How do you create value for your clients, given their broad range of advice needs?
Consumers these days are flooded with the abundance of information available online. This information is convenient for them to come by. They also have the ability to more easily self-direct their investments. Clients are no longer coming to advisers and accountants purely for information. What they are seeking is for their advisers to provide insights from this information and to help them make the right choices about their financial situation.
For accountants, traditional services like tax, compliance and admin are slowly becoming more commoditised due to advances in technology. Innovative technology has provided an avenue for many administrative, manual and resource intensive, ‘non value add’ tasks to be automated. This has resulted in accountants having more time to spend with their clients. It has also allowed clients to engage more closely with their own information and hence the overall advice process. Those who have embraced the opportunities have been handsomely rewarded and those who resist continue to fall behind.
While operationally technology has aided cost reduction in practices, it has also resulted in diminished margins in the traditional accounting services. Without a strong value proposition, clients will choose on cost, which does not necessarily equate to quality and threatens your existing client base.
The most successful professional advisers are embracing the abundance of consumer information to create client touch points and to start or continue the advice conversation. They are talking to their clients regularly to understand their needs. They are challenging their clients with ideas and with possibilities and are looking to create value at every interaction.
One way to grow your value proposition is to rethink the service mix that you currently provide to your clients. If your traditional services have become commoditised then providing a wider range of advice services makes sense. Accountants are in the perfect position to do so. Not only are they the trusted adviser to their clients, the legislation is affording them the ability to move into financial advice, or at least bring the capability into their practice.
There are a number of benefits that can be realised from expanding your practices services into wealth advice, the most important of all is ensuring your clients have access to a trusted adviser and services that meet their needs. Leaving this need unmet opens the door to competition, because if you don’t do it someone else will. Let you clients know that you are the trusted adviser.
Stevie-Ann Dovico is passionate about the accounting and financial advice industry and supporting the growth of small to medium businesses. She is a lover of learning, problem solving and finding better ways of doing things.
