Clients Insisting to Talk to You for Simple Questions

Clients, LOL. Many of them ask the same questions as if every year is the first year they are doing taxes.

The problem is, they won't listen to my 5 awesome employees - they MUST to talk to me.

No matter how polite my employees are to them, they get down right snippy if it's not me telling them, "yes you need to keep a mileage log", or "please fill out this simple business use of home organizer".

They even assure the client that I will go over their questions when I review the tax return together with them before it is finalized.

Nope, not good enough. They MUST talk to me. NOW! (I call them back though - I don't let them interrupt me)

At 10 minutes/call and 12 calls/day, it costs about $700 in revenue. That's a $50,000 reduction in net profit bu the time tax season is over.

I know that there's more to life than money. I'm grateful to have client relationships that are more than transactional.

But some of it is about the money.

Avoidable? What do you do?

It's been an issue for me too. The only thing I did is to insist my assistant pry into what they needed and tell them I may not respond until tomorrow. Once they got used to her help and the client developed a trust, the transition worked well. Now clients copy my assistant on complicated tax matters as well. You just have to train the client.

I have had that problem with some of my clients including some brazen people who are not my client but friends of my client who will call in to ask a simple tax question, which is more complicated!

I have taken this approach and it works out most of the time.

I will give them 5 minutes to describe the issue. Then I tell them that the question may sound simple to them but there are other moving parts to answer it correctly and I don't want to give them a wrong answer without knowing all the facts surrounding the issue. I politely ask them to make an appointment.

Here is a real question from yesterday from a friend of a client:

I want to claim my son on my tax return as a dependent. He is 22 and was in school half of the year in 2019 and he made $25K from his part time job. BTW he lives one state away from us, but we carry him on our health and car insurance.

All my clients pay a small premium of say $100. Their 1040 is say $550 when it would normally be $450. I build in a small buffer to allow for that. Yes its troubling.... just raise your fees to those clients and the problem will solve itself.

Here is a real question from yesterday from a friend of a client:

I want to claim my son on my tax return as a dependent. He is 22 and was in school half of the year in 2019 and he made $25K from his part time job. BTW he lives one state away from us, but we carry him on our health and car insurance.

LOL, so typical.

We charge $300 for such consultation to non-clients. "We don't work for free" - though we explain why we charge them much more politely than just saying that.

The real trick to smoking out a "free loader" from a potential client is to meet them in person and find out who prepared their returns before etc. I have found over the years that you can't really do that by a phone call or e-mail. I will give you two clear cut examples. Most of the situations are gray, therefore it is not as easy.

These are real situations:

1) Call from a young man (nephew of my client) doing taxes on TurboTax free edition. He gets stuck because he works in CT and stays in MA. The tax results were not correct because it was way more than what he typically pays. He calls TT and they tell him he must consult with a Tax Pro affiliated with TT and that will be extra money. After I talk to him, I told him I will prepare the return for about what he may have paid the TT Pro. He hires me.

2) Call from someone clear out of the blue. Lady wants me to tell how much EITC she will get and what I charge. After a little bit of tax talk (quoting a price range) I find out that she has already got 2 quotes from my competitors. Obviously she is shopping around. Not interested!

Before you take any action, you may want to be sure that you correctly understand the reason that the client does not want to talk with your assistant.

Over the past few years, I have picked up several well paying clients who previously worked with larger firms. One of the complaints I heard from them---and one of the reasons that they left the other firm---was that they were continually handed off to one of an ever changing group of assistants. The client was left feeling that they did not matter to the firm. Another problem was that, no matter how well the assistant knew tax law, they did not know the client or their situation. Some examples:

The assistant called the client by the wrong first name.

The assistant repetedly referred to a female client as "Mr.".

The assistant asked a client who had just lost her son about her children.

The assistant was not aware of uniquie aspects of the taxpayer's situation and this had to be explained in detail each time the client called.

With some clients, its the little things that matter.

The client was left feeling that they did not matter to the firm.

Last tax season I picked up 2 business clients for the exact same reason from one of the largest local CPA firms. They were paying top dollars to the firm. The CPA partner paid personal attention in the early years and as time went on, junior accountants handled their case. They did not bargain for that in their own words.

I am successful partly because my clients always communicate directly with me. Most utilize e-mail, so it is easier to manage, but some call. I take the calls (or send to voicemail if I am occupied), but they are never filtered through anyone else (as tempting as it may be at times). It is partially why I have a nearly 100% retention rate. My fees reflect the added value and "good feeling" they receive by always being able to communicate with ME.

Depending on size of your firm, at some point you do have to shift away from doing the work to managing the work, but that still includes communicating with clients directly and answering questions. It is why I communicate with clients even if I have a bookkeeper or another individual doing the work; it keeps me in the know about what is going on, and the client knows I remain engaged and care about their work. My time is not free; it is billed out for the time I am involved.

It is why I communicate with clients even if I have a bookkeeper or another individual doing the work;

That is the KEY! No one should expect the owner of the firm to personally do all their work all the time. It is just unreasonable. But most do want to see or hear from the owner or person they made the deal with. I think people feel insulted when they pay top dollars but have to deal with a secretary or junior person for their tax related questions.

