This One Easy Shift Will Create a Better, More Positive Customer Experience for Your Bookkeeping Clients
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As a business owner/bookkeeping firm owner, you wear a lot of hats every single day. One of those hats shouldn't be "The One Who Follows Up With Vendors For A Project Status". And the same goes for your clients!
Every time I hire another business to do a job for me (think web designer, copywriter, lawyer, social media manager, etc.), I expect them to provide a certain level of customer experience.
Just like what my clients expect from me and my team at Magnetic Bookkeeping & Consulting.
When someone pays your business top dollar to provide a service, you owe it to them to give your BEST effort.
But I've noticed lately that I'm the one chasing after vendors and contractors for information on project status or reminding them of due dates. Once in a while, I understand how this could happen. We're all human, and sometimes things just fall through the cracks. Except when it happens consistently — then my understanding starts to wear out.
And I know I'm not alone here, because we've all had those experiences where a customer experience leaves something to be desired.
What I want YOU to learn from this blog is how to easily provide a better customer experience for your clients with one or two easy shifts in your process. Plus, a simple way to stay organized as a client when you're working with vendors and contractors.
A Great Customer Experience is More Than the Onboarding Process
Once you've signed a client and they've paid their invoice, it's one thing to dazzle them with a seamless onboarding process and a welcome gift. It's another thing to keep them in the loop consistently as you're working on their books.
Some clients might not care about communication or regular updates.
Give it to them anyway… unless they’ve requested otherwise.
When your client sends over their documents for the month, send them a quick email confirmation. It's really that simple!
Build Habits For Better Communication
Here's a few easy ways to stay in contact with your clients on a regular basis:
Create an email template in your Gmail account. It doesn't have to be long or complicated! Just a simple, "Hey! We got your info, you should get a status update within 48 business hours."
Add a task to your project management system. When you're building out your client workflows (or using our templates), make sure you include a task to send a quick status update to your client so they know you (and your team) hard at work on their books.
Implement an email autoresponder. If your clients email you directly or you have a centralized email address (like support@yourbusiness.com), I HIGHLY recommend you set up an autoresponder. And not just when you're out of office! You can set this up to run all the time so that even if you only check your email once per day, your client can rest assured they'll get a response within a certain period of time. In the autoresponder, just let them know that you'll get back to them in the next X number of hours or days (I suggest within 24 - 48 business hours) (and then actually follow through!).
Just making even one of these adjustments can help you drastically improve your client's experience and make working with you more joyful!
How To Stay Organized as a Client When You're Working With Vendors + Outside Contractors
When I'm talking about contractors and vendors, I mean the folks who YOU hire to do a job outside of your immediate team. Not the contractors you hire to support you with bookkeeping work, that should be organized within your project management system!
It's almost impossible to avoid getting stuck in those situations where you're working with an outside contractor and you feel a little in the dark.
I wish it wasn't true, but those things do happen from time to time. But even when everything's good, it's still helpful to keep track of everything on your end — especially if you're juggling multiple external projects at once!
Let me give you an example of "juggling external projects" to give a little more context.
Imagine you're working on a full rebrand for your firm. That means you're getting new branding, a new website design, some new social media graphics, a copywriter, and maybe a trademark lawyer. Can you imagine trying to keep up with all those moving parts just by memory? Even if every single one of those business owners were champion communicators, it's still a lot to keep in your brain.
That's why I created a database in my lovely Notion workspace to help me stay organized when I'm working with vendors, either on an ongoing or project-based basis.
I keep track of things like:
Their name/business name
My point of contact's information
Date of last communication
Project status
Open action items
You can add whatever you want to this list! Include anything that'll help you get a high-level overview of what's happening with these external projects. I can tell you from experience that doing this helps calm the chaos and put your mind at ease!
Communication is Queen
At the end of the day, keeping an open loop of communication with your clients doesn't take much time and is WELL WORTH the effort. No one likes to feel like they're in the dark, especially when they've hired someone to support them (not add more to their plate).
Every business owner is too busy and too tired to nag another business owner for a status update. It can leave a bad taste in a client's mouth if they're always the one to follow up and reach out for information.
We can ALL improve on our communication skills, so use the tips in this blog to make yourself more efficient and put your clients at ease!
And if you're looking to swipe the exact template I use for tracking my contractors and vendors, it's actually included in the extensive learning materials we provide in Breakthrough for Bookkeepers & Accountants!
Our high-touch group coaching program doesn't just give you the templates and resources you need to build a more streamlined firm. Because it's truly designed to give you the support you need to confidently scale using the proven methods that I've developed for my own businesses. There's no more guesswork around what to do next, it's all clear and actionable information, plus expert coaching and access to a community of your peers.
Ready to take your firm to the next level?
