Video summaries take heart stage at tax time

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You and your staff have labored tirelessly to finish purchasers’ tax returns precisely and on time this previous tax season. You have sifted by way of lots of of scattered paperwork, statements and receipts. You have reviewed reality patterns and precedents and double-checked the Tax Code nicely into the night hours. Then when it comes time to ship a thick abstract (tax return) of every shopper’s monetary life over the previous yr, all you want them to do is overview it and signal it.

However in spite of everything that work and stress, most purchasers do not care. There are simply three issues they need to know at tax time:

1. How a lot do I owe? (The What)
2. How do these numbers examine to final yr? (The So What)
3. What can I do going ahead to pay much less? (The Now What?)

Should you drop a 137-page tax return in your shopper’s mail (or inbox) together with your invoice hooked up, they will not look it over fastidiously. They will skip to Line 37 (how a lot is owed/overpaid), look at your invoice, and determine in the event that they really feel the quantity was definitely worth the consequence.

This frequent strategy at tax time doesn’t assist purchasers reply Query 2 (So What) and Query 3 (Now What) above. All you have executed is clarify to them “The What.” Should you’re not taking the time to elucidate the “So What” and the “Now What,” they will marvel in the event you (or one other agency) might have executed higher for them.

Too typically, a companion’s assistant or a junior tax particular person sends off the return to the shopper and says, “Please signal. You owe $29,000.” That is it. The loop is closed. Clearly, this isn’t an excellent expertise for purchasers.

At this level within the yr, I do know you are exhausted. The very last thing you need to do is sit down with every shopper and go over their tax returns with them. However that is the one time of yr when you have got their undivided consideration. Reap the benefits of this chance now! 

Suppose you created a brief, three-minute video on your higher purchasers that briefly walks them by way of the highlights of their return. The video might then present them a fast comparability of their 2023 vs. 2022 numbers and clarify what’s modified, what you see as the following steps shifting ahead, and what you will be taking note of within the yr forward.

It is best to have the ability to deal with all these questions in a easy three-minute video. It would not have to be an elaborate Hollywood manufacturing. You need to use your laptop’s microphone, digital camera and low-cost recording software program equivalent to Loom or BombBomb (Disclaimer: The writer has no industrial or promotional ties with the merchandise talked about on this article). See my earlier article for extra video recording fundamentals. Shoppers will love the movies. They will inform their associates about it the remainder of the yr, and movies might help you distinguish your self from all the opposite corporations on the market.

Doing these quick video summaries has many different advantages on your agency:

1. They provide the capability so as to add extra income from purchasers. That is as a result of purchasers now see how they’ll use your agency for higher-level companies equivalent to tax planning, entity planning or money stream planning to enhance their monetary end result within the yr forward (see Now What above). 

2. They prevent time. How typically have you ever emailed a shopper who responds, “I would like to speak to you”? You have primarily despatched them into the darkness, they usually do not know what’s taking place with their monetary state of affairs. Naturally, they’ve questions, however with a three-minute abstract video, you possibly can have answered 90% of their questions prematurely reasonably than taking a name. Take into consideration how a lot time that saves you — not only for the size of the decision, however for all of the scheduling and prep work earlier than the decision.

Three-minute abstract movies are an asset, not an expense. They will massively enhance productiveness.

3. They’re an excellent prep device on your mid-year conferences. How typically have you ever walked right into a mid-year shopper assembly not remembering their points or what you talked concerning the final time you met? Suppose you despatched them a abstract video if you delivered their tax return. In that case, you may overview that video proper earlier than the mid-year assembly and immediately recall any shade you added to their state of affairs. You will not should spend half the assembly attempting to recollect all the things you talked about final time. Even higher, your shopper will in all probability re-watch the video earlier than the assembly. No one is so busy that they cannot discover three minutes to overview a video.

You might begin with simply your finest 20 or 30 purchasers, however I am certain you will be amazed by the suggestions and need to roll out video summaries for the remainder of your shopper roster. Bear in mind, the thoughts is for having concepts, not for storing them. As I wrote earlier this yr, Do not succumb to the forgetting curve this tax season.

Right now of yr, you need to shut the loop with purchasers. Do not simply ask them to signal their return and hit them with a invoice. Once you try this, you are primarily sending them two payments — one from the IRS after which one from you. That is not constructing a relationship or displaying them how your expanded degree of companies might assist them obtain higher monetary outcomes and extra peace of thoughts. 

The What, So What and Now What’s your alternative to debate how one can add worth to the connection between April and December? Video summaries are an effective way to get the ball rolling. How does your agency comply with up with purchasers after delivering their tax returns? I might love to listen to from you.