, wow, thank you, and like I wish you know. I didn't know because I didn't hear from you. And it's like because they're sometimes they're expecting to hear from you just to get a little thank, or something like that, I feel bad because I didn't realize that, and so you don't want to feel bad and you want them to feel good. So tracking and responding to them.

Speaker 1: 8:37

Part of that's your sales process, because on first encounter with somebody you can ask have you been referred? Who referred you? That kind of stuff? And again it gets back to process so that these things aren't missed On to showing appreciation for clients.

Speaker 2: 8:56

Uh, you're playing right into my, my original blog. Uh, oh, that was by design.

Speaker 1: 8:58

No, I'm just kidding having fun and wholesome client appreciation events. Now, like I said, you don't, you don't repay them with free stuff. Okay, um, you know you don't need to, they're already happy with you. But to consolidate that, you can have events either online or in real time. If you're a regional player that plays in a region where you're actually physically seeing the clients and things, they should be either very business positive or family positive events.

Speaker 1: 9:25

I don't don't advise hitting the uh, the 19th hole at the golf club or uh, or the yacht club. Um, uh, it didn't in a century now. Um, you know, alcohol related events are not, are not a great way to uh, to maintain relationships. Um, because you're you're, you're really narrowing um, your, your offering or who you're dealing with. So but if the events are like I would say you can have a family barbecue, maybe integrate some of your employees into that. I guess I have an employee event but then have an employee and customer appreciation event.

Speaker 1: 10:00

But for online, it could be special master seminars, mastermind groups, various other things where you're inviting only the client, say client only online event. So then they know oh, this is not a sales event, I'm doing business with these people, but now I get to meet other clients that are willing to participate. You've actually created now a networking event between your clients and you're providing them a potential sales benefit for them, so that's a very big value add. Really no expense on your part, because now you're getting a whole audience of feedback from people you're already doing business with, and now your clients are getting a perspective of who else you're doing business with. That really reinforces those relationships, because it and and that builds trust. You're lower.

Speaker 2: 10:52

You're creating a lot of transparency there yeah, and you're creating a, an exclusive event. I mean, if you wanted to, you really could say you can have a plus one, and then it could become a little bit more, because because they're saying hey, you're, you get an exclusive, you get exclusive information. But we know that sometimes you want a friend that can also get that exclusive information.

Speaker 1: 11:11

You can have one person Like a business guest, for sure, 100%, and that's just the style.

Speaker 2: 11:17

And then it could become a sales opportunity, not where you're jumping down trying to get sales, but if they have, if they enjoy that event and they and, and you know they they're with their, their friend, um, they might be like you know what, maybe I'm gonna, I'm gonna talk to steve, I mean I'm gonna see how steve can help me, being that I want to be always part of this exclusive, this exclusive exclusivity, right?

Speaker 2: 11:43

so, um, so that definitely, uh, something to think about.

Speaker 2: 11:50

The events I think are really really cool, um, but again, you have to be a big enough firm, I think, for that and make sure that you have a very good um, we call it a net promoter score, but a good, uh like star rating that you're, you're doing a good job and your clients are actually happy and you have high retention.

Speaker 2: 12:07

Because if, all of a sudden, you, you do one of these events and you're you maybe hit a rough patch or you're having a growth spurt issue or something like that and you have some a little bit of negative sentiment, then you have clients that are talking to each other, um, and they're looking at other people and they're and they're like, hey, you know how, how steve is like he's kind of falling behind, he's like I kind of noticed that too. I was talking to Ted and he was, you know, he seems like more, he pays more attention. So you might actually, steve, might lose you, and then you might come to me as an example. So we don't want to do that. We'll only do that if you're providing a really good service and having a good onboarding and keeping them on board.

Speaker 1: 12:47

Well, the assumption is that your engagement is going to be perfect and beyond reproach at all levels. It should.

