Sweat Jar Warning! And here's the link about customer dissatisfaction article that we discuss.

Post tax season many consultants will be recommending to fire your pain in the a#@ (PITA) clients. Before you do, ask yourself what makes them a pain? Yes there are some clients who truly are a pain in the you know what... But today we ask listeners before they put clients on the chopping block, have a look in the mirror, and ask yourself how well did we "onboard" our client?

Onboarding is a common term for your software providers. Think about it, what are they trying to achieve with their onboarding? Most simply, they're trying to get you using the product. So now apply this to how you bring on your new clients - is it standardized? is there training involved? Turns out that two-thirds of consumers leave companies because of poor customer service - and that’s a pretty scary statistic, but it goes to show just how important clear, supportive communication is during the post-conversion stage.

Don't think because you're in professional services this doesn't affect you. And before you make the decision to fire clients make sure you're not going to have a revolving door because of a poor client experience.

REMEMBER THIS IS THE ROBOTS TRANSCRIBING

00:08.80

satvcpodcast

And welcome ladies and gentlemen to strategy in the virtual controller. Um, where we're talking about how to help accountants and bookkeepers be very intentional about the business that they're growing and the clients that they're working with and and the types of. Services that they're providing to their clients. It's really easy for accountants and bookkeepers to fall into the trap of same as last year but we know accounts and bookkeepers can play an incredibly valuable role in the success of small business. Um, but but it does take intention. It does take a real. Clear and intentional direction and that's what we're all focused on is sharing our experiences and our insights of working with hundreds of firms across the country and across the world to help them develop their back office processes their client experience client onboarding. Etc etc. So my name's Dammien Greathead and my co-host is Penny Breslin penny how are you today? Tax season is over and how was tax season. Yep as always.

01:10.46

penny

I'm doing fine Damien tax season is over. Um, good bad and uglyly. All as always, but the good clients made it I'll tell you what the last week there have been so many messages posted into the slack channels that we have with each of our clients of you know. That just it. It was good. It was good. It was good to to see them get the kudos that these ladies deserve for the hard work I mean they came in on holidays their holidays they came in late at night they stayed they worked over time. They. They did everything anybody in the United States would do. But as Ginger Rogers said backwards and in well heels with sandals and saaries. So um, yeah, it was it was that part was good when we finally got through it. Um, the.

02:00.37

satvcpodcast

It.

02:13.46

penny

So my clients are so well organized and you know it's they make us such a part of their team and it it those they're the best they're just the best.

02:13.88

satvcpodcast

M.

02:23.40

satvcpodcast

And I think that's really the difference between those clients that um I don't want to say the good clients and and the challenging clients is those good clients see you and and the team in in India in chenai as a part of your team. Um, that as an extension of their team. Um.

02:44.10

penny

Well, they not only see us as an extension of the team they see their whole company customers and technology included as part of their team a team just people.

02:54.93

satvcpodcast

Yeah, yeah, whereas I think some of the other firms that have sort of that that are more challenging that they probably compartmentalize much more um, much more specifically and and and sort of maybe. Push work to you last minute. Maybe don't sort of give you all the information and and just sort of don't really see you see you as ah as an outsourcer rather than as a rather than as a team member. Yeah.

03:15.33

penny

Oh yeah I am.

03:24.88

penny

They exactly? yeah exactly and you know it just they they cause like with my broken foot I caused this myself I did this to myself I caused this.

03:37.87

satvcpodcast

Ah, yeah.

03:44.30

penny

Sometimes you cause your own problems. But.

03:45.00

satvcpodcast

Yeah, and and I think that's an important part is if if you you're coming out of tax season and hopefully you're enjoying a bit of recovery time and penny's got the bit of recovery time as well with her foot and a boot. Um, but and thinking about outsourcing as a as a. Solution or a possibility to help you on the capacity side to help you better service your clients make sure you're going into this as my outsourcing partner is is my partner is an extension of my team.. It's not ah, it's not ah, an afterthought. Um, and. Hopefully something that'll save us at the last minute.. It's very much a ah strategic decision to extend the capabilities of your team and the capacity of your team by but by expanding your team. Um, and so so.

04:36.70

penny

Well like we not to the only expansion. The expansion can be remote workers within your own continent ah time zone. But also your your customers. Ah your team members and also the technology the technology the adaptive.

04:45.34

satvcpodcast

Um, yeah.

