As part of our rebranding this past year, we decided to finally pursue a company initiative that has long been discussed at GAAP Dynamics – an annual client survey. While we receive feedback for each of our GAAP and IFRS training engagements and have many informal conversations with our clients, we had never actually conducted a formal survey.

Well, 2016 was the time to change that and through this process we were able to extract some very useful information to help us better serve our clients and continue to grow as an organization providing GAAP and IFRS training to companies and accounting firms worldwide.

So what did we learn?

One of the main reasons we wanted to conduct a client survey was to gauge the reality of how our clients view the services provided by GAAP Dynamics. We have always perceived our ability to break down complex accounting standards and topics into palatable pieces of information for our clients as one of our greatest strengths. Coupled with our love of instructing and our focus on going above and beyond in the area of client service, we really hoped that these items would help differentiate us from our competitors.

Fortunately for us, reality is consistent with perception as indicated by these results:

When asked, “What are the key strengths and attributes that you associate with GAAP Dynamics and the primary reasons for engaging us to assist with your training needs?” responses included:

• Knowledgeable on subject matter; interesting presentations with real life examples
• Flexibility and the engaging presentation style that seems to resonate with our people, making the training experience all the more enjoyable
• Service, accessibility, and knowledge

Although we were glad to see that the strengths we feel we have as an organization match up with the thoughts of our clients, there are always areas where we can improve.

The main obstacle or challenge that was noted by our respondents in hiring GAAP Dynamics was overwhelmingly cost related.

We expected this given the fact that training typically takes a back seat to revenue-generating activity and the budgets for training tend to be a little tighter. However, we view this as an area where we can better articulate the rationale behind our cost/pricing, as the unfortunate truth is that developing good training takes time…a lot of time!

The good news with respect to cost is that we are working on the expansion of different service offerings that will hopefully appeal to a broader client base, particularly those with more modest training budgets. While our bread and butter continues to be instructor-led training, we have expanded our library of course materials available for license, including annual U.S. GAAP and IFRS updates which are developed in our own unique GAAP Dynamics’ style. Licensing allows our clients to save valuable time on course development so they can focus on their “day jobs” and does not include the additional costs for hiring us to facilitate the course. We are also expanding our eLearning footprint and continually look to broaden our course offerings in this area.

Another obstacle that was identified in our client survey was the language barrier. Our training materials are developed in English, the source language of U.S. GAAP and IFRS accounting pronouncements, as well as the native language of the vast majority of our instructors. Admittedly, although we are all bilingual in an accounting sense (i.e., we can speak both “U.S. GAAP” and “IFRS”), we are unable to instruct courses in all languages. We are always looking to increase our language fluency and, currently, can instruct courses in English, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese. Finally, we always strive to ensure that participants whose native tongue is not English can understand the course materials and facilitation.

Other Takeaways

Given that this was our first attempt at an annual survey, we realize that it was a learning experience and, as an organization, we will continue to improve this process in the future. Some interesting tidbits we gleaned from this process:

• The survey consisted of 20 questions, ranging from rating scales to open-ended questions. On average, respondents took a little less than 5 minutes to complete the survey. This was good news as studies have shown that survey abandon rates increase significantly once a survey takes longer than 7 or 8 minutes to complete.

• We achieved a 33% response rate, which was better than expected given that, on average, external surveys typically have response rates between 15 to 25%). However, in the future, we will look to send out the survey in November since early January is not the best timing for accountants!

• Our existing clients’ interest in eLearning and licensing of course materials is about 50/50 (interested versus not interested). While we realize these solutions are not for everyone, we believe there is a need for these offerings in the marketplace and, as a result, have expanded our service offerings in these areas.

• We have great clients! Over 60% of the responses were from clients who have engaged GAAP Dynamics/GAAP Seminars for 5+ years. While we continuously look to expand and diversify our client base, we want to make sure to not lose sight of our existing clients who have helped make us into the company we are today.

Overall, we view our first attempt at an annual client survey as a success. As a result, we have decided to make it an annual process to ensure that we continue to meet our clients’ needs and expectations. A big “THANK YOU” to all of our clients for taking the survey and continuing to trust GAAP Dynamics with their GAAP and IFRS training needs.