It may be the client that engages the accounting firm, but Cohen & Co. Ltd. President and CEO Randy Myeroff says it’s the accounting company’s job to keep the business.
“Every single day, we have got to be presuming that someone else is out there attempting to do a better job than we are or attempting to convince our clients they can do a better job than we are,” he says. “You’ve got to have your people armed and prepared. If you aren’t in front of your client, if you aren’t spending time, if we’re not talking and communicating, you’ll never know what they’re doing or what their pains are.”
To let his clients know what to expect from his firm, Myeroff recently sent a letter to every one of his clients. Those expectations are:
- Beyond just getting to know you, we want to develop a relationship with mutual trust and respect.
- Beyond listening carefully to what you tell us, we want to ask the right questions and develop an in-depth understanding of your goals and objectives.
- Beyond being responsive to your needs, we want to be proactive.
- Beyond meeting requirements and standards, we want to be creative and innovative.
- Beyond helping your business remain financially stable, we want to help it grow and thrive.
“The answer is be involved,” Myeroff says. “The great thing about the accounting business, unlike most other professional services, it’s a real privilege for us. Every good CPA understands this privilege.”