04:57.12

penny

Robotic processes and Ai technology that really does do a good job when it's used and when it's used well if you if you give it the respect that all of these parts of your team deserve. Um. It really works and and you know I've I've had a lot of people in the last couple of months obviously come to me going. You know can ah do you know anybody I can hire to do this? Yeah, do you have anybody who can do this do you know anybody who wants to take on a client for the bookkeeping. Well I do the taxes and stuff. You know and the thing is it's maybe your next tire and I've said this before don't duplicate yourself. But I belong to this rather large group that I got involved with while I was working for a logic company that has nothing to do with. Counting per se but does have to do with financial information. The scrapers and they're building sas marks and so I got involved with this group and a pi of this slack group and we they do lots of surveys with us I get to test a lot of apps. Some of them have to do with accounting but some of them don't and. They came back with this survey which kind of made me feel good because it means that what I've been talking about is correct which nice validation. Um, but onboarding for customer success and every you know everybody has. A smartphone and on that smartphone you have um team apps and how many of them. Do you ever go back and use once you've downloaded and how do you use it and do you find out that when you meet somebody else and go yeah I've got that app and I do.

06:39.55

satvcpodcast

And.

06:52.50

penny

This with it. You know I didn't know would do that so they talk about how you have to make that first impression be so important the first time a customer comes in and utilizes. Your service or your product. It has to be a pleasurable experience and um, you have to get them to adopt what it is that you want them to do.

07:26.37

satvcpodcast

And sorry gone. Ah well I was just going to say and it's it's not receipt bank or dex. It's not qbo. It's not 0 It's it's not ignition.

07:28.19

penny

And go ahead. No you go ahead.

07:41.81

satvcpodcast

It's you your firm and how you put all of these together. It's your product. It's your service and how you use at how you use the tools to facilitate that product and service and I think a lot of a lot of firms fall into that trap or well I mean there's.

07:43.58

penny

To get.

08:00.98

satvcpodcast

Probably There's probably lots of traps to to fall into but thinking that it's the it's the app but but actually in my mind in my opinion The most successful firms that have really good technology adoption across their client base and their team. They they focus on what they're delivering to the client and the tool the app just facilitates the flow of Information. So It's It's not the app. It's actually the firm and the product and the service that is is what they're talking about. They're talking about my firm doing this for me my firm and and the the accounting firm has introduced me to to these things and as a result of using them I get this amazing experience from my accounting firm from my bookkeeper who's helping me grow my business understand what I'm what I'm trying to achieve. Um, etc Etc. So I Think that's again, it's yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, oh of and you get good referrals coming through the door asking about that service not receipt bank not dex, not 0 not qbo. Yeah.

08:54.69

penny

Nearly introduced all the people. So.

09:07.16

penny

Asking about you and your business that happens to be people who are involved in accounting and bookkeeper.

09:15.70

satvcpodcast

And so let's take ah a step back penny because as we were sort of planning and set up this episode because as we were talking about the planning and we did a previous episode recently on the after tax season review.

09:30.00

penny

And.

09:31.91

satvcpodcast

And taking some time to look at the technology the processes your clients um a lot of consultants out there this time of year will will be saying you've got to go in and analyze your your client base and you've got to get rid of the bottom 20% or you've got to. Get rid of those pain in the you know what? you know what? clients and absolutely I wholeheartedly agree that you've got to be Able. You've got to be comfortable with this idea that not all clients are created equal and and that it's okay to let some clients. Go. Um, but before you do and particularly around those pain in the ask clients that that have that challenge before you do do that I would challenge that you make sure you hold a mirror and take a look in the mirror and just make sure that are they difficult clients. Because they are just really ah, terrible difficult people or is it because they haven't really been used the term onboarded Correctly, they they haven't really been trained on on using the apps. They haven't been trained on how to get information into the firm.

10:33.61

penny

White.

10:42.66

satvcpodcast

But they've basically been doing same as last year for the last fifteen years and that's what's causing the frustration because they've been shown no other way and so that's what I think today's episode we wanted to focus on is is what does our own onboarding and client intake experience look like because if we can. Really deliver that first. Um, wow experience or really pleasant experience with your clients that's going to to take care of a whole host of challenges down the line isn't it.

