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Practice Excellence: Coalesco is a community

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19th Apr 2016
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We see Coalesco as a community. We have so many clients that know one another now that didn’t know one another, that do business together,” Coalesco’s founder Linda Frier says, describing the firm’s mission statement. “Being part of other people’s businesses is such a fantastic feeling.”

From Frier’s warm personality, to the way she enthuses about her clients, it’s easy to see how she has built strong client relations. Her nurturing approach helped Coalesco achieve Practice Excellence success – winning the 2015 small practice of the year.

When Frier first started, she trained with one of the Big Eight, and through her time in industry, a path she continued along for nine years, she saw how large businesses lose the ability to know clients on a “real personal level”– so when she launched Coalesco, she knew she wanted to do things differently. “It was always my intention to have a business where we were an integral part of the team,” she says.

As an example of this relationship, a client on a day of bereavement rang Frier to inform her that his dog had passed away. “The girl who took the call couldn’t believe that he was in floods of tears but still felt that he had to tell me,” says Frier, bringing a whole new meaning to being a trusted adviser.

And this is reflected in her client’s testimonials. One said: “I don't feel stupid and certainly feel valued, [Coalesco] always replies to a phone call or email within the day. Linda and her team empathise in a down-to-earth manner.” While another said: “I'm not anxious now and that's down to Linda.”

So how does she do it?

Community spirit      

For Frier, seeing her clients through tough meetings with an empathetic approach is the only way. “[The team] can see the difference in me as a person because I am worried about something on the client’s behalf, or nervous about the position my client has found themselves in,” says Frier.

This culture which secured the Practice Excellence judges vote trickles down in to every facet of the practice. “The team that I am delighted to have around me are recruited because of their personality, where they don’t just care about getting paid at the end of the month,” says Frier. “[T]hey come to work to do an absolute awesome job for our clients.”

From personalising every invoice that goes out from their Xero software system, to thanking people as they leave their practice, and sharing in their client’s success with hugs; Frier says it is imperative that clients realise how much they are appreciated. This is none more evident than with Coalesco’s annual Christmas party. “We had to do two nights in December to fit everyone in the pub!” Frier says, laughing.

But rather than the clients using the free bar as an excuse for a free Christmas knees-up, Frier says the reality is actually the opposite, as she spends most of the evening turning down drinks from clients who just want to show their appreciation.

99.6% client retention

While Frier says there is no “magic formula” to their success, Coalesco must be doing something right. Over the past year, they have had an impressive 99.6% client retention. It’s no wonder client don’t look elsewhere, but then again, Frier and her team don’t give them reason. The thought of one of her clients complaining to another accountant about Coalesco, whether it’s that they’re difficult to get a hold of or not answering questions in a way the client wanted to have them answered, would be “devastating”, Frier admits.   

For this reason, Frier ensures that she is accessible to her clients: Opening late on Thursdays and at least one Saturday a month.

But it’s not only her accessibility which fills her clients with confidence; Coalesco educates its clients through monthly newsletters, communicates in plain English, and their regular seminars empower clients to be more effective in their business.

Coalesco introduced this seminar programme two years ago as a networking opportunity among clients, which further strengthened their community mantra. “We can add more value to the client’s businesses by them getting to know one another and it keeps our retention high because it would be very strange for somebody to leave who has five/six people within our client base that they know,” says Frier.

Due to the overwhelming response from clients, Coalesco has presented seminars on dividends tax changes, VAT (keeping clients abreast of the rules and reminded of the simple mistakes which creep in); demonstrating the latest technology, such as Receipt Bank; and they also bring in valued experts trusted in their community, like the financial adviser who talked about pensions. And as many get closer to their auto enrolment staging date, they have ran seminars to “support and hand hold” to ensure their clients understand their commitments.

Not only do these seminars differentiate Coalesco from its competitors, but it is also a more effective use of their time. “I know that I can get 55/60 of those clients in one room together for an hour and half, or I could have met on a one-to-one basis with each of those clients,” says Frier.

