Years ago, I read a book called Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service, by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles. In this book, the authors identify three key steps to deliver extraordinary service and create “raving fans”:
Know what you want. What kind of clients do you work with, and what sort of relationship do you want to build with them?
Know your clients want. What do your clients need, and how can you fulfill those needs?
Deliver – plus one! Provide the highest quality service and then add 1% more (or “plus one”).
After reading this book, I find myself constantly evaluating businesses on the quality of their customer service. I have noticed through the years that if I am happy with a business, I can usually identify all three key points from the book. So, it is no surprise that I have also evaluated the service we provide to our clients at Altruic Advisors.
At Altruic Advisors, we know who our clients are. Our firm provides audit and accounting services exclusively for nonprofit organizations - we only work with nonprofits. Every member of Altruic’s staff is committed to “helping nonprofits create good.” This clear focus is one of the reasons why I originally came to work for Altruic Advisors, and it drives every aspect of the firm.
We also understand what our nonprofit clients need. Our clients’ goals are very different than that of “big business.” Nonprofit organizations measure success by how much good they can do, not by profits or shareholder returns. The nonprofit community requires different accounting solutions than their for-profit counterparts. At Altruic Advisors, we work with our clients to minimize their accounting burdens so they can focus on achieving their mission.
Finally, we must ask, “Are we delivering – plus one?” At Altruic, we offer many different financial services. Our CFO Solutions team manages the day-to-day bookkeeping and financial statement preparation, while our experienced tax professionals help nonprofits navigate the world of Form 990s and other filings. For organizations receiving grants or federal funding, our firm offers independent audits to ensure grantors that the organization is in compliance with financial regulations. Whether we are preparing financial statements, filing a Form 990, or issuing an audit report, we take great care to ensure our work is timely, accurate, and provides value to the client.
In my opinion our “plus one” is the relationships we create with our clients. Our client relationships are one of our greatest strengths. We often talk about the good that our clients are doing, and how we can help them make an impact. It takes time and effort to build those relationships, but it’s always worth it. We are always raving about our clients, and we hope that our commitment to quality services makes it easy for them to rave about us too!