your customers might surprise you with their willingness to update.
by jody padar
the radical cpa
as you migrate your firm’s current customer base to your new way of working, you may be surprised by how your customers will adapt.
more on radicalism: the four tenets of radical firms: a brief review | the radical cpa: always changing
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many of my small business customers are near world-famous locations. you may have heard of or seen the first season of the hit netflix series, “making a murderer.” the murder took place outside of sheboygan, wisconsin, at a junkyard. it’s kind of in the middle of nowhere.
around the time i got hooked on that series, we were visiting a customer in kewaunee, which is within 10 minutes of where the murder took place.
our customer, john, is an interesting and colorful character.
john happens to be in the business of hauling trash and recycling – but he’s not connected to the junkyard in the show. he talks about the “goat farm” – the waste management facility – and needing to take the “goats” – the recycling bins – to the goat farm. he’s in the business of doing a lot of things.
if he sees an opportunity to make money, that’s the business he’s in.
maybe you have a customer like him. he also sells, repairs and stores boats.
the relationship with this customer began when my dad purchased his boat from him in 1996 or so. they got to talking, and like any good rainmaking partner, it went from buying a boat to gaining a customer.
the “goat farm” is a traditional old-school customer, and in the early days of the relationship, my dad would stop on the way to the lake house to check in with john.
he was an annual tax customer. as we transitioned our firm and changed our customer experience, we transitioned them to quarterly check-ins with value pricing, moved their data from a desktop to the cloud, and connected on social media.
john is in his mid-50s and has been in business for a very long time. let’s just call him established. he doesn’t fit the profile of many of our other customers. however, he trusted us to lead him to where he needed to be for the future of his business.
he gets a lot of business from the people who own summer homes in the area. they come from major metropolitan areas, and are accustomed to doing business through technology. being completely automated has been important to his customers and his staff … okay, his wife, lynn.
she does all the administrative work, and the transition has made her job easier. happy wife, happy life. right?
anyhow, moving to the cloud provided her with support she didn’t have before, even though she didn’t change accounting firms. we could see the same data she was viewing, because it was real-time. we could be more responsive, because we had better access than when we were emailing data files or “remoting in” to transfer updated data.
we transitioned them slowly, starting with payroll. when they became comfortable with that, we started remoting in. then, they were ready to be fully in the cloud.
we went to kewaunee for a succession planning meeting. while we were there, we talked about the show and he told us how close we were to the junkyard.
he gave us directions and i told him we were going to go take a selfie at the sign and post it on facebook. john said, “oh, i didn’t know you were on facebook!” i chuckled to myself, because even my mother is on facebook! he asked if i would share the photo with him. i think as soon as we got in the car, john sent me a friend request – and i shared the photo.
since then, i’ve gotten to know john so much better. i know about what he thinks about gmos, being an active lions member, what he’s looking for in a feed manager for his daughter’s calf farm, that he sells animal bedding, that he has dumpsters available for people who need them after a big storm, and that you can get discounted boat storage if you get your boat in early – and we’re his accountants!
in addition, john often sends emails that reference my social media activity. it has allowed him to know me better, too.
he’s obviously reading my posts, which means he’s also getting the value-added information i share about taxes. in addition, he uses the private message feature to ask questions about actual business-related matters.
the virtual relationship has made for a stronger business relationship.
because we are now working in real time, they are enjoying a better customer experience. we’re not sending large data files back and forth with the potential for either us or them using the wrong version of the file. we can be more responsive when we get an email or private message on facebook.
they also don’t have to wait until we’re making a trip up north to have a conversation. because we’re handling all the business transactions as they happen, it’s more of a social call than a business meeting when we stop in kewaunee. he usually has a special bottle of wine for me.
in terms of pricing, moving them to the cloud increased their annual expenditure with us. because of the value they receive, there was no pushback on the price.
before we transitioned them, calling us was a stressor for lynn. because of the nature of how john does business, there are complex transactions, and she was on her own in making the appropriate entries. we often had to correct entries at the end of the year. it was hard to get to the detail of what the transaction was and why it was entered the way it was.
now, she knows she can call anytime with a question – without being charged – and we can immediately access their data to make sure entries are made properly.
for instance, they seem to have drivers who total a truck at least once a year. if you’re spending that much time on the road, i guess it’s bound to happen. they get an insurance payment and need to buy a new truck, so they must swap out loans.
today, lynn calls us and we record the transaction for her. it’s quick and it’s a lot less painful for lynn and, ultimately, for us, too. that’s the value in value pricing.
and, by the way, john has a brother, paul, with a lighting store in green bay, wisconsin, and because of john’s referral, he is now our customer, also.