Don't Let Legacy Cachet Deter Positive Change
Change is hard. Not changing will be harder. — Kellie Parks
::Together With Financial Cents::
Financial Cents has a fantastic library of templates built by accounting firms like yours.
I recently wrote about what terrible client experiences look like and referenced a “famous” restaurant where I grew up. It was the place to go for years, and because it had the legacy cachet, it updated its menu way too late in the game. And it never updated its decor. Guess what? Their clientele dwindled because many of the ones that loved it either got too old to go out or they actually died. And the “cachet” restaurant died right along with its legacy customers.
The younger crowd did not care for the white bread minced ham sammiches, minced meat tarts (it's not meat, I have no idea what it is and why is “meat” a dessert?), rumaki, buttermilk as a beverage (I kid you not)... And the “old-world” atmosphere, decor and furnishings were simply “old”; there was no “world” to them.
Eventually, they updated their menu, and to be fair, they had some great new offerings. But it was too late. Folks had moved on to other places; ones that had new favourites and embraced current menus and atmosphere. Some of these establishments were ahead of trends, too, which made them even more appealing to diners.
There’s a simple lesson here. You can stay the way you are and live off your cachet. You can run a legacy firm and hope to hang onto the clients and team members long enough for you to die at your desk. Or you can, step by tiny step, begin implementing new practices, enhanced services and technology.
Here are a few starting ideas to create magical client experiences and create internal efficiency.
Ditch paper
It’s the easiest foray into modernizing a firm and enhancing the client experience.
At the front end, utilize apps that collect, extract and publish to accounting software
Even if you don’t need the extraction piece, implement apps that create seamless experiences for clients to upload shared information
Set up payment processors for your clients (and yourself) to receive and send payments online
Buh-bye cheques
Create forms
Stop making people fill out Word Docs and PDFs.
Begin with simple forms that collect answers in a friendly manner and allow you to extract the data to meaningful sources
Personalize the experience with conditional logic
Enhance the usability with logic jumps
Implement an online scheduler
This can be for in-person meetings too. You can still be with your clients, but why make the booking process an endless series of emails?
Implement a practice management app
Stop relying on spreadsheets and passing around docs in folders to run your firm.
Aggregate client data
Automate drudge work
Collaborate with clients and team members
Track work
Create work consistency
Yes, you will have some folks who want to deal only with paper, email you as the primary communication method, and want to sign things in person (on paper with a pen)... And they will hope like heck nothing changes at your firm, but I harken back to how are you going to future-proof it if you hang onto the processes for clients who may not be around for the long haul?
There is no reason not to embrace change. We live in an awesome era of technology to take the lift off you.
If you don’t know where to start or want help with what you have started, I’d love to help. I want every accounting firm to create magical client experiences.
I’m going to finish with a client tech success story.
A client of mine did not always love it when I would bring new tech into her accounting processes. But she had faith in me that it would be good for her and her business efficiency and financials, so she would go along with me. What neither of us considered was that it would provide opportunities for her employees.
She had the most amazing #RightHandGem, who was moving away with his husband. My client was disappointed at the prospect of him retiring, and he wasn’t sure if he was ready either, but it was happening nonetheless. We had already migrated to QBO, but with the introduction of Wagepoint (cloud-based payroll), Hubdoc (pre-accounting document collection and extraction) and Plooto (paperless payment platform) he could stay on after he moved. And it invigorated him; he loved working with the new processes in the new tech.
Kellie :-}
Join Your Peers Here
Financial Cents Presents:
Rapid Workflow Fix: Get Your Processes Back on Track
Submit screenshots of your biggest workflow challenges before the session to marketing@financial-cents.com
March 27, 2025
1:00-3:00PM (EST)
