Chapter's Message

If I said “Great Expectations” you would probably think “Charles Dickens”. The two go together and are embedded in our psyche. Sort of like “mom” and “apple pie”, or is that “baseball”? There is a word for that type of bonding – it’s called “branding”. It means that when one word is mentioned there is an immediate, automatic response. This conjunction is what we attempt to do in our business. When our clients think “taxes” we want them to think of our company.

Which brings me right back to “great expectations”. Because in branding ourselves, we instill in our clients great expectation of our expertise, our friendliness, our compassion, our ability to assist them in the good fight against that faceless adversary.

Our clients don’t get upset by an event. They get upset because their expectations have not been met. It therefore, is our responsibility to ensure that our clients see the value of what we deliver. That it’s not just the tax return. That the client interview, the advise, the planning, the discussion, that sets us above a mere “enterer of data” and makes us “the tax advisor”. In becoming the tax advisor we then “brand” ourselves in our clients mind. The more clients we brand, the more word of mouth spreads until, finally, our name is taxes.

During this tax season especially, but also throughout the year, make sure your brand becomes synonymous with “Excellent Advisor” by meeting your client’s great expectations.

Margaret C. Kehoe, EA

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