Discussion:Who makes house calls?

I bought my practice from someone who was retired from his regular full-time, then finally retired from the tax prep last year. I still have a full-time day job and managing to keep up with 300 individual returns (no business returns in the mix). I've heard from quite a few of the clients that the seller made house calls- picking up taxes one day, returning them a day or two later. Not many complaints about making them come to me this year, but we're guessing that the customer retention from his original base will only be about 75%, where I was hoping for closer to 90%.

I plan to make my self-employment my full-time job in a year or two, but just wondering how many of you physically have time for 2 round trips to each client making house calls, dealing with interruptions, and then getting the work done.

I'm looking for streamlining ideas and trying to keep notes this season for improvements to put in place for next year, immediately after this season is over.

For two years I drove to Great Neck NY to do a client's parents. I sat in a too soft armchair, with my laptop on a fold out small table....the last time they finally gave me the dining room table.....and for this, I was supposed to be more reasonable than the man who did their taxes for years and was charging 'an arm and a leg.' The daughter also changed their investment person, but in the second year, they switched back. They were always asking me how much this new person was making them. They were in their late 80s.

Since I didn't know the people ahead of time, it was a shock when I showed up at their door and they were 30-something's with 10-year old kids. They are good customers, but I know they are out running all over the city for their kids' basketball games or whatever. None of the people that I have made house calls on are what I would say were for reasons of limited mobility on their part.

Really wasn't turning this into a gripe session. Just wanted to make sure that I wasn't on the unreasonable end here and need to look harder at my customer service.

I, on the other hand, stereo-typical accountant, not really an extrovert, and can put on a good client meeting, but relax better when it's just me and the numbers. I'm trying to move more toward electronic communication with a lot of the clients and let them know that the turn-around will be much more efficient if all of my time is not spent travelling on the road.

I would advise to make NO house calls. HR makes none, You just bought the practice, get them trained right , from the beginning. They will respect you or leave. Either is OK. Read TA through and it is full of stories of us who have low end clients that we can't get rid of. You have a great opportunity to get it right from the beginning.

200 returns retained at a GOOD price is better than 300 at a low price.

Good luck in your venture!

On thread note: i bought a similar practice to yours, mdw, and the running around is crazy. Next year I am going to change that, but right now I am just powering through it.

David H

For now I would guess about 20% I pickup and dropoff, 50% where I either pickup or dropoff, 20% in home/office and 10% mail, email, etc. That first 70% translates into about 15 hours out time per week. I can see 3-5 in an hour due to the clusters I have. I schedule about a week in advance and always get new appointments to fit in somewhere. Should have a fully separate office in home set up by next year and anybody new will probably be coming to me........unless I can fit them in on my routes. :)

I like working from my house so I can be around the kids, but I do enjoy the out time too. I'll probably just take it as it comes, keep bumping my rates biannually, and will continue to have a small amount of out time.

One last point, since I work from home, anybody new I will go to. I learn a lot by seeing their home, and I can usually sense whether or not it would be a good idea for them to be "allowed" to come here.

When I began the practice 15 yrs ago I had several elderly people that I went to their homes and picked up the paperwork and returned it about a week later. Since then I only have 2 that remain. BUT yesterday I received a phone call from a friend of my predecessor's.....woman in her late 80's.....she'd like me to do her taxes because the Senior Center won't do them for her anymore....say she makes too much money. (Their services are FREE)......does that mean I can't charge???!!!! I didn't know these services were based on 'needy' clients......

DJ