Why Client Experience is the Key to Boosting Your Firm's Profit Margin

What sets a high-performing accounting or bookkeeping firm apart?

This was one of the questions that a recent report by Macquarie Wealth Management sought to answer. It turns out that the secret to growing your profit margin might be right under your nose.

WHERE TO FOCUS TO GROW YOUR PROFIT MARGIN

Macquarie Wealth Management recently published The Accounting and Financial Services Benchmarking Report. This examined key trends among those firms that reported above-average profits.

Among these firms, 79% said that adding value to their existing clients was the most effective means of growing profit in the current market. That is to say, they looked within to grow their profit margin.

Lower performing firms, on the other hand, were more likely to look for growth outside the firm.

50% of those firms reporting below-average profits said that new client acquisition was a key driver behind profit growth, compared to 32% of high performers.

WORK WITH WHAT YOU HAVE

While it may seem surprising at first, it actually makes a lot of sense to look to your current clients first. This is because you are leveraging those assets over which you have the most control.

Not only does this require fewer additional resources, but you also have more to go on. These are clients you have, hopefully, spent time understanding. This means it is easy to pitch additional services and increase the level of engagement.

Client research from CCH Accounting found that 70% of buyers of accounting services were not aware of all the services their firm offered. What’s more, 80% said they wished their firm offered services that were in fact already available from that firm.

Even if you are certain that your clients will never spend more, delighted customers will drive referrals for your business, increasing your client base without spending a penny on marketing.

You can see an example of how referrals affect the potential lifetime value of a client in this table.

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR CLIENT EXPERIENCE

The cloud is changing what is possible for the client experience.

With Receipt Bank, you can spend less time manually inputting data, and more time building strong client relationships.