controversial

santino

Ok, i'm going to touch on a sensitive issue here with all you accountants and non-accountants out there.
The topic is "Accountants Service to their clients".
I can only go on my own experience so obviously I'm just looking for other people's reactions/experiences.

1) I am a trainee accountant. My boss is very selective with the time and effort that he gives to our clients. This entails not returning their phonecalls and taking a long time to fill out simple (ish) forms.

2) We have taken on a handful of clients this year because they have not being receiving good service from their accountants (see 1 above)

3)Additionally, an acquaintance of mine told me that he had asked his accountant to fill up a tax registration form. He hasn't heard back from him in 6 months.

I'd like to finish by saying that of course not every accountant is like this, being the noble profession that it is. And typically accountants have too much work on their plate at the best of times.

But I am hearing more bad stories than good...and I do feel that the above examples contravene the essence of the profession, among others ethics and integrity.

Be Gentle

Mr. Incognito

So your boss priorities bigger clients. This is because he wants TO GET PAID.

If your boss provides bad service I'm sure his clients will move elsewhere- it's a free market.

As for the whole accountants giving bad service- this is a generalisation and by it's nature subjective.

I think the main problem you are having is that the image of accounting you had in your head and the reality are two different things. welcome to the real world.

santino

I probably didn't make it that clear in the original post. He doesn't prioritise the bigger clients. He ignores them as well!
I hear what you're saying, it all makes good sense but my question would be why shouldn't the reality and the ideal be the same?

Does it really come down to money??

Hanley

santino wrote: »

I probably didn't make it that clear in the original post. He doesn't prioritise the bigger clients. He ignores them as well!
I hear what you're saying, it all makes good sense but my question would be why shouldn't the reality and the ideal be the same?

Does it really come down to money??

I'll never forget what one of my lecturers in college told me....

Some of the simple rules around CAT and CGT are so idiot proof that if people knew how easy it was to save large amounts of cash on them, there'd be no need for you. You can literally save tens of thousands of euro's with 30 mintues work. If you save someone 10k, do you think they'll mind paying you 1k for doing it?? Sometimes it's better that the normal people don't know that.


Extreme example of course, but it does hold true.

Gibbins123

If you want to keep a client then you will treat them well.

I'm a trainee and my firm always treat clients well and always return phone calls asap.

Your boss sounds like a bit of an a$$! The clients will likely leave if they are not satisfied.

Not sure how much your boss/firm can get in trouble for not doing certain work for a client if the client has requested it and it has to be done by law... eg a set of accounts.

santino

Gibbins123 wrote: »

If you want to keep a client then you will treat them well.

I'm a trainee and my firm always treat clients well and always return phone calls asap.

Your boss sounds like a bit of an a$$! The clients will likely leave if they are not satisfied.

Not sure how much your boss/firm can get in trouble for not doing certain work for a client if the client has requested it and it has to be done by law... eg a set of accounts.

Some of the clients have "secretly" told me that they have been talking amongst themseves and they are going to leave. However, the boss is the bomb when he's on his game, especially with tax. He knows it backwards. This probably is why they stick with him.

Can I ask if you are in a large/medium/small practice?