What if Accountants Offered Work “In 30 Minutes Or It’s Free” or: “Absolutely, Positively Overnight”? It Could Change Everything!

 . . . or at least  so opines Edi Osborne, of Mentor Plus, at CPA Trendlines.  She throws in a third promise you’ve probably heard but we couldn’t fit on the subject line:  “No Surprise Billing. Ever.”  More:  

What do these three tag lines have in common? Predictability.

Dominoes and Fed Ex built their entire business model on making (and keeping) an uncomplicated predictability promise to the customer.  Dominoes and Fed Ex looked at their marketplace and asked one simple question, “What is your number-one  frustration in dealing with pizza and package delivery?” Those frustrations were dissected and turned into game-changing promises that rocked everyone else in their industry.

In the same way, accounting firms that adopt a “no surprise billing” promise could be game changers in their marketplace as well.

Game changing innovations are not limited to big companies. In fact, even the smallest of accounting firms are in a position to be game changers.

All it takes, is seeing an issue from the customer’s perspective and then reverse engineering your firm to deliver on a promise that provides a greater level of customer control and predictability than their competitors. Dominoes looked at the question of speedy delivery and developed all new, patented technology to reduce the cycle time from ordering to delivery by 50% of its competitors. Likewise, Fed Ex founder, Fred Smith gave birth to the “hub” concept at a time when all his competitors were following old distribution patterns. In both cases, these companies took a key frustration and turned it into a key benefit to their customers.

Here is the four-step process for turning a frustration into an opportunity to WOW your clients (and truly differentiate yourself from your competitors).

1. Uncover a Key Frustration
2. Reframe the frustration into an opportunity
3. Articulate a Promise
4. Reverse Engineer to deliver on the promise

Read the whole article, and more detail about each of those points, here. 

Variations on a Theme