The Small Things That Quietly Decide Whether Clients Trust You
There are a lot of things we teach in accounting programs and training programs such as: technical rules, research skills, and wow to prepare workpapers that tie out and survive review.
There are also a lot of things we do not teach, yet they quietly shape how clients, partners, and peers judge our professionalism long before they ever dig into the technical work. Today, I want to talk about those things.
Recently, I heard about a firm that sent a client request list to tax clients that contained multiple spelling errors. The list had been prepared by staff and sent out after a senior manager told the team it had been reviewed and was ready to go. One client sent it back with every error highlighted.
In another situation, an engagement letter went out with missing punctuation after the salutation and a fee written without a comma in a multi-thousand dollar number. I have also seen client names misspelled, email addresses entered incorrectly, and templated language left unchanged in communications that were supposed to be personalized.
None of these issues changed the underlying technical work. But every single one of them sent a signal.
That signal to the client was “this firm may not be careful.”
And once that doubt creeps in, it rarely stays confined to one document.
This Is Not Just “Attention to Detail”
We often lump this conversation into the phrase “attention to detail,” but that usually brings to mind workpapers, tie-outs, and review notes. Those things live inside a formal review process with checklists and sign-offs.
What I am talking about here lives outside of that world.
This is about client facing artifacts. Emails. Request lists. Engagement letters. Invoices. Calendars. File names. Subject lines. The everyday things that shape a client’s experience but are not always treated like work products.
Clients do not separate these from your technical competence. They see one firm, one team, one level of care.
Much like a resume, the moment a client notices an obvious error, their confidence takes a hit. They may not say anything. They may continue the engagement. But the trust account just took a withdrawal.
Correlation Matters Even When Causation Is Hard to Prove
I cannot point to a single misspelled email and say “this is why the client left.” Real life is not that clean.
What I can say with confidence is that when clients decide whether to stay, whether to expand scope, or whether to refer you, they are evaluating your patterns of professionalism, reliability, and care.
Small errors accumulate into a narrative, even if no one ever names it out loud.
As professionals, especially in a trust based field like accounting, perception matters almost as much as precision.
Everyone Owns This, Even When There Are Safeguards
One of the biggest problems I see in firms is the assumption that someone else will catch it.
Staff assume reviewers will fix it, reviewers assume staff followed standards, admins assume someone else proofread the template, then it goes to the client.
I personally caught errors after a reviewer had already looked at a first draft. I have also worked in environments where I knew certain reviewers would not catch those issues. That is not an indictment of those reviewers. It is a reminder that no process is perfect.
This happens to everyone.
That is exactly why the mindset cannot be “the reviewer will handle it.” If something is important enough to send to a client, it is important enough for multiple people to care about how it looks.
Practical Ways to Prevent These Mishaps
This does not mean every email needs a forensic, line by line analysis. It does mean being intentional.
Here are a few practical habits that actually work in the real world:
First, treat client communications like deliverables, not afterthoughts. If it leaves the firm, it deserves a basic read through.
Second, slow down right before sending. Most errors survive because of speed, not ignorance. A thirty second pause catches more mistakes than you think.
Third, read important messages out loud or in a different format. Your brain catches errors differently when the context changes.
Fourth, use a second set of eyes strategically. Not everything needs review, but standardized client-facing documents absolutely should have shared responsibility built into the process.
Fifth, own what you send. Even if someone else prepared it. Even if someone else reviewed it. If your name is attached, assume the responsibility is yours.
Finally, remember that perfection is not the standard. Care is.
The Quiet Professional Standard
None of this will show up on an exam. It will not be listed in accounting standards. But it will absolutely shape how people experience working with you.
Clients may never compliment you for a clean email or a flawless request list. They will simply trust you more. And trust is the currency everything else runs on.
If this post makes you double check something before you send it or makes you less willing to assume someone else will catch it, then it did its job.