Summer is upon us. From a client service standpoint, the tax planning load is lighter, so this is when business planning season begins. Now’s the time to think about big picture goals or process improvements you can make. For instance, it could be improving your client onboarding or hiring practices. It could be upping your client service, workflow or branding.
The tendency is to gather everyone in the conference room, start with a clean slate and brainstorm ideas. While I’m all for thinking big, you’re better off looking at what other successful firms are doing and figuring out how you can emulate them. Said another way, engage in my favorite form of R&D (Rip off & Duplicate).
I know that sounds crass, but instead of killing yourself trying to come up with new ideas, why not take the best of what other firms are doing and then do it even better? It’s not being lazy or devious; it’s being smart with your time and resources.
As Oscar Wilde famously said, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”
Getting started
When it comes to finding firms to emulate, look for those that are about three years ahead of you in their thinking. What do you think is having the biggest impact on their business? Start taking steps to replicate those business practices and processes.
The reason I like this approach is because a lot of very smart people have already put time and effort into tackling the same problem you’re trying to solve. Plus, the solution has already been adopted by their firm and clients. Even better, they probably haven’t perfected the solution, so that leaves plenty of room for you to improve upon it.
CPAs always ask me where they can go to find good examples of firms doing what they’d like to duplicate. It tell them it depends on the size of your firm:
- If you’re a large national firm, go to an industry publication or website and search for “fastest-growing accounting firms.” Look at the list and check what your peers are doing. What do you admire most about what they’re doing? Could you implement that at your firm?
- If you’re a small or regional firm, you can Google “CPAs near me.” This will give you lists of what your high-performing peers are doing.
I recommend looking at peers rather than very large firms because you want to be realistic. If the gap is too significant, then everyone on your team will quickly get discouraged.
For ideas, you can also search by specific capabilities such as “Best CPA Technology Firms.” What technologies and systems are the best firms using for which they’re winning awards? That might give you suggestions. Better yet, look outside CPA firms. The largest accounting firms aren’t even tax firms anymore. They’re doing consulting, technology, management — all high-margin expansions of being the client’s most trusted advisor. Get the picture?
Ask your team: “What are examples of great services that we have? How can we replicate those throughout our firm?” (For other examples of great customer/client service, see my article “Find your client’s key lime pie.”) Make this type of “strategic imitation” part of your monthly staff meetings. Ask your team to share examples of really good things they’ve noticed at other firms (emulate those) as well as really bad things they’ve seen at other firms (avoid those).
What not to imitate
Another technique I find helpful is called “inversion.” Instead of looking at other organizations for things you can imitate, do the reverse. Make sure you’re not imitating harmful, wasteful or unproductive practices that are causing other firms to create a bad experience for their clients. It could be not responding promptly to clients. It could be bad pricing models, inefficient onboarding processes, etc. (For more on behaviors not to imitate, see my recent article, “Removing friction from the buying process.“)
Reach out to those you admire
Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone and ask a partner at one of the firms you admire if they’d be willing to have a brief call with you to share how they did it. Tell them: “You’ve done a great job with X, Y and Z.” Be specific about what you admire about what they’re doing. People love having their hard work recognized — most of the time they’ll take the call and be happy to share.
Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, sometimes it pays to be a sponge. What’s your take on creating a client experience? I’d love to hear from you.
