One of the things that has interested me most while working with Just Accountants.co.uk has been getting an insight into what people really want from their accountant.

We talk to numerous companies every week who are, for one reason or another, thinking about changing their accountant.

I say 'for one reason or another', but really, it seems there is ONLY ONE overriding reason that companies want to change their accountants. And that is: service.

People may express it in different ways: responsiveness; feeling valued; name recognition. But essentially, it all comes down to the same thing. Your clients want you to deliver a personal service.

They want you to instantly recognise their name, want their calls and emails responded to in a timely manner. They just want you to care.

Price? It's just not important. Even those people we speak to who mention price say things like this:

"It's too expensive for what we're getting".

If you are an accountant, your clients want to feel valued and important. And if you are unable to deliver that, then they will go elsewhere.

Let's be very clear : chartered accountancy is an EXTREMELY crowded market. There is no reason why your clients should stay with you if you aren't delivering the service they expect.

Conversely, there is an important lesson to be learnt here, I feel. And that is: charge what your services are worth and don't feel ashamed that you are more expensive than your competitors. Your client retention will be so much higher.

It was only a couple of weeks ago that I spoke to a chartered accountant on Merseyside whose minimum fee was £1,000 p.a. For that you could get end of year accounts (providing the bookkeeping was done properly) and a tax return. That's it.

I asked this particular accountant how he could compete with local accountants who charged far, far less. He said: "we don't compete with those companies..we just make sure we know our clients and when they ask us to do something, we do it....they know that we know their business and will give them good advice when they ask for it".

The message here is : in an increasingly crowded accounting market, offer a high level service because by competing solely on price, you are doing yourselves and your clients a disservice.