11:13.12

penny

Yeah, and I do think personally this is just my own personal opinion based on what little stuff I've done um, have that onboarding person be the on boarding client Success Manager you know, really. Good companies care and talk about customer success Customer success goes 2 ways. Our customer was successful because we did this and our relationship with the customer is ongoing and renewing because it is a success. So We're successful. The customer is successful. The customer is successful because we allowed them to be Successful. So think about somebody who is your onboarding agent and also your customer success agent and eventually. If you grow big enough. You might bifurcate that job. But and you might even be big enough that you could bifurc it at this point but remember this a constant need to touch is I'm gonna go back to Star Trek again with it's considered one of the best Star Trek shows. Surely and I've I brought this up before that the higher the technology the more use of robotic processes The more things that will keep us separated as individuals from the more we need that touch and that care. And it's not saying that a bookkeeper and accountant cannot be that empathetic, caring person. But what you do when you're doing the bookkeeping and you're doing the accounting do get dragged into the numbers. Want. And having somebody there that is customer facing that is onboarding and customer success management and that's their sole job. But you know what else they're also your success manager they're your team success manager. And it sounds kind of you know? Well we won't do that here and we don't like that here but I got to tell you um I just got an email from a client and it wasn't from him. It was his client success manager who emailed me and said penny we're going to be Changing. Banks is this going to be a problem for how we pay you do we need to do anything different you know and she was just so pleasant about it and it was just so nice to know. Ah I had a customer who the other day said.

13:59.31

penny

Penny remember when you told me if I write a check I I should tell you when I'm gonna tell you I'm gonna write a check today right now and this is what it's for and this is who it's going to and you know I mean it's late because I told her I said you can email that to me anytime I'll pick it up. Don't worry and I'll just I just shove it over to to a task. But if you have somebody who.

14:04.82

satvcpodcast

Um.

14:18.99

penny

Can touch that client and then be that onboarding. They bring them In. You've got your system like you said you got all your apps. You got the apps that work for you. You got the team that works for you and then this onboarding success Manager handles the customer before any work is done and says. Sits down with them whether it's virtual or face-to-face doesn't matter and says I'm going to take you through our process and then they put it in their workflow. They use in the same Workflow. You're using and they put in their workflow to follow up I follow up have they done this I log in I check with the bookkeeper.

14:42.11

satvcpodcast

And.

14:57.99

penny

Did this connection happen is it still running. Did you go back and look at it so you need to measure every step of that onboarding process and then you need to measure how with we meet on Milestones and then at the end of the year tell me if that's a good client or not a good client because real exceed. Realistically, you've trained them to be crappy clients.

15:18.68

satvcpodcast

Yeah, and and the technology is all there to facilitate this whole this whole conversation that you can go to the the zero dashboard. You can go the qboa dashboard you can see the last login. You can see whether you or not whether or not your clients. Ah, new clients specifically are doing what you've told them to do and and and and it's it's 1 thing to log in together on day one but have they logged in on day three because if they haven't logged in by day 5 the penny has a penny so a penny the the light bulb hasn't gone off something hasn't hasn't struck and it and it's easier to.

15:56.72

penny

We'll give up this somebody has given them a value proposition and why they should and so they look for a couple of days and you don't pay attention to them. They're not getting the value back. Okay, so if you if you want.

16:00.45

satvcpodcast

Exactly.

16:13.72

penny

You go in there like okay we got a new firm that came to us and they said well we have ah we we're totally qbo. They got all these clients in qbo and I told you we we looked at it and went well yeah about 80% of the connections. Don't even want nobody enough that nobody had touched the stuff.

16:27.12

satvcpodcast

Um, if they hadn't been touched for three months.

16:32.81

penny

Since yeah for for one quarter nobody had gone in and touched that stuff and and so could you tell me if they hadn't looked at that you know they haven't contacted that customer but they build the customer every month because they got them on monthly.

16:43.85

satvcpodcast

Yeah.

16:48.85

penny

Somebody sold him This idea we can do this flat rate. That's the other thing too is when you have that customer constant touch. You realize that every customer is slightly different and you know we've always said you know accounting is accounting debits and debits of credits and but people are ah unique and people.

16:58.85

satvcpodcast

And.

