Open Communication
EPISODE 2— Kylie Berry, Brena Smith — KiwiTax
The best relationships are founded on great communication, so when Kylie and Brena entered the accounting industry 16 years ago, they wanted to break down the barriers that accountants created to charge clients. “One of the big problems was every time you called your accountant you got a bill, so there was a massive barrier.” says Brena. The decision to open up a free flow of communication with clients for free ran in the opposite direction to an industry that was built around withholding knowledge unless you paid for it.
Building Trust
This open communication lay the foundation to build trust in a way no one else was doing and which they affectionately refer to as the ‘Give to get model’. Kylie and Brena believed they were creating a kinder way of working by freely giving their time and information to people that helped them begin dialogue with business people.
On top of opening up communication lines, they offered fixed priced accounting services. Another industry first that set them apart from accountants charging on a time and materials basis. “Our job is to have up front pricing. How much was it going to cost and then as accountants our challenge was to make it profitable within that price base.” said Kylie.
Operating to a different rulebook is an intelligent way to enter a market, and their tagline ‘Talking with us is always free’ clearly stood them apart from the rest by giving you permission to talk without fear of ‘bill shock’ about your business and aspirations. Getting good answers also matters, so having clearly defined their target market as small businesses with < $1m turnover and rental properties with less than 5 rental properties, they were able to provide meaningful advice became more targeted.
Kindness as strategy
Many times in business, the warm and fuzzy feeling like kindness are client facing ‘stickers’ that cover up how the inside of a company operates. Not so at Kiwitax where kindness and compassion are at the bedrock of company culture. “Every employee is given great training and support, then left to be autonomous to develop their own strengths and skills”. says Kylie. As a client, I’ve worked with a number of their team over the years and know this to be true. What I didn’t know until this interview was that kindness is their productivity strategy, their happiness strategy, their hiring strategy, their customer service strategy, their everything strategy. There is a strong emphasis on empathy and compassion, no one is better than anyone else and supporting each other. Every team member self manages their own workflow within the framework for success Kiwitax has setup.
Decide right
If I was to sum up their ethos in my own words it would be “doing the right thing, is always the right thing, even it doesn’t deliver instant rewards.” Kiwitax knew that as long as people are in business, there’s always tax to do and they needed to make sure that every relationship they built with a new client, lasted a long time. “We are very aware of the lifetime value of a client because there can be a long lead in time before clients become profitable but we’re able to carry that.”
Helping > selling
Kiwitax hasn’t focussed on selling, but instead focusses on building people, answering their questions and helping people out. “We knew it wasn’t sustainable to individually meet and greet people to encourage people to join Kiwitax and we wanted to grow in a sustainable way.”
A knowledge base of helpful answers are continuously published on their website that attracts visitors from all over New Zealand, helping them gain trust in Kiwitax as an accounting expert and building a funnel of enquiries. Combined with the ‘talking is aways free’ mantra and kindness first, you can start to understand that this is a business that operates on the highest of values and beliefs.
All the little things
Continuous improvement on all the little things still matters. Kylie is quite honest in saying that although they’re operating at a bigger scale not a lot is different now from how they began 16 years ago because they created the infrastructure to be scalable from the beginning. “We stayed with our realm, all the while the accounting environment has changed. The introduction of SaaS with Xero and MYOB, we aware of it, still a lot of what we provide to clients is still in demand.”
While staying relevant by staying efficient it’s their heart first culture that is the secret sauce at Kiwitax and helps them run along quite nicely with the market rather than being left behind.
Listen to the full interview:
