Why Our Clients Need Us to Be Radical

Think customer experience, not customer service.

By Jody Padar

From Success to Significance: The Radical CPA Guide

Innovation isn’t just about the technology you use and how you use it, it’s about how you create an experience for your customer. Still, after all this time, CPAs are unaware that they can create a phenomenal experience around the art of taxes and accounting. I think it’s hard for them to imagine the opportunities to serve and delight their customers in a new way.

We all know our customers are built on relationships; however, in today’s fast-moving world, I’m not sure that is enough. The customer’s expectations have changed around service models and response times. CPAs need to figure out how to match these ever-expanding expectations.

And the expectations don’t just belong to the customers. Firm owners have to also meet the needs of employees. Have you checked in with your team lately? We hear the same things over and over: Team members are frustrated and annoyed with the partner group’s lack of interest in real change or their ability to grasp what it takes.

The problem is, they don’t stick around long because it’s their market. It’s a talent war out there, folks, and the most progressive firms are getting the best of the bunch. The 2016 National Benchmarking Report released by “INSIDE Public Accounting” estimated average turnover at public accounting firms with more than $75 million revenue at 17.2 percent. In addition, in its report on global labor force trends, the McKinsey Global Institute concluded that by 2020 there will be a global supply shortage of 83-85 million people with college degrees or secondary education.

However, talent will respond to a lower wage if the culture is a good match. Culture is complicated, and being a more diverse and inclusive environment can increase retention and improve innovation.

Understanding the Urgency Behind the Intersection of User Experience, Technology and Business

We’ve talked about innovation. It’s not going away. We’ve talked about the importance of having an agile mindset, and more of us are illustrating that in the way we run our firms. And you also by now are familiar with the four (okay, five) tenets that are the foundation of a Radical firm.

But let’s talk about accounting transformation. Let’s talk about the crossroads of user experience (UX), technology, and business.

Somehow, they are all intersecting and we’re not exactly sure what to do. When I say we’re not exactly sure, the Radicals are working on it, and we’re figuring it out, but there is a long way for us to go.

Why?

Because we don’t even have the tools that we need to service our customers properly. The profession’s legacy vendors have not kept up with the Internet of things (IoT) technology and user expectations, because of our profession’s slow adoption.

The Internet companies that aren’t firms are scaling faster, cheaper and sexier than traditional firms. And VC capital is funding the technology, experience and business. Smaller agile firms desperately want the vendors in the space to move faster.

Our customers aren't exactly sure how to use our new technologies. Think about it: We’ve used portals for a long time now, but are portals the most user-friendly experience in the world? Nope! How do we combine the two? How do we merge the offline and the online worlds together to make it so that everybody loves what’s happening?

Remember that old-school ketchup bottle I talked about in "The Radical CPA" illustrating the old-school firm, you know where you’re shaking and trying to get the information out and it’s taking forever? In cloud-based firms, the technology firms are the latest cutting-edge ketchup bottle – where it’s easy to squeeze and get what you want right away. You can even take it one step further with a ketchup packet from your favorite fast food joint. You can tear it open or open from the top to dip. My point? The customer has a choice for ketchup delivery.

How can we transition our firms to be like a key with … no key? In the old days, cars had keys and you had to turn the ignition to start a car, right? Many cars now have key fobs that just need to be in the vicinity of the car to start it. And today you can start a car with an app from your phone!

How will we deliver data in similar ways?

Think about it like this: Right now, CPAs are the key to the data. But now the question is, how can we have the information make an impact without a report? I don’t know the answer but I know we will have to create a solution soon.

How Blinders Hurt Clients

As a Radical CPA, or as a managing partner of a wannabe Radical CPA firm, you are already up for the challenge. Our job is to get others to join us! I don’t think they really understand the urgency of the Radical manifesto. Tax seasons come and go, and if they see some minimal growth and their team doesn’t leave in an exodus, they're fine. But that’s no way to run a business.

I truly believe CPAs think they are serving their customers well, but their blinders prevent them from being exceptional. There is nothing like feeling the fear, walking through the confusion, and making it out more successful than ever before. If we’ve been through it, it’s more likely our customers will trust us when they must go through it themselves. When customers are expecting digital transformation and we haven’t been through that transformation, why should they come to us to guide them?