17:08.00

penny

Especially small business. Owners are very unique in how they spend their money and what they want is that money to do for them what they want that business to do for them is sometimes very unique and so your platform can be here's the technology. Here's the starting point the starting point is always good numbers. Can't do anything without those but you have to have that and it has to be consistent and it has to be agreeable for everybody to easily do it and that means you're a bookkeeper who doesn't have time to sit there with the client. And and teach them how to download teams because they're not used to it or teach them how to deal with Zoom or ah teach them how to ah to use cash flow frog I teach them how to use Meo I teach them how to use Relay or even convince them to. To use a different bank. You know why should they show them the benefits. You know what you need that customer success person who is outside of the day-to day numbers and then that person needs to be in the meetings. To provide you the feedback on what they're experiencing when they're contacting the customer on a regular basis.

18:27.13

satvcpodcast

And you and I know a lot of accountants will struggle with this idea of having a non-villable person sitting in that meeting. But I sure go for well.

18:34.33

penny

Oh excuse me can I just swear right now. Oh. Like it but damn it the non billable person the nonbill you know one of the things is a a mindset you they say this about cannabis set and setting people go well I'm afraid of the you know what? if you're mellow if you're chill. Don't worry about it. You'll have a good time. But. Sentence setting is everything and if you come at it at the standpoint of I am going to nickel and dime this to death I'm gonna have a billable person and I'm going to and nothing's gonna happen unless I am tracking it. You know what. unless unless I can make sure that I'm making money from that person and the only way you value looking at the person whether or not you you flat rate your customer. You're still thinking from the mindset of billable hour then you know what put your head back in the sand do another crappy shitty tax season and then. Pebble off into the distance would you cause somebody else is gonna roll right? The over you I swear you know you want you want to run 200 clients on a spreadsheet and then get pissed off you want you? You want you want a nickel and dime the people that work for you.

19:33.75

satvcpodcast

Yeah.

19:40.10

satvcpodcast

Well goodness.

19:51.73

penny

And you want to nickel and dime the apps that are working for you. You should not be running a business periodry Sorry I like ah my quota where's my Quotta Ja you know I story but.

19:55.82

satvcpodcast

Right? Well not suitable for not an ns of Nsf W are alert probably a little bit late now. Ah, it's overflowing patddy.

20:11.65

penny

It was that that whole thing you have no idea how much of had this discussion with somebody and well can I also make them a bookkeeper so they can do billable work. Yeah, this is available. You think your success of your customer.

20:22.23

satvcpodcast

No I mean I mean that that that's.

20:29.16

penny

And the the success of the relationship you have with your customer doesn't have value. You should not be in a customer-facing business period right.

20:35.60

satvcpodcast

But I think the the way in which you think about it is I you one one of the things you said there actually resonated with me penny where you sort of were looking at nickel and not looking at the individual person's individual person's time and. And the individual's billable hour or the individual's time and and trying to squeeze as much out of that person but but it's it's actually more than that because it's the it's the cost of the service delivery that you've got to be thinking about and it's It's not 1 individual person and and 1 a six-minute increment. It's it's actually what what is billable and what's the value is the combination again of the apps. The technology your insights getting the work done in a timely manner. So. It's not 1 individual's 6 minutes it's the entire business operation which is where the value comes and and that's really what we've got to be thinking about and something. You also said a little bit earlier was not to say that accountants and bookkeepers don't have the empathy to do this training to do this onboarding to. To to sit side by side with the clients. It's because where they had it's it's not to say that they don't have empathy I think bookkeepers and accountants have empathy in spades I but but I think it's where where does the bookkeeper and accountant add the most value to the relationship.

21:53.54

penny

Um, no area up in heaven. Yeah.

22:04.87

satvcpodcast

It's it's in the insight. It's in the looking for anomalies. It's in the understanding, the client's business. So that's the way that.

22:09.95

penny

And understanding and knowing how the numbers and the way they look how they can change and affect people at the end of the day. That's what they're good at I'm gonna no, it's not just what but it is ah but all of that has to be.

22:20.34

satvcpodcast

But also it's not just the numbers. It's it's this experience of working with the firm.

22:29.87

penny

Not just the numbers. But the numbers are important and the people that deal with the numbers really get locked into that and when you pull them out of that to go go The client didn't log in and and connect their back Account. Could you just call them and tell them you know it's just not in their mindset. You're asking them to and in it and it's a crisis thing. It's ah and it always it. It's It's like a it's like a Jolt it's It's like really having a bad ring tone. It's and it goes off constantly um in it's it's not conducive to that person who's working on the numbers to have to have that Jolt coming in constantly.

