New survey data from Sam’s List, shows that 34.8% of business owners are actively looking to replace their accountant, and of those, 42.9% want to make the switch within one to two weeks. For accounting firms, that’s a client retention crisis hiding in plain sight.
Kimberly Green, co-founder of Sam’s List, a directory connecting businesses with accounting and finance professionals, says the firms that retain clients all share a few simple habits, and the firms that lose clients tend to make the same preventable mistakes.
Green has identified three things accounting firms can start doing now to stop losing clients:
- Build a public online review presence: Most accountants avoid reviews entirely out of fear. But in a market where clients increasingly find their accountant online, visible reviews signal confidence and separate you from every other firm with a generic website.
- Set up an automated email follow-up system: Most firms send a single reply to a prospective client and never follow up again. A structured drip sequence running for months dramatically improves conversion from inquiry to signed client.
- Specialize and learn to say no: Firms that try to serve every industry end up making costly mistakes in the ones they don’t fully understand. Picking a niche and turning away clients outside of it builds trust and lowers errors.
1. Build a public online review presence
The old playbook was referrals and word of mouth. That’s changed. Clients now search online, compare firms, and read what other business owners have to say before picking up the phone. Yet most accounting professionals still avoid public reviews entirely.
“Online presence is so big, and many people in this field of accounting and financial advisors don’t like getting reviews because they’re afraid of it or they just don’t want that chatter around them,” explains Green. “So if someone does have public reviews about them, that should speak volumes because they are confident in the work that they produce.”
Green points to firms with dozens of client reviews as proof that the strategy works. These firms have clients willing to take time out of their day to write a two-minute review vouching for them publicly. That kind of social proof is a competitive advantage most accounting firms are leaving on the table, particularly when younger business owners expect the same transparency they get when choosing a restaurant or a contractor.
2. Set up an automated email follow-up system
Most accounting firms lose prospective clients to silence. The firm sends one reply, the prospect doesn’t respond, and nobody follows up.
“Most accountants will send one email to you, and that’s it. They’ll never follow up with you if you don’t follow up with them,” says Green.
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Green recommends building an email sequence that runs for at least six months: daily emails in the first week, then tapering to every two days, a few times a week, weekly, and finally biweekly. The key is staying visible during what is a notoriously painful decision-making process for business owners.
“You have to recognize finding an accountant is the worst task ever,” Green notes. “And so if you’re staying top of mind for someone, that’s going to help them remember you and help the likelihood of them reaching back out.”
Firms that have implemented this approach see a clear jump in closing rates from inquiry to signed client.
3. Specialize and learn to say no
E-commerce, real estate, and healthcare businesses all have complex financial structures that require specialized knowledge. When a generalist firm takes on a client in one of these industries, errors accumulate quietly until the client catches them, and by then, trust is already gone.
“That’s why I think it’s important for accountants to really find a niche to specialize in, and just really be a subject matter expert in serving a group of people, or a specific type of businesses, so that they have fewer errors getting caught by their clients,” says Green.
The Sam’s List survey backs this up: 52.7% of business owners say their accountant is not meeting their needs. Green says most of those cases come down to a mismatch between what the client’s business requires and what the firm can actually handle. Saying no to a client you can’t serve well protects your reputation and opens the door to referrals from firms that specialize in what you turned away.
Photo credit: Louis Handel/Unsplash
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