I have an assistant that helps me, but I am the face in front of the client

At a small firm I worked at a few years ago, there was the owner, a CPA, the front desk person (admin, bookkeeping and simple tax returns) and me. I was introduced to clients over time and gradually they trusted me with their queries. Some clients had a sense for when the question was for me (or front desk person) and when it was for the boss. Entrance and exit interviews were generally conducted by the boss, although I sometimes stepped in. On one occasion an elderly client stopped by unannounced when the boss wasn't in. He arrived mid-interview and asked if she wanted him to take over. He was visibly miffed when she said no! She was 80-something years young at the time and good fun to be around.

Looking back, I think my old boss was really smart about encouraging clients to communicate with staff when it was appropriate. For the most part, he judged it correctly. There is some up-front cost, such as boss and employee being in the same meeting, but one could equally view that as an investment.

Thanks for the replies!

Some of the replies mention losing clients as a result of being a faceless preparer.

I am NOT suggesting not serving my clients personally. They ALL get a face to face appointment prior to their taxes being finalized (if they want).

What I'm pondering is how to manage the clients that call with simple, repetitive questions but INSIST on asking me and only me - and they get snippy when my assistants try to inquire as to what they need. It's not like just a few either - it's most of them. These are for simple questions too, like "can I deduct my cellphone".

I'm looking for a way to increase efficiency by managing these calls.

So far, I have two things that I do.

One is to have the assistants assure the clients that they will get face time with me before the tax return is finalized. This doesn't seem to work.

Two is to never take the call right away and do an early evening callback in a couple of days. This works because after a long day, suddenly their "emergency" is not worth their time on the phone anymore and they don't answer.

___________Break_________

Like many of you, I also get new clients because their last preparer treated them like a number.

We have a skewed sample because most preparers that would post on this board are also going to be the types that "care" and want to give at least reasonably good service.

But, in my under-saturated market, this "villain-preparer" probably does 400 more tax returns than me and thus adds nearly $160,000 in net profit to his/her bottom line.

I always wonder if I should stop giving such good service and emulate this (until and if the market changes).

I always wonder if I should stop giving such good service and emulate this (until and if the market changes).

Don't do it if that is not in your nature. At the end by giving the level of service that you would expect for yourself you are doing the right thing. I know folks that make double of what I make and I sleep better

I try to be really clear in setting expectations in new client consultation meetings. I have a wonderful team, and they are all here because they care about our clients. If they don't know the answer, they will find out, and they will get you the answer faster than I can get back to you. Most clients have no problem with this, especially as we've talked about it at the outset, and I'm always happy to take scheduled calls and meetings to handle in-depth issues and planning. They all get a face to face (or phone/video conference) meeting to wrap their tax returns. The long-time clients that wouldn't adapt and got snippy with my staff have been disengaged over the years.

Depending on size of your firm, at some point you do have to shift away from doing the work to managing the work, but that still includes communicating with clients directly and answering questions.

If I had employees, that would be the way I would operate. Nicely said.

The problem that I hear in the OP is that you are not billing for your time. Why in the world would you take a $50,000 hit on revenue? Time spent x billing rate = additional charge.

Just make sure that your intentions are good. Of course you are there to answer any questions if the client feels that he/she needs your attention, and of course, you bill accordingly. I attach a computerized schedule of the date and hours spent and a description of work done so that the client can see exactly how the bill became that final amount.

Some great stuff in this thread.

I always wonder if I should stop giving such good service and emulate this (until and if the market changes).

Don't do it if that is not in your nature. At the end by giving the level of service that you would expect for yourself you are doing the right thing. I know folks that make double of what I make and I sleep better

Yeah.

The problem that I hear in the OP is that you are not billing for your time. Why in the world would you take a $50,000 hit on revenue? Time spent x billing rate = additional charge.

Just make sure that your intentions are good.

My prices for tax preparation is high - so even with 10 minutes of simple questions (plus 30 minutes to go over the return with them when it's done), I'm still grossing over $300 per hour on 1040 tax returns, and much more than this on average.

With that analysis and JAD's comment I'm starting to feel greedy now for not wanting to talk to them for the simple things.

But.

They are simple questions. And I give them my time in person prior to finalizing the return - which is superior service as compared to many of my peers. It does not make sense that I would have to answer the simple questions when I give them my time later on anyway.

So I can become the villain preparer. and you can have the few clients that are fed up and leave me - you and your new clients can complain about me while I make much more money than you...

But that's not my nature.

I'm still grossing over $300 per hour on 1040 tax returns, and much more than this on average.

Very impressive! Unfortunately my market with competitors at every street corner does not support that. I am trying to do more business returns and leave the run of the mill 1040 to self prep or free file.

Not averaging 300 bucks an hour here. But we do charge for phone calls if it amounts to anything. Any time I get a call I charge a quarter of an hour. When we bill for the return it reflects all those times and the billing language includes something like "and various phone calls and emails during the year".

Any time I get a call I charge a quarter of an hour.

You are kidding, right??