A SURVEY by America’s representative body for accountants reveals that client retention is the number one concern across the sector in the US.

The biennial survey, by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), asked firms of all sizes to rank their top practice management issues. For the first time in several years recruiting and retaining talent and tax issues were eclipsed by client retention as the key worry.

The CPA Firm Top Issues Survey gathers information from a wide range of practitioners in firms of different sizes to generate a picture of the critical challenges facing members.

Winning clients is big worry for all accountants
For all sizes of firms, winning new clients was also in the top ten, and is a top five issue for firms with six or more professionals. 

Mark Koziel, AICPA senior technical manager of firm practice management says of the results: “I’ve confirmed this [client retention] issue with many CPA practitioners from around the country and there seems to be a few reasons for this concern.

“Some have said clients are looking at their fees to try to reduce costs, and are leaving for a small decrease in fees. Companies of all shapes and sizes are looking for ways to reduce costs.”

Client retention ‘down to serving wants and needs’
Koziel says that, as firms grow increasingly concerned over losing clients, those firms who are surviving or thriving in the downturn have found that client retention always comes back to client service. “During the last few years, when firms were extremely busy, focusing on getting the work done became a greater priority than client service,” he observes.

“In these difficult times, companies can’t do enough to improve customer service and make sure they are serving not only client needs, but client ‘wants’ as well. The firms that are currently winning the race are doing just that.”

Koziel reveals that the successful firms are meeting with current clients more frequently and staying in tune with client wants, and that the successful firms understand that in order to prevent the price shopping of accounting services, they need to be their clients’ trusted business advisor, not just another vendor.

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