How do I "politely" tell client off....

[schirallicpa]

After going thru the roof yesterday about a corporate client that, after efiling their return, they called and complained because they will owe money......and "things on the tax return were wrong".......

So already not in a good mood this week.  Because that was just the corporation cherry on top.

Now I have a guy asking me how his sister should prepare her return.  I prepared the estate return and the sister got a K-1.  Not my client!!  ERRRRREERRRRRRR  Sick of people.

Let alone he emailed me at some ridiculous hour of the morning.  And then texted me to ask me if I had gotten the email.  Looks like someone needs to be blocked on my phone!

grumble.....mumble.....

 

[JohnH]

Can't you tell him you'll be happy to prepare the return for his sister if she wants to engage your services?  People often ask open-ended questions about third party situations, but they usually understand if you tell them there are too many potential traps to discuss an isolated tax matter without knowing the whole picture.

I know everybody works differently and I'm not saying everyone should do this, but I encourage my clients to text and/or email me at any hour.  That's the great thing about email and texting - their question has been duly noted.   Sometimes I go to bed late or other times I'm up early, and can fire off a quick answer right then if it's appropriate and if I choose to reply at an odd hour.  But when I go to bed I turn off notifications so there aren't any  sleep interruptions.  The message will be there when I wake up, to deal with at my convenience.   And absolutely zero time wasted on a phone call.  Texting and email are your friends, provided you manage them instead of allowing them to manage you. 

 

 

[jasdlm]

How about "Should I be billing your sister or you for this time?"

[schirallicpa]

18 minutes ago, jasdlm said:

How about "Should I be billing your sister or you for this time?"

This is the same guy that gave the attorney $17000 for the estate and complained about my $1000 bill.  Now he wants free advice.

grumble....mumble...  

[Medlin Software, Dennis]

"After checking your records, there is no retainer balance on file. Your retainer fee is ### per hour.  Once there is sufficient balance, I will schedule a consultation."

[Roberts]

1 hour ago, schirallicpa said:

After going thru the roof yesterday about a corporate client that, after efiling their return, they called and complained because they will owe money......

 

If you pay me $x, we can eliminate all those expensive profits you hate.

[Max W]

My number 1 rule. If it is bad news, such as higher taxes, or anticipated refunds that didn't happen, I always call them and explain why.  Emails and texts just give them time to stew over it and put them in a nasty mood.    

Otherwise, I stick to emails for two reasons.  One, phone calls take up too much time; and second, theres is a written record which might be needed later on.

[Medlin Software, Dennis]

There are certain times I insist on recording phone calls as well... if not acceptable to the other party, then the phone call ends.

[Lion EA]

One of my reasons for using email (I agree with yours re too much time on phone and liking the hard copy) is that I work late into the night when I have fewer interruptions from ringing phones and hubby barging into my home office, so I can send emails full of questions before I go to bed and frequently have answers by the time I get up.

[JohnH]

That's one of the many benefits of using email/text communications as the primary means of communicating with clients. Avoids wasted time talking on the phone or sitting in your office  After a many-years-long effort,  I'm down to maybe a dozen clients who don't use email or text as their primary means of communication. To be honest, I'd get rid of them tomorrow if they weren't special cases (good friends, charitable cases, etc). 

[Randall]

For K-1s to people who aren't my clients, I print out page 2 with the codes.  From there, they're on their own.