Are You Headed for a Client Divorce?

In the opening scene of the 2011 film “Crazy Stupid Love,” the stars, Steve Carell and Julianne Moore, who play husband and wife, are at a restaurant mulling what to order for dessert.

Carell’s Cal Weaver character suggests a rather adolescent, but novel idea: they should both announce their selections simultaneously. A Mount Everest sized “oops” moment ensues when his order of a delectable pastry is shouted over by her request for a divorce.

Talk about getting hit from the blind side.

You don’t have to review films for a living to realize that Cal didn’t see this life-changing event coming.

And I don’t doubt that this scenario plays out more than a few times between CPA firms and clients – although sans alimony payments and ugly child custody battles.

During my CPE sessions throughout the year, I frequently present one slide that often makes attendees squirm uncomfortably – that at any one time a full one third of their client base is mulling a change to another accounting firm.

The reason?

Not enough personal interaction from their accountant.

When you think about the advances in technology including cloud applications and the ease of sending emails in lieu of picking up the phone, that statistic is probably not all that surprising.

A recent survey however has lent even more validation to that trend of potential client exodus.

The Sleeter Group, a west coast tech consulting firm, polled hundreds of small business owners and found that roughly three quarters of them have changed CPA firms citing “reactive” instead of “proactive” service, and fully 76 percent think that their current accountant is not proactive enough in helping them.

The premise of the poll was to determine what SBOs want from their CPA – from service offerings to communication and technology expertise.

In addition to service staples such as tax, those surveyed indicated they would also interested in getting such offerings as business and strategic planning, more thorough tax planning as well as business analytics. And 85 percent had a strong interest in having their accountant be proactive with regard to technology for their businesses.

As I and many others have stated on more than one occasion, technology has changed the landscape of accounting and inarguably for the better. Conversely, it’s also taken a sizeable chunk out of personal interaction between client and accountant and you have seen the troublesome ripple effects of that.

So it might be time to take stock and evaluate your current client relationships and how you can strengthen the ones that are showing the initial cracks of strain.

Because I doubt anyone wants to hear a client tell them that they’ve decided to make some changes – especially during dessert.