Tips on Better Meetings with Clients as a CPA

Tax season is rapidly approaching, and CPAs and accountants should start preparing now to meet their clients before the April deadline. If you are one of the hundreds of CPAs and accountants in Connecticut who spent the last two years working from home or just work out of your home regularly, we would like to suggest OfficePlace as a location where you can use our meeting and conference rooms to meet with clients during tax season. We have a large selection of rooms to accommodate meetings that have anywhere from two to thirty people. Read on to learn our tips on better meetings with clients as a CPA.

Manage your meetings mindfully.

Any meeting that you schedule with a client should always have an agenda prepared ahead of time. Be mindful of the time you allocate to each meeting topic. Part of managing your meetings with clients mindfully is being on time. It shows the client you are excited and that you respect their time. If you think that the meeting might run over your allotted time, reevaluate the agenda and let them know that you want to use what time you have left to cover items that are a higher priority. Remember that if this meeting runs overtime, it may throw off the rest of the meetings you have lined up for the client.

Have a meeting leader and secretary.

Meetings that are at the height of tax time commonly have more than one person from your staff in attendance. Someone should be leading the discussion and there should also be a person there to just take notes. Make sure you allocate who these people will be ahead of time as you don’t want to be stumbling over each other or having long silences. Incidences like this may make your company look disorganized.

Have items for meeting prepared ahead of time.

This is probably one of the easiest and simplest things you can do to make a meeting a more pleasing experience for your client. It shows that you have anticipated their needs ahead of time. It is also a good idea to make sure the client you are meeting with is prepared for the meeting. Send them an email at least two days in advance of the meeting with a list of the things they will need to bring. Normal things that you should bring to a meeting as a CPA include an agenda, client file, contract, pens, paper, business cards, and a laptop.

Close the meeting with the next steps and action items.

A successful meeting with a client should end with clear instructions for the next step. You should also have action items for everyone. Decide where and when the next meeting should take place. If you are going to send the client a proposal, make sure they gave you clear instructions as to where it should be sent. After the meeting concludes, review the notes and send an email to the client outlining the items again. You can also include the date, time, and location of the next meeting. Always make sure to give them your contact information in case the meeting needs to be rescheduled.