Whenever I ask this question during my seminars for accountants, very rarely does anyone answer ‘yes’. I then ask a follow up question.
“If you did some work for a client but they weren’t happy because you made a big mess of it, would you insist on charging them extra to correct your mistake?”
Again we tend to have unanimity. No one would charge extra to resolve a mistake of their own making. To my mind this is the start of a service guarantee. And it’s the sort of thing, which, if promised up front, can help generate confidence from prospective clients. I included a related point (about fixed fee guarantees) at the top of the list of examples I gave in a previous post on this blog: Is the way you describe yourself helping you to generate enough business?
Over the years I’ve often seen references to service guarantees on accountancy firm websites. I came across one last week and established that it wasn’t unique to the firm in question; Just put yourself in the shoes of a prospective client and consider how effective is the message below. It’s listed on some accountancy firms’ websites as one of the answers to the question ‘Why us?’
Our 100% Risk Free Guarantee…
Use our services to help you pay less tax and increase wealth, completely at our risk. Our services are so outstanding there’s a 100% Risk Free Guarantee.
Here it is…
If at any time you are not completely happy with our work please discuss it with us. If we really can’t sort the issue for you then don’t pay for the part you’re not happy with. Ask for it at any time within 30 days of the work and we won’t expect payment.
That means…
- No small print;
- No quibbles;
- No questions asked;
- No exceptions;
- No strings
I think it’s very cleverly worded and does put some (but not a lot) of responsibility on the accountant to achieve absolute clarity as regards the services to be provided up front.
How would you feel if a prospective client asked if you were as confident as this in your work? Or why should they choose you over another accountant that offers such a guarantee?
Yet more 24-carat common sense from Mark. Two other points to think about.
Do you use your guarantee as an opening tool – i.e. in your promotional material – or as a closing tool – i.e. prospects only find out about it if they’re hesitant after you ask for the order? No rights or wrongs here; you just need to be clear in your own mind which you want to do.
Definitely if you deliver a product, but even if you deliver a service, guarantee the way you deliver. A Pizza Delivery company doesn’t guarantee the flavour or the temperature, they guarantee the speed of delivery!
Don’t make the trip point too likely or too impossible. Make the trip point highly measurable, try making the ‘payout’ something other than money – it will usually cost you less to do so and may well be more valuable to the client than cash.
Great point Mark!!
We offer a similar guarantee to this, but to be honest, we don’t make enough of it.
It does keep us on our toes and ensures that we reamin client focused, but we don’t really promote it to prospective clients as we should. It’s not until we are sending out a welcome letter to a new client that it actually gets brought up.
So, thank you, we’ll take a look at changing things around now!!
I’ve written a pair of articles about this: http://ekochman.wordpress.com/2009/02/17/customer-satisfaction/ and http://ekochman.wordpress.com/2009/02/13/my-guarantee/ both of which are in complete agreement with you. My guarantee is what gets me more business from my existing clients.
I agree with this being a good idea but it seems very difficult to put into practice because a lot needs defining. I’m sure there is a better way of getting the same message across without being that subjective or risking having to explain what the client is going to get back in great detail