The most important thing in a successful accountant/advisory relationship is communication. The first paragraph of our engagement agreement spells this out in detail. Yet the lack of communication remains the largest obstacle to improved client financial performance. Financial coaching is ineffective without effective communication. This is how we deal with the issue.
My observations:
1) We need to be more effective in getting clients’ attention because peoples’ attention and focus is declining in this modern world. There are so many communication distractions that we must find a way to make important financial communications get noticed.
2) Most clients prefer short text messages over all other forms of communication.
3) Our engagement agreement says that if they send private information via text, then I can respond via text. Most of my update videos do not include private information.
4) The best way to pack a lot of useful important information into a short message with high impact is video with screen share.
5) My capacity is about 3 update videos in a day (I limit myself to about 3 hours of client desk time per day as a life balance issue). This is a pace that allows for timely updates for my own active client workload.
So, I create short client update videos about the length of a voicemail message and sending them via text message. I will monitor results to look for patterns.
Of course, I welcome feedback. That’s the point.