Key Takeaways:
|
The Challenge: Tax Firms and CPAs Struggle to Expand Client Relationships
Today, there is a significant opportunity for tax practices and CPAs to expand and deepen their tax-client relationships by offering more valuable, long-term services, including comprehensive tax planning. However, for many tax practices, the reality is that they are overloaded with administrative tasks and commoditized compliance work that make it challenging to expand their scope of services.
In this article, we explore solutions to optimize your tax practice so that you can maintain your existing work and introduce new, higher-value services, too.
Take an inventory of how your practice spends time
Reflect on how your own tax practice spends the bulk of its time. How much time is spent on the following commoditized tasks?
| Tax Planning Client Milestones | |
| Administrative Tasks |
|
| Compliance Work |
|
These tasks are time-consuming, and for some tax firms, it’s all they do. But if you are looking to grow your firm by expanding client relationships, you’ll need a different approach to service delivery.
The Solution: Technology, Admin Support, and Cross-Selling
The solution to the challenge at hand, which is that many tax firms struggle to expand client relationships because of too much admin and compliance work, isn’t to stop doing the commoditized work. Instead, it’s to change the way your firm completes that work.
The more your firm can either automate or outsource the tasks listed above, the more time you’ll have to build deeper relationships with your tax clients, leading to successful cross-selling of high-value services.
Your solution for expanding client relationships lies in mastering three practice management areas:
- Implementing Technology to Automate Commoditized Work
- Leveraging Strategic Operational Support
- Mastering Cross-Selling to Your Ideal Clients
In the following sections, we break down the three parts of the solution for deepening client relationships, including how Harness can help you succeed in each area.
Implementing Technology to Automate Commoditized Work
Effective technology management in a tax firm involves leveraging the latest software and tools to streamline operations, improve client service, and maintain compliance. This includes implementing automation for data entry, tax filing, and routine compliance tasks while also ensuring data security and confidentiality through robust cybersecurity measures.
Technology can also enhance client engagement by using tools like client portals and e-signature software to streamline communications. This shift in technology allows tax professionals to focus on higher-value advisory work by reducing the time spent on commoditized tasks. But as a tax practice leader, you need to select the right technology.
How Harness Helps Automate Your Work
To start, the Harness Client Portal is our proprietary platform for client communication and engagement management. Our Client Portal integrates with CRM, time tracking, billing, and eSignature platforms to automate engagement management. The Client Portal also gives you a view of all of your client engagements within a single, intuitive dashboard.
In addition to our client portal, tax firms on the Harness tax practice management platform gain access to HubSpot for CRM, Harvest for time-tracking and billing, and PandaDoc for e-signatures on engagement letters and tax returns. All integrated, these tech tools can automate much of your firm’s operations.
Leveraging Strategic Operational Support
Hiring the right administrative staff, including outsourcing when it makes sense, can give your firm the room it needs to focus on client relationships. However, when bringing on new operational staff, your training and internal processes can make or break their success. Simply hiring someone to do admin work won’t cut it if you don’t empower them with adequate technology and processes. Hiring can be expensive, which is when outsourcing can be a wise alternative.
When it comes to outsourcing, your firm should look at operational processes that can be outsourced by external admin staff. These processes can involve routine customer service tasks or tax filings. Who you hire for outsourcing is just as important as an internal hire, given that in client-facing scenarios, outsourcing truly becomes an extension of your firm from a client’s point of view.
How Harness Provides Strategic Operational Support
What makes Harness unique is the fact that we go beyond providing tax practices leading technology. We also provide client service support through our in-house Concierge team. Harness Concierge can help streamline your firm’s operations by fielding routine client questions, managing client billing and renewals, providing e-filing support, and scheduling your client introductions from our Marketplace. We aim to provide your firm with the operational benefits of outsourcing but with the client experience of an in-house team.
Additionally, Harness provides optional access to CCH Xpitax’s offshore return preparation, providing additional support at a set cost per return. This can help your firm offload time-consuming tax return preparation during the busy season so you don’t have to focus less on deepening client relationships.
Mastering Cross-Selling to Your Ideal Clients
More clients aren’t always better. The right clients are better. “Dunbar’s Law” suggests that people can only maintain about 150 genuine relationships. Knowing this, tax practices may be better off deepening relationships with a smaller group of ideal clients rather than focusing on gaining more clients. But how? Once you find the ideal client, you need to master cross-selling.
Cross-selling sounds simple: it’s simply offering additional services to existing clients. But it’s not easy, and it can significantly boost revenue by strengthening client relationships. This involves deeply understanding client needs and identifying opportunities to provide complementary tax planning services. To help uncover client needs, Deloitte recommends viewing conversations with clients as three acts. Act one is understanding what their problem really is. Act two is exploring the art of the possible with the client. Act three is mobilizing around an action plan for you and the client. This three-act structure for conversations can help your firm uncover genuine cross-selling needs with every client interaction.
How Harness Helps with Cross-Selling
Through the Harness Marketplace, we introduce you to high-value tax clients whose unique needs align with your firm’s interests and areas of expertise. In essence, we connect you with your ideal clients, which makes cross-selling easier because they need your services.
Additionally, wealth management and estate planning advisors are also active on the Harness Marketplace. Having this network of professional advisory firms can help connect your tax practice to additional cross-selling opportunities, providing your clients with a truly holistic tax and financial planning experience. Our goal is to help you find more of the right clients and give you the tools to build deeper relationships with them.
Want to deepen client relationships?
Schedule an intro with Harness today to discover how our modern software, in-house concierge team, curated high-value client introductions, and professional community can help your tax practice improve practice management and deepen client relationships.
Tax related products and services provided through Harness Tax LLC. Harness Tax LLC is affiliated with Harness Wealth Advisers LLC, collectively referred to as “Harness”. Harness Wealth Advisers LLC is a paid promoter, internet registered investment adviser. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. This article should not be considered tax or legal advice and is provided for informational purposes only. Please consult a tax and/or legal professional for advice specific to your individual circumstances.