22:56.29

satvcpodcast

Ah.

23:06.56

satvcpodcast

Well yeah, like if if you're if you're working hard on on looking for anomalies some cash flow forecasting trend analysis over the last three months trying to identify things to talk to the client about about how to help them grow or or make sure they've got.

23:08.38

penny

Ah, somebody.

23:24.80

satvcpodcast

Enough enough cash in the bank for payroll etc. The last thing you want to be doing is answering an email about I forgot my password or how do I log into this and and that's because I haven't done it and and so and and and and if if somebody's not watching it week in week out.

23:31.49

penny

Or or having to call somebody because they haven't done it. You know.

23:44.28

satvcpodcast

Three months will pass and now you've got just ah, a whole bunch of shit that you've got to clean up and and and and go back to the clients and get them to to reconnect and and then all of a sudden the clients like hang on.

23:51.73

penny

More.

24:02.97

satvcpodcast

This says the connection broke in in February of this year it's now April of this year yeah but you be Billy before so it's it's this. It's a cycle. It's a cycle a vicious cycle.

24:06.12

penny

And yeah, so how much work can done to me that you you thought like so but you know Maurice Perdugo at sink he has a grape line and he's like he goes he goes would you buy an automobile and never. Change the oil. Never check the tires. Never do any maintenance on it. Why do you think that when you use an app that you're not going to have to have maintenance that you're not going to have to have somebody managing the app because the app has to a cloud and affect.

24:38.60

satvcpodcast

So funnily enough penny I.

24:43.94

penny

Multiple ledgers and multiple Cloud browsers and you know.

24:47.14

satvcpodcast

But but really interesting analogy. You said would you buy a car and not think about the the a service not thinking about it. An oil change. Absolutely I would buy a car and not think about that because I'm not a a mechanic or I'm not a car person but I get a call from the car company. From from from Kia every three months to remind me to come in to do x y and z and then I come in and.

25:10.80

penny

Ah, you knew that Mom was man I that was my job to make sure I as foot it.

25:15.23

satvcpodcast

So no, no, no, but this day and age and and so if if that's what if that's a level of service that my car cut the the the Kia is providing.

25:21.50

penny

So exactly my pocket can remind me that I need to do this stuff and so hey if my accountant does one of the things I wanted to bring up because I know that we're running on time but there was on that survey that the state they gave us.

25:28.31

satvcpodcast

Yes.

25:40.74

penny

The Sas group I mean there were thousands of people that filled out this survey and these were all people who worked in Sas in saas companies is at 2 thirds of consumers leave you whether it's.

25:42.67

satvcpodcast

Yep.

25:59.60

penny

Your service your app or your product because of poor customer service and that shows you how important clear communication and support is during the post close stage.

26:03.55

satvcpodcast

Oh absolutely.

26:13.77

satvcpodcast

Yeah, it's very rarely price because you've made that you've you've made the buying decision you purchased.

26:22.00

penny

Yeah, you've already purchased it but did you give me what I thought you'd I have this other friend deborbra who was a yeah ah spoken about Deborah before she you know I live in Encinita's yoga capital. She's a spiritual therapist because she always says. When when somebody is is saying something to her. That's very difficult all confrontational. She'll so she'll stand back and she'll go now. This is what I heard you say and she'll repeat it back to them and there'll be times when I'll I've watch and I've done it with her I've go That's not what I said no I didn't say that's what you said I said this is what I heard you say now. Can we say that again. So that's another thing that happens is when you have that customer support and communication. Is. There's an opportunity to hear things again and maybe interpret them and then you always have to tell the customer this is what I heard you say you wanted right? I detail it out of my contracts. I heard you say you wanted this and somebody has to follow up with that because you went on and you went and did tax return. You went on and you did somebody's books closed deal. They're a customer hit go ahead and get them signed up, get them.

27:36.97

satvcpodcast

Ah.

27:54.26

penny

Get get access to their accounting program. Make sure that you heard what they said they wanted and reiterate a block to them and you have to have somebody there to then follow up who also is aware of what it is the customer wants.

27:59.52

satvcpodcast

And and.

28:10.12

satvcpodcast

And invariably thatre they're not looking that that that they're gonna get a tax return or they're gonna get bookkeeping. That's not what they actually want. But I think as well. But but also penny what you said there was actually put it back to them in your as you said you put it back to them in your engagements in your proposals and I think.