Speaker 1: 12:55

And now, moving that along, how the rapport that you have with your client and your client's demeanor and what you discuss. Actually, before we started recording this, I was talking to Ted about this, one of my pet peeves clients that joke about, especially in accounting, joke about misreporting or anything like that, like saying, hey, you know, trying to push the boundaries of an expense and they usually make these comments out of I call it ignorant innocence. But there's lots of things that people think they can write off or want to write off for legitimate expenses that are corporate, that are not, they're definitely personal expenses, things like that. If the conversation goes to that level where you know what this is not an IRS-friendly mode of thought, you diplomatically steer them away from that conversation to kind of joke and go along with it. You don't know who's listening, you don't know how it's being taken. But if you diplomatically steer them back to a mode of thought that's ethical, you're always going to be seen as the ethical rock by which all things happen and you're the source of calm and stability in their chaos.

Speaker 1: 14:13

And it comes down to they're trying to build a rapport and they're trying to be funny. But it's like if you're hanging out with police officers and you're making fun about breaking the law. Well, that's not a great conversation. Same thing with accountants. Don't talk about tax evasion and stuff like that. Just and if your clients are you know, joke about that kind of thing again, just politely steer them back. Sometimes I actually politely talk about the penalties that would be involved in such an infraction and then and then you know, there you go. Just just to keep that in line. But that's part of the whole report. So when you're having events where there's a lot of people interchanging information, again avoid it becoming a fault-finding session. Make sure that the guest list is of a positive nature. But also when you are building that rapport, the subject of conversation should be productive, efficiency oriented and and helping them grow and scale their business in the most ethical manner possible.

Speaker 2: 15:15

I mean you can definitely have fun. Just don't have fun and sound illegal. Yeah, exactly, don't sound like you want to help them commit fraud or something, but still have fun. Because that's one of the views people have about the accounting industry is that they're all stuffy and they have no personality. We all know that that's not really true. I mean there is an introverted nature to the accounting industry, but not necessarily that that we don't know how to have fun, because we do and we definitely want. But I was actually something I was gonna talk about is we want to have good bedside manner. We want to make sure that we are having fun with them and not at anybody's expense, but we can joke around and we can and we can make sure that we are still professional at the same time.

Speaker 1: 16:03

Absolutely Super important and some of the positive things. Part of fun is you're showing your prowess with regards to classification of transactions to optimize a person's tax position. That's fun. First of all, you're showing your knowledge. You can joke around with the level of workload or various other things and at the same time, you're showing how they can be an advantage to the client in a productive manner and that can always be engaged with humor by complaining about the workload that you're doing for them.

Speaker 2: 16:40

By complaining.

Speaker 1: 16:41

How do you slave under that monthly contract at a set rate, above and beyond the duties that you're providing?

Speaker 2: 16:48

yeah, so I want to talk about, uh, you have a regular and verifiable training of staff, and I think that's kind of important when it comes to keeping clients on board, because you can have, as we all know, we've all had the experience where we like a company or something like that and then we like call for support or for help or something like that, and you get some really crappy person on the phone like like we like where you don't like your experience and it makes you not like like.

Speaker 2: 17:24

I mean, it might not make you not like a company, but it puts a bad taste in your mouth, right, and that can grow into something else, especially if the next time they get that same person or somebody else who might also have that. So that bedside manner I think is important, not just the training of specifically how to communicate with them, like what to say specifically, but how to say. It is important too. Right, like so how do you communicate with clients? You're not just an automaton that does work and you know prepares books or does analysis for our clients and you know prepares books or does analysis for our clients. You actually have to talk to the client and be and represent the company, not just in a professional manner but in and in. You know a fun or not, maybe not fun, but a positive manner.

Speaker 1: 18:12

So not gonna act like they're bugging you or or you're rushed and you're so busy and that you're doing them a favors by talking.

Speaker 2: 18:19

Yeah, because that I've seen happen a million times too in a profession where where clients will tell me is like, why do I like coming to you? Because I love your staff. I love the way that they talk to me. I love the way that I can, I can tell them things. I ended up being there they're, you know my staff can be their confidant where they don't even want to talk to me anymore. They want to talk to my staff because they know they get. They get a little bit more attention from them. They, they enjoy their interactions with them. So I think it's very, very important that that what you want your company to sound and hear and feel like if it came from your own mouth makes it to the rest of the people on the team so that that they get that same experience, regardless if they go to you or them, or if even better, if they get a better experience when they go to your staff. So I think it's really important absolutely, absolutely, uh.

