Tax season is over and now is the time to assess the performance of your firm and your team. Most firms develop a series of quantitative and qualitative measures to determine what worked and what changes need to be made. They ask important, fundamental questions like:
- Where can we gain efficiency?
- Where were the bottlenecks?
- How well did our technology support our staff and process?
Productivity and efficiency are relevant and important, but there is one more set of questions your firm needs to solve:
- What do my clients value?
- How did our clients perceive value from our firm and our services this tax season?
Firms that have implemented lean are likely familiar with these questions. It gets to the heart of what you are trying to accomplish – ensuring everything you do adds value to your clients.
The core idea of lean is actually quite simple – continuously work on eliminating waste from the business process.
So what is waste? Waste is defined as any activity that does not add value from the customer’s perspective. According to research conducted by the Lean Enterprise Research Centre (LERC), fully 60% of production activities in a typical operation are waste – they add no value at all for the customer.
By eliminating waste in your processes, you are increasing productivity and efficiency, and you are also improving the value clients derive from your services.
In the next several posts we will offer strategies and recommendations for identifying areas to target. Allowing your firm to take the necessary steps to ameliorate your current business processes and add value in the eyes of your clients.