by rick telberg
june 16, 2000 (smartpros) ? the relationship between the practicing professional and the client is being redefined by the technologies of the information age. no longer is the bond built solely on professional services rendered. the name of the game is information. and the client can get it anytime, anywhere, from almost anyone. the respected professional may no longer be the client’s first choice.
professionals must react in new ways to this new world order, according to dan sautner, chairman of the 300-unit chain of padgett accounting shops based athens, ga. in an analysis he performed for the national association of tax practitioners, sautner has worked to define the passing fads that can be ignored and the real trends that can be ignored only at our peril.
“in the future,” he warns, “if a client has a question, your answer may already be too late. information, to the customer, will be like a stream — constantly flowing. it will go past newsletters, returning phone calls and personal contact. when the client thinks of the issue, they will start researching. and you want your company to be the first stop.”
every professional has been asked for answers beyond their domains. accountants are asked legal questions. lawyers get financial problems. insurance agents face tax queries. no one can do it all alone. and yet, the client wants results.
“in the past, we all restricted ourselves primarily to the issues we are best acquainted with — namely taxes and accounting,” sautner says. “in the customer’s mind, however, we are seen as a much larger source of information.”
the well-armed practitioner of the future, sautner says, will require some additional expertise. “but, more importantly, it will require that we link ourselves with other professionals and include them in our community of services.”
this means that the parameters of the practitioner’s service offering will change. sautner says “we are seeing a gradual shift from a defined service towards an undefined service.” the lines between tax, accounting, business strategy, legal planning, investment and insurance are blurring. as a result, “customers will expect us to have a wider range of answers and solutions to their problems, even if we are not directly involved in the delivery of the solutions.”
because accountants cover more of the solutions than any other professional, they are “the cornerstone provider.” at the same time, more clients will be do-it-yourselfers, ferreting out their own ideas, doing their own research, and developing their own solutions. the effect will be to weed out the low-margin, high-maintenance clients. by the time these diy’ers come to the practitioner, they will be ready for high-level, premium services. or, as sautner puts it, “they will pay as much for us to straighten out their records, as they will for us to do the records in the first place.”
“this change,” sautner warns, “can be seen as the death knell for the profession as we know it, or an unbelievable opportunity.”
many, like sautner, see the opportunities, and find them eminently believable.
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