Today is Go See the Client Day. Sometimes, for convenience, an accountant leaves their office to meet a client. Sometimes it’s in their places of business—a plant shop that looks more like a jungle, a retail store’s back room full of boxes, or even a restaurant floor in the middle of the lunch rush. Sometimes it’s somewhere between the accountant’s office and the client’s place of business—a coffee shop, a park bench, or anywhere with a table and chairs (and preferably Internet access). Either way, Go See the Client Day is an adventure. Not only does the accountant get to see their client face to face, they also get to spend some time out of the office, maybe even grabbing a coffee along the way. Here is a description of one accountant’s Go See the Client Day experience.
7:00 AM: Wake up excited! I have a consultation with a client today at her office instead of ours. She usually comes to us, but it’s a busy season for her, so we agreed that I would meet her at her office instead. I love visiting clients at their place of business. It’s an opportunity to see their hard work (and ours) come to life. You can really see their passion at play when they’re in their element. And I get to go grab a coffee from that awesome café down the road.
9:00 AM: Arrive at my office, forgoing my daily coffee. I’ll pick one up later. I greet my coworkers and head to my desk to go through my emails and take care of some business. Since I’ll be gone for half the day, I want to make sure everything is handled.
11:00 AM: Okay, time to prepare for my consultation. The client is a husband/wife real estate developer and investor team. Today I’m meeting with the wife; we never really see the husband. He does most of the behind-the-scenes work. She’s the face of the company and takes care of all the financials, marketing, buying, and selling. She asked a few questions earlier this week and shared some general topics she is confused about. I’ll start by going through those. They’re mostly questions about our transactions and activities.
11:25 AM: Oh! Only an hour and a half before we’re supposed to meet. I’d better send her a quick email to make sure we’re still on for her office at 1 PM. Then I’m hitting the books. Her company’s books, specifically.
12:01 PM: Okay, so plans have changed. She had to run an errand and is on the other side of the city. Instead of her office, she wants to meet at a library. Good thing I emailed her! I look up the directions and it’s a little farther out than her office. I have to leave earlier than expected. I won’t have time to stop at the café beforehand.
12:02 PM: Look at the library’s website. It looks like all their conference rooms are already booked. It could be a challenge to find somewhere private enough to talk without a lot of background noise. But hey, we’ll make it work. I haven’t seen this client in six months, and she’s great. I’d meet her in an alleyway if that was where she wanted to meet. As long as there was a table to set my laptop on, that is. I go through my notes on the client.
12:25 PM: About time to leave! I print out a copy of our agenda for the day so she has something to scribble notes on if she needs to. Speaking of, we just got in new notebooks and pens with our logo on them. I grab a notebook and a couple pens for my client.
12:30 PM: Grab my laptop and the charger, and hop in my Uber. I’m getting a little nervous. I’ve met her several times, and I know she’s nice, but I still want to make a good impression. Psych myself up the whole way to the library. You’ve got this. It’s a consultation. You love consultations.
1:00 PM: Meet the client inside the library. She found a nice little corner table for us to sit at.
1:05 PM: Start talking about new properties she’s purchased and get down to business discussing the questions she has about sales and a recent major transaction.
2:15 PM: The conversation shifts to talking about her business’ future and what its activities will look like in the next couple of months. “Well, it’s a buyer’s market…” We talk about business plans and how to stay organized as business ramps up.
2:45 PM: End the meeting feeling empowered and accomplished. I learned a lot about real estate and my client, and she learned all the answers to her questions and then some! We created a roadmap of how we could better work as a team. We discussed her scalability and plans for engagements and development.
2:56 PM: Walk out of the library chatting about some ideas she has for a home she’s flipping to rent out to tenants. She loves a good open floor plan and is thinking about gutting the whole house to make it happen. I’ve seen pictures of what she can do to a house on her website. It’s going to look cool no matter what.
3:35 PM: Stop by the café around the block because they’re still open. I know it’s probably too late for a coffee, so I got a donut instead. Then I headed back to the office.
3:57 PM: Arrive back at the office with just enough time to send a follow-up email outlining everything we talked about, including our roadmap. The sun has started to shine, and I finish up some other tasks.
4:45 PM: I receive a response: “Thank you for your help!”
5:00 PM: Head home feeling great. Not only did I get to leave the office, I was able to answer all of my client’s questions and hammer out some ways she can reach her business goals. I got to catch up with her face to face, and even got to experience a new library. I wonder if they have that one book I’ve been thinking about…
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