Ryan VaughnCOO of Incite Tax & Accounting. Ask me anything about your taxes.

Using Reviews to find a Bookkeeper | Incite Tax

21 Jan 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:00

In this segment, Ryan Vaughn explains how to evaluate potential bookkeepers or tax professionals by examining online reviews, especially Google Reviews. He highlights the natural bias that people tend to leave reviews only when experiences are negative, making negative feedback more emotionally charged and frequent than positive feedback. He advises viewers to look beyond the sheer number of positive reviews, noting that a low count of positive reviews does not necessarily reflect the accountant’s competence. Instead, he suggests paying close attention to how a business responds to negative reviews, as this reveals their professionalism and customer‑service approach. Overall, the advice frames reviews as one piece of a larger decision‑making puzzle when selecting a bookkeeping service.

Chapters

How do you choose the right bookkeeper or tax professional? While reviews can provide valuable insights, how often do you leave reviews for good experiences compared to bad ones? This is because when we purchase a product or service, we naturally expect it to be a positive experience. So when things go well, it's easy to think that's how it should be. On the other hand, a bad experience stands out because it clashes with our expectations. Negative experiences cause stronger emotions. Google Reviews might be a more reliable source. They're free for both businesses and clients to use. Another helpful way you can use Google Reviews is to pay attention to how businesses respond to negative reviews. No business can avoid an irrational client, so it's crucial to see how they handle the response to those bad reviews. This should be looked at as a small piece of the puzzle you're trying to put together because a low number of positive reviews Doesn't necessarily mean anything about the accountant.