Originally posted by saptastic
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1) it's so hard to compare quality of customer service. On paper all "contractor accountants" are the same. They all do your accounts, tax returns, say they'll answer queries etc. There may be some quantifiable differences like whether personal tax returns, references, registered office address etc are included/an extra, but generally it looks like accountants sell a homogenous product. Customer service will vary massively from firm to firm, speed/quality/accuracy of responses to queries/work done, but it's hard quantify. Clients won't tend to have experience of lots of accountancy firms, so will tend to assume "they're all the same". Even clients who are very aware of the significant variation in customer service will find it's hard to tell which firms are/aren't good.
2) historically accountants charged based on time spent. Yes any query you asked lead to a bill, but at least it was in the accountant's interest to give you a decent, swift reply. To be a more profitable firm, you generally charge more per minute/hour. You could try to degrade service, less effort on response quality, but clients are far more likely to challenge a modest bill for poor work than a large bill for good work. Many firms have drifted to fixed fees. Clients initially like this, no surprise bills. However, the easiest way to be more profitable now is to degrade the service. It's harder for clients to notice than price rises. Reduce the number of highly qualified/experienced accounting staff (as they're expensive), replace with a few poorly qualified/inexperienced staff. The staff will hate it and rapidly move on, but there's always another sucker ready to take on the job. At least in the short term you still get £/month from clients regardless of the delay/quality of your responses. You then rely on client lethargy/"better the devil you know" hoping they stick with you. Your brand reputation may take a hit, increasing complaints, but people will assume "they're all as bad" so the whole industry gets tarnished rather than the poor performers.
3) accountancy firms have been pushed to run less like professional firms (governed by ethics, doing right by the customer = primary focus), more like businesses (governed by profit, any extra way you can squeeze cash from a client, do it). You can see this by the fact VCs have taken an interest in the market, firms owned/run by non-accountants, increasing number of complaints about poor service (rather than high fees), and that increasingly firms are supplementing their income directly from clients with income indirectly from clients. You want a complementary service (insurance/mortgage/whatever), your accountant can likely recommend someone. In years gone by this would have been the firm the accountant felt provided the best value service for your needs, no benefit to the accountant other than the comfort they've done the right thing. Now it'll often be the firm that gives the accountant the biggest kickback. You likely won't even know as you'll be assuming you can trust your accountant and won't bother to read the small print.
The accountancy world, especially for the small end of the market, needed to change/evolve, and still does. However I think some of the changes to date have hurt clients far more than they've helped them. Sorry for the essay, #endrant
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