28:17.30

penny

What.

28:29.36

satvcpodcast

For the most part most practitioners sort of Lob a proposal over send it via email and and and then hope that the client will sign it versus actually sitting down and sort of going through and saying we built this proposal because this is what I heard you wanted so be and and let's make sure that we are.

28:43.50

penny

It is.

28:47.65

satvcpodcast

Crystal clear on that before we move forward to make sure I heard correctly and if not then we have an opportunity to fix it.

28:53.23

penny

So I did one the other day which was a conversion and I wrote it back to them and they came back to me and said but you didn't tell us what you were going to do so obviously they didn't see the way I wrote it. And proper Way. So I rewrote it and they went Oh okay, yeah, sure it's like you know when you get a little kid and you're teaching the kid something and and you you read them a story and they don't understand it. But if they read the story they do or if you give them the story in pictures they do maybe.

29:13.85

satvcpodcast

Um.

29:29.98

penny

If they they're tactical and they have to touch they have to touch the book while you're reading it to them or while they're reading it themselves everybody learns differently everybody absorbs differently and everybody hears differently the same sentence.

29:42.96

satvcpodcast

and and and I also think you go back to that statement of of 2 wo-thirds people leave because of poor customer service I don't think we need to equate customer service with having the answers all the time either I I think it's I think customer service is letting you know.

29:56.43

penny

Yeah.

30:02.32

satvcpodcast

Letting your client know that you've heard them letting them know that you've that they've got a question a concern and then saying well Thanks Penny I got your message I don't have an answer for you. I've carved out some time on Friday to to give it some more thought to do some more research. Let me give you a call on Monday with with a game plan. That's customer service I don't need to give penny you the answer immediately because. More often than not. It's going to require a little bit of time to think about it and and actually it's a nice way in which you can triage the situation and and ah and also demonstrate that it's never a quick answer or never a quick question but but so that's that's customer service to manage the client's expectations to let them know. That you're thinking about it. Let them know that you're you're working on something at the moment but you will then give them appropriate due course the other thing that you know bank feeds is is a really interesting one and and bank feeds break. Um, but what we've but but what we've seen is customers.

31:03.12

penny

Thought yes.

31:09.39

satvcpodcast

Don't mind aren aren't phased by bank feeds breaking if we alert them early and if we alert them to say hey I noticed that the bank feeds broke. Maybe the client changed their their login details 2 wo-factor authentication issue. Can you chase up with the client.

31:25.93

penny

I had put that in the engagement letter that this these things will happen and here are the reasons we see it happening and I always put the customer making a change being the last reason put it put it on on the bank or the app first.

31:26.95

satvcpodcast

Um, today. Yeah.

31:41.45

satvcpodcast

Yeah, but yeah, yeah, yeah, but but but the the the client and and the actually the accounting firm. All trust will be lost if if the if the bank feed goes disconnected or broken.

31:43.79

penny

He.

31:59.28

satvcpodcast

For three weeks six weeks twelve weeks and the work doesn't get done whereas if it's sort of a case of saw this. We need to get it fixed. We don't we need to get it fixed again. This is the the type of. Customer service that we need to be thinking about. We've identified a problem and we're working to fix it. Yep.

32:13.73

penny

And that person canno not have multiple hours but that person is worth their weight in gold if they keep customers because the the cost of customer acquisition is huge and and even not just even marketing or selling into them.

32:25.93

satvcpodcast

Absolutely I don't think you can confirm to bookkeeping. Yep.

32:32.56

penny

Just getting them started and on boarding them. Do remember when we did that little test in Santa Monica and now granted the people in the room that's 99 people in the room were um, all partners are owners partner owners and they were deering a headlights when I asked them. Write down your onboarding process for a new customer for a new client just give write it down and how many blank pieces of paper. Do we have? yes.

33:00.93

satvcpodcast

Ah I think blank pieces of paper or just 1 line get last year's tax return then and that that was it.

33:06.53

penny

Um, yeah I was one one 1 guy actually wrote that well it's just tax Rachel I did and not and every one of them thought well I don't know but I'm and and 1 guy said well yeah I don't because I confronted him because he was like in my face about it and I walked over to the table I went. Tell me who knows he goes well I don't need to know I'm sure somebody in my office knows that and I said that's how you run a company damn how long you gonna be in business. You know? yeah.

