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Blog » Ways Accounting Firms Can Retain Clients Successfully

Ways Accounting Firms Can Retain Clients Successfully

Last updated: 30 Jan, 2024 By | 6 Minutes Read

client retention strategies

Good customer relationship is basic to a business

Customer relationship is a function of value delivered vis-à-vis investments made. It includes quality delivered, trust generated and convenience guaranteed. For accounting firms and CPAs, streamlining and transforming clients’ business models to ensure continuity despite disruptions and future preparedness is crucial.

Good customer relationship translates to customer retention, which in turn translates to enormous cost savings. After all, according to a study conducted by the Harvard Business Review, acquiring a new customer is 5 to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one across industries.

Effective Client Retention Strategies in Accounting Firms

Accounting firms that offer standardized, one-size-fits-all services have never been able to retain customers successfully. When firms fail to provide personalized services, customers will have minimal incentive to revise their contracts and continue their relationship.

This is distinctly different from the experience customers receive from an accounting firm that not only offers best-in-class accounting services but also ‘goes beyond service level agreements’ to heighten customer experiences. Here is a list of ways your accounting firm can bring the ‘edge’ into client servicing and client relationships:

1. Provide best-in-class service

This is about ensuring the basics – that of getting the quality right. Accounting firms handle the most critical aspect of a client’s business – their accounting books and money matters.

Hence it is crucial to deliver accounting services that ensure accuracy and compliance. Moreover, accounting entries should be done timely to identify errors and protect the client’s business interest.

2. Deliver end-to-end offerings

Accounting firms and CPAs that have the capability to deliver end-to-end accounting services are far more likely to retain their clients than CPA firms that offer piecemeal services.

Businesses and clients will be comfortable outsourcing their accounting requirements to one firm rather than handling two or more firms. It will be easy for firms to maintain continuity if the same accounting firm delivers accounting and reporting. Hence, enhance your capabilities for delivering all the services under one roof.

3. Design business-specific modules

It is important for accounting firms to factor in industry-specific and business-specific requirements in their offerings. This ensures clients’ accounting functions consolidate, align with business goals, and provide real-time visibility to operational and commercial transactions.

This will build long-term confidence in clients and will go a long way in retaining them through the years.

4. Offer value-based business outcomes

Today, most businesses are grappling with volatility arising from macroeconomic, geo-political, and financial-market disturbances, and ever-changing regulations and compliance requirements. In such uncertain times, CPAs and accounting firms need to build more cohesiveness into their offerings for better customer experiences.

Their teams simplify processes for better productivity and reduce turnaround time (TAT) for key F&A transactions to boost working capital. Additionally, automating subprocesses can achieve higher efficiency, and deliver accurate insights on key performance indicators (KPIs) to improve RoI and profitability.

Cogneesol can help you retain your clients and expand your client base

Cogneesol has been offering accounting outsourcing services to accounting firms and CPAs for the last fifteen years. Our team of experienced finance and accounting professionals aligns with client goals and strategies and offers significant business outcomes.

With deep domain exposure from long experience and exposure to global clients, our team understands specific business and industry needs and provides efficient CPA accounting services across the spectrum.

Our accounting outsourcing services support accounting firms and CPAs by helping them set up their clients’ processes, and quality and compliance controls, maximize working capital, and assist regulatory reporting. Choose from our full-suite accounting services that include accounts payable, accounts receivable, general ledger accounting, tax preparation, and financial and management reporting.

  • We support multiple accounting software – Intuit QuickBooks, Netsuite, Intuit Quicken, Sage, Xero, Myob, Wave, Intacct, SAP, Yendo, etc. – with fast learning curves.
  • Our project management teams are adept at smoothly transitioning processes that ensure zero harm to operations and business continuity.
  • Our quality experts oversee process transitions, infusing lean and Six Sigma principles for productive, efficient operations from the outset.
  • We also offer end-to-end finance analytics services to help accounting firms and CPAs service their clients with high-end analytical tools. These can help clients with financial planning and analysis. Our analytics offerings include payables analytics, collections analytics, cash flow analytics, working capital analytics, profit and loss account analytics, balance sheet analytics, and ratio analysis.

Our global and pan-industry exposure will help you get the market edge that you require to retain your existing clients and improve your brand name and goodwill for an enlarged clientele.

Contact us at [email protected] / +1 8333133143 (Toll-Free) for an overview of our accounting outsourcing services, along with the analytics services that can help your accounting firm to offer better and high-end services to your clients.

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