Top three factors for income tax preparers to ensure your clients return and recommend you to others
As an income tax preparer, your business model relies heavily on repeat business. Not only do you have to continue gaining new clients, you need to ensure that the clients you gain come back year after year.
The following three factors are the most important when managing a tax preparation business. If you have these three things down, you are certain have repeat business, and your clients will recommend you to others.
#1: Expertise
First and foremost you need to know what you’re doing and possess the right education, experience, and knowledge to be able to serve your clients no matter what their financial situation. This means you should not only have a solid base of tax knowledge, but should stay up-to date in your tax education through continuing education courses or seminars.
You should also stay on top of trending topics in the industry, engage in conversation with other tax professionals to stay sharp, and pay attention to new laws or IRS updates that come out.
You should also openly display your credentials in your office where clients can see.
#2: Strong Interpersonal Skills
Most people associate tax preparation with rules and numbers. You don’t strictly deal in rules and numbers; you deal with people and their personal finances. As a tax preparer, you are a service provider. Not only do you need to provide an accurate tax return that has been properly submitted, your client also needs to have a pleasant experience during the process.
A good tax professional gets to know his or her clients and builds strong relationships with them. This is a key to repeat business and also influences their recommendation of your services to others.
#3 Guarantee
Consumers want a good value for their money. In this industry, you must be able to compete with tax preparation software and tax companies that market their services by promising big tax refunds. In order to compete, you’ve got to offer the reassurance that you will get them the most value for their money and that you will provide an error free return.
For example, Peoples Tax offers a Triple Guarantee and year-round service for their clients. This means that if a client is audited, they will help the client prepare for the audit and serve as an advisor through the entire process. They also promise to double-check every return for errors and will reimburse the cost should an error occur and they guarantee satisfaction or the client may choose not to accept the return and will pay nothing for the time spent by the Peoples Tax preparer.
Blow your customers away with customer service, build relationships, hire people with strong interpersonal skills, offer your clients value for their money, and be well educated and credentialed. These important factors will ensure that clients keep coming back and recommend you to others.
If you feel you need to sharpen your skills through continuing education, check out The Income Tax School. We can also provide the tools you need to build or improve your tax practice through our Tax Practice Management Manuals.