Communication is key at your accounting firm, and effective communication is especially vital for conquering your daily procedures. Everyone’s had those days where simple miscommunication makes your tasks take twice, even three times as long. A break in the chain of instruction can cause a lot of stress and take up a lot of bandwidth. If you want to tighten up procedures and potentially grow your accounting firm, you have to start with good communication.
Establish Some Ground Rules
To communicate effectively with your staff and clients, you need to know how and when to contact everyone. Utilizing a client communication plan can help with one part of the puzzle. These documents outline everything you need to know, such as how and when you’ll communicate, how often, and what you SHOULDN’T do. For example, if a client never checks their voicemail, you’ll know not to waste any time leaving one. Regarding your staff, the best rule of thumb is to standardize communication across the firm. That way, no one ever misses a meeting because they weren’t sure if it was on Zoom or Teams!
Check-In, Again and Again
You’ve heard it said before: there’s no such thing as a stupid question. At your firm, you should encourage questions and feedback frequently. After all, it’s better to answer the same question twice than end up with mass confusion. Establish a system for client and staff feedback so that all concerns and suggestions can be taken into account. You can also check in regularly with clients and your team, making them much more comfortable communicating with you.
Improve Your Decision-Making
If you want to scale your firm or improve your efficiency, the first place to look at is your procedures. That’s why good communication can drastically improve your decision-making and management skills. If you gather feedback and ask questions, you’ll know what procedures need improving. Sometimes, a process just needs to be completely overhauled. By making sure your clients and staff are comfortable enough to talk to you, you’ll be able to improve the health of your business.
Market More Effectively
Want to know another benefit of successful communication? You understand your clients better. That means that you’ll be better situated to advertise to new potential customers! Think about it: the more you communicate with your clients, the more you’ll understand their business, their wants, and their needs. You can apply this information to your marketing strategy to draw in the best clients for your firm.
If you want a good business, you’ve got to communicate well. Your day-to-day procedures will run much more smoothly when everyone is on the same page. Start with getting a communication plan in place and developing a system to receive feedback and the next thing you know you’ll be on your way to growing and managing your firm more effectively!
Have any great communication strategies at your firm? Let us know YOUR tips and tricks for keeping everyone on track down below!
