I am always reminded this time of year that our most precious and valuable asset is our client relationships. Without clients, we don’t have the revenue and cash to pay our bills and support the 450+ families that rely on our Firm for a living.
Client service is always at the core of these relationships. Service in our world primarily consists of providing timely accurate advice, which means we must be up to date in current tax and GAAP developments. It also means we invest in talented people who enjoy studying these technical areas and, more importantly, can communicate complex subjects to our clients who are not as technically inclined… and likely don’t want to be.
Great client service also means that we provide deliverables on time; one of our favorite mantras in the Firm is to “under promise and over deliver.” This means to give our clients realistic delivery dates which meet their external delivery requirements, and then work our organization to beat our promised delivery date. Clients are always thrilled when we can accomplish this objective.
With World Class Client Service, we can then build the personal relationship with our clients, and this can be the most fulfilling aspect of the job. Understanding their hobbies, helping them with family succession planning, and simply becoming friends is one of the most rewarding parts of our profession.
So, if you are responsible for a client relationship in your business, start to build it with great over-the-top service. Do everything in an effort to have the client marvel at your service abilities. The rest will all fall in to place and you will have a great client for a long time.
Bill