33:29.65

satvcpodcast

He. Yeah, and and penny. Maybe that's that's sort of a nice segue for or where we pause today's episode with the idea of we've spoken about the importance of this client intake process and hopefully we've. Given listeners sort of really good examples as to why we need to have an onboarding process or a client intake process. Maybe on our next episode we actually list through some of the area or just the the ten first things um, associated with the client intake process and and and talk about that client experience and provide some practical examples of what practitioners or what firm owners can do to make that experience better. For new clients or for for new clients coming into the firm or or clients coming onto new services. How does that sound? yeah.

34:32.55

penny

Yeah, yeah, I've got like a template that I use. Um, and yeah I mean we can We can discuss that I think that's a place.

34:40.55

satvcpodcast

Because I think because I because I think what we'll what will quickly show listeners is that it is. It's a full- time job. Um, and it's a full-time job. Not only bringing clients in but also.

34:50.28

penny

It is.

34:55.60

penny

So keeping them on on now.

34:57.71

satvcpodcast

Maintaining the relationship. Yeah, yeah, yeah, maintaining So so and and and talk more about what is customer success and sort of as you are listening to this episode I Hope you're thinking about the 4 or 5 different customer success managers that you have. From your um from your tech companies and think about what their role is and start to think about. Okay, what can I learn from my tech partners that I can then put into my service and my products for my customers.

35:31.36

penny

And look at how they contact you and look at how they write their emails because I'll tell you something they've got. They've got a lot of algorithms telling them exactly how to do that. So.

35:33.59

satvcpodcast

Um, yeah.

35:43.10

satvcpodcast

And the regularity of of of how how often they're communicating with you I think I think that's the other thing.

35:48.46

penny

I You know what I always say is don't get angry at it copy.

35:54.16

satvcpodcast

Yeah, yeah, what can we learn from them. What can we take from them and and it's sort of this interesting thing that you and I we talk about? Um, we can talk about onboarding in our sleep because that's what we've done for so long whereas Um, ah that there's a lot that accounting firms can learn. From from Saas companies that are trying to get their customers to change their behavior to use technology differently and so I think accounting firms can learn a lot from.

36:21.99

penny

And if you're if you're not somebody who likes to do that stuff and you like to hang out in the box of counting that person will drive that box and fill it up for you So you can be happy every day with your box.

36:38.44

satvcpodcast

And yeah, and and maybe that's yeah again I think we can keep going here because um, but we'll but we'll stop. Yeah, but but but the other thing also is think about where do you add most value to the client relationship and and it's probably not in the in the the passwords.

36:43.38

penny

Yeah I know we could and.

36:58.36

satvcpodcast

The training the responding to the the day to day the client where you add most value is probably in the in that in in one of those quadrants that we've talked about previously Maybe as yeah but.

37:06.64

penny

In the exposed all they give pain solving pain taken. Even.

37:13.15

satvcpodcast

There's that there might be somebody already on your team that is perfect for this or or there's there's somebody out there where they add real value is maintaining that client relationship and they as you said are worth their weight in Gold penny. Um, you you're heading to a accounting web summit.

37:25.34

penny

Absolutely.

37:32.40

penny

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the countying wood 7 in San Diego the second week may which sounds like it's going to be pretty interesting I have quite honest, shown up there. So that's kind of cool and you're going to live books.

37:32.79

satvcpodcast

in San Diego in may

37:39.47

satvcpodcast

Good, um your all I've got I've got I've got accounting business expo um, and then we've got get connected in Sydney so that's really exciting in in may um and then.

37:51.40

penny

Yeah, oh yeah, India some of them are coming over this summer for a couple of conferences hey guys. Yeah, walking your height and bookkeeping digital conference. So yeah.

37:59.12

satvcpodcast

Yeah, so you'll be at aispa engage. Yep, awesome! So if you are a listener come up and say hello and let us know. Ah, let us know your thoughts on the podcast and also if if there's any. Challenges in in your firm that you think you can that we we might be able to help with just um, drop us a line find us on Linkedin and come up and say hello to us. Um out on the road looking forward to seeing people. Yeah, yeah.

38:20.94

penny

Um, yeah, and if I offended anybody I'm gonna call a glass of wine by 5 Yeah, all right bye bye.

38:31.70

satvcpodcast

Enjoy that glass of wine penny and we'll see you next week