Speaker 1: 19:15

Positive demeanor, non-rrushed, and make sure the person has the right knowledge through consistent training and how to handle things if they don't have specific knowledge, diplomatically and not just punt it down the field. Have a clear plan and response to the client that, okay, I don't know this answer right now. I am going to get back to you, or this person is the real contact person for this and I will arrange a call for you with that individual as opposed to back from.

Speaker 1: 19:47

As opposed to oh yeah, you got to call sue. Here's her email address. Click like wow, no, don't do that we all know that's, that's.

Speaker 2: 19:57

That's something easy to do during tax season is say, if you're you're knee-deep in taxes and somebody calls about their bookkeeping, you're like I don't want to deal with this, talk to you know, talk. Talk to steve. I don't want to deal with this because I have all these.

Speaker 2: 20:11

I have a million files on right now where what you could do is just shoot a quick email with an introduction, or or talk to Steve and then, and then, and then have a call and just says here, I've talked to Steve, he's going to give you a call, right, just so that they know what to expect. It only takes, it takes a minute. Make your clients happy, ongoing Right.

Speaker 1: 20:33

Right, and you know, saying oh, we're very busy right now is not a way to engage at all, Don't start the conversation with that. Oh, we're very busy right now. It's like no.

Speaker 2: 20:43

They know you're busy.

Speaker 1: 20:47

They don't care, they can care less, they want, they need an answer. So give them an answer that they can take action with, and they'll appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 20:57

Yeah, yeah, and that's the other thing, the ethical yeah, that's what you were just talking about. The no, the no, joking, so, um, so I think we actually are done with part b then, aren't we?

Speaker 1: 21:07

absolutely, I think. Uh, for step nine, parts a and b, can I give you a solid background and foundation for efficient onboarding and post-Onboarding Retention Strategies? This is definitely something that we want to have a mastermind group about. Ted and I were discussing that, and so keep following us, follow us on Facebook, linkedin and go to our website and engage with us on that level. We're at a point now where we're going to start doing these masterminds a little, and this would be a great topic. There's a lot of war stories. People can trade and we'll all benefit from that. And also, when you're feeling stressed, it's good to engage with us because we'll help you with some perspective. We love talking to people.

Speaker 2: 21:59

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 22:00

We really do do and in the comments, whether whether you're into our, our facebook group, our growth and, uh, our growth and operations facebook group, um, or whether you're watching us on youtube or whatever comment. Um, I would love to hear some of those horror stories because I I wouldn't, I wouldn't mind bringing them up as an example of um, you know of how we might be able to get around having those horror stories, because I wouldn't, I wouldn't mind bringing them up as an example of you know of how we might be able to get around having those horror stories again. Sometimes you just can't, sometimes you just can't please somebody, and I'd love to hear those ones because they're just funny. So when you have somebody who's so ridiculous that that they shouldn't really be anybody's client, I mean it's just like dating.

Speaker 1: 22:42

I guess there's always somebody for everybody. Well, again you're taking on one of accountants who put in his philosophy we do think that the right accountants should be matched with the right clients.

Speaker 2: 22:54

Yes, absolutely, and that's a whole other topic that we're going to get into.

Speaker 1: 22:56

Yeah, absolutely so, thank you that we're going to get into.

Speaker 2: 22:59

Yeah, absolutely so. Thank you everybody for coming to Part B. Like I said, if we missed anything or if you want to hear anything else, comment everything else I'd like you to like and subscribe, check us out, go on to accountants20.com, check out our blog, podcast, all of our, our resources, and join our group. Thank you, everybody, I guess.

Speaker 1: 23:27

Steve, if you want to, because I just kind of stole your outro. I'm Steve Purpich, this is Ted Williamson, and we are looking forward to the next, our next podcast. We only got two, two steps left, and and then we're going to be moving on to a whole other range of topics. So until next time thank you very much and again, have a great day.

Speaker 2: 23:50

Have a great day, thanks.