This community spirit Coalesco has created infuses in to its social media use, as well.  “We make sure clients who are tweeting positive things about their business that we retweet, and in turn, we find that when we are talking about positive things and things that others should know about, that our clients retweet for us,” says Frier.

Social media is used as a marketing tool, rather than posting “garbage”; the tweets usually direct Coalesco’s followers through to the firm’s website or used to promote their events on Eventbrite. “We know that gains us clients, and we know that for the investment make it our time that we get a return on that,” Frier says, who has also launched a new mobile-friendly website which has allowed them to improve their search engine ranking.

The future

Looking to the future, Frier understands the concerns regarding the government’s Making Tax Digital plans, but she says her focus has always been about “about the delivery and the added value that an accountant can bring in to your business”.

Far from relying on compliance services, Frier explains that Coalesco’s services delve much deeper into being an adviser. “We have a quarterly meeting with our clients, we look at the management information, we’re comparing to growth plans, we’re looking at their recruitment, and we’re looking at key performance indicators.

“Those sides of the business are never going to go away with those clients do require that more consultancy/business service, and I think that is where are business is going.”

“We have to stay ahead of the game.” Frier added, without missing a beat: “We’ll be here for a good number of years”.

Linda Frier and Coalesco are a two time Practice Excellence award winners.

  • 2015 – Practice Excellence small practice of the year
  • 2013 – Practice Excellence small practice of the year

Replies (4)

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FT
By FirstTab
19th Apr 2016 12:45

Talk about the journey and NOT the destination

I would love read about the journey and not so much the destination. 

The pains and challenges any accountant goes  through or is going through. To achieve anything most of us go through ups and downs.  

A list of success and I did X and Y does not interest me. Though, I do not think middle aged men are your (Sift's) target market. 

Thanks (0)
avatar
By Cleggy1
19th Apr 2016 18:49

2500 clients does not equal small

With a retention rate of 99.6 then if the 0.4 loss is just one client then they must have a client base of 2,500 - How did they win the small firm??

Thanks (0)
Man of Kent
By Kent accountant
19th Apr 2016 20:54

Decimal place

@Cleggy - Check you maths - 250 clients.

Easily done.

(what's worse is the person who 'thanked' your post!)

Thanks (1)
John Stokdyk, AccountingWEB head of insight
By John Stokdyk
20th Apr 2016 09:25

Thanks for your insights, First Tab

We'll take on board your suggestion to try and describe how firms like Coalesco go about refining their services in future Practice Excellence articles and try to dig deeper into the nitty gritty.

But I also think you overlook some of the ideas and pointers in the piece. Linda and Coalesco came to our attention thanks to some stunning achievements during 2014-15 and as a winner of the Practice Excellence Award for small firms last year, we tried to get her perspective on the things the firm does to make clients happy and get such a high retention rate.

If you look closely at what the article says, there are some interesting ideas you could take from Coalesco and experiment with in your firm:

Treating your client base as a community and using seminars and social media to encourage them to network togetherClient education and seminars to help them manage their businesses better, keep up to date on regulatory and technology developments - and mingle with Coalesco staff and other clientsFocusing on team attitudes and personalities as the key to good service.

We'll make a point of looking into some of these areas in future articles in this series.

And finally a point about the Practice Excellence Awards and AccountingWEB's membership... we are a very broad community with members of all ages in different roles with different interests. Our intention is to cater as far as possible for as many disparate groups as we can - including middle aged male practitioners, who make up a sizeable chunk of our membership.

By focusing on articles of interest to different types of accountant, we hope to deepen our understanding of AccountingWEB members and to encourage them to share and learn ideas from each other. That's one of the fundamental principles behind AccountingWEB and the Practice Excellence programme.

Feel free to keep the feedback coming - we'll always listen and stop to think about what we can learn from what members tell us too.

Thanks (3)