Hello, this is Matsubara, CRM Evangelist.

"Teacher, I heard from Tanaka-kun, the person in charge, that XX Company might be moving to another office."

When I heard those words, I, as the director, was speechless.

I've had a relationship with XX company for over 10 years. I have meals with the president, Mr. Yamada, several times a year. Why didn't I notice?

It later became clear that Tanaka, the person in charge, had not made a single follow-up visit to XX Company after their financial closing for over a year. Tanaka had no malicious intent; he was simply busy dealing with other clients. However, President Yamada was left with the impression that "they stopped contacting me after the financial closing."

This incident prompted our firm to embrace the implementation of CRM 4.0.

"The Chaos of the Fiscal Year End"—The True Nature of the Problem We Were Facing

Our firm is a medium-sized tax accounting office with eight people in total, including myself (the managing partner) and lawyers and staff. We have about 60 client companies. It's not a small number, but it's not an unmanageable number either. So why did we almost lose a client we'd had for 10 years?

When we organized the issues, they boiled down to the following three points:

The situation with company XX was a result of "problems ① and ② occurring simultaneously." The person in charge was too busy to follow up, and the director also lacked a system to understand the situation.

From a sense of crisis to design—the first 30 days

After barely managing to retain Company XX, I seriously dedicated myself to designing the CRM system.

Initially, I considered commercially available professional systems. However, most of them were specialized in "deadline management and document management," and lacked the "function to manage the emotional state of relationships with clients" that I wanted most.

That's when I came across EMOROCO CRM Lite.

The concept of "making the design philosophy of enterprise CRM simpler" and the idea of ​​"emotional temperature" caught my eye. I hadn't realized for over a year that my relationship with President Tanaka of my consulting firm had become "cool." What I needed most was a system that could "detect" this.

Things I did in the first 30 days:

The chain reaction created by the "60-Day Task"

The workflow that automatically generates a "follow-up visit task" 60 days after the completion of the financial closing appears simple. However, the changes this workflow brought to our office were significant.

What happened 3 months later:

One Monday morning, while checking the dashboard, Tanaka, the person in charge, said, "This week, we have a task to visit Suzuki Foods to follow up on their financial statements."

When Tanaka visited, President Suzuki had a question for Tanaka: "Actually, I'm thinking of changing the bonus system starting this year, but I was wondering if that would be okay from a tax-saving perspective."

Previously, we wouldn't have known about this consultation until President Suzuki suddenly thought, "Oh, I should ask my tax accountant about this," and called us.

However, following up on the financial statements by visiting clients first has created a system where we proactively ask questions. As a result, President Suzuki said to us, "Your firm always comes to visit us. My previous firm never contacted us after the financial statements were finalized."

What the "Visualization" of Emotional Temperature Taught Me

Two months after implementation, I observed changes in the emotional state of all my clients.

Of the 12 companies that were initially set to "Cool Cold," all 8 companies that underwent follow-up visits had recovered to "Warm or better."

The remaining four companies had been assigned the task of follow-up visits, but the person in charge kept postponing it.

An important discovery was made here.

"When I asked the staff members who postponed follow-up visits why, they all said, 'We just felt awkward about going.'"

In other words, a vicious cycle existed where advisors with a cool emotional temperature were less likely to approach clients, leading to delays in follow-up.

To break this vicious cycle, I added the following rule:

Making the referral network "visible"—it turns out that 80% of referrals came from the same three companies.

Four months after implementation, I first compiled data from EMOROCO's "Referral Source Field."

The results were astonishing.

Of the 18 new clients we've acquired in the past three years, 15 (83%) were referred by our existing clients (three of them).

These three companies—let's call them Company A, Company B, and Company C—all had a "hot" emotional temperature. I intuitively knew that I had a deep relationship of trust with the CEOs, but I hadn't realized until I saw the data that I was responsible for 80% of the referrals.

Since we started this "special follow-up with the three connector companies," we've seen a change in the number of referrals.

"Referrals doubled" - the details of the numbers

Let's review the figures one year after implementing EMOROCO.

However, to be honest, the doubling of referrals wasn't solely due to EMOROCO. The increase in follow-up visits raised the emotional temperature of clients who felt "this firm is really paying attention to us," and those clients, who had a high emotional temperature, then made referrals—it was a chain reaction.

EMOROCO functioned as a "mechanism for designing causal chains."

"Staff members start using it themselves"—a turning point in its adoption.

The biggest challenge in implementing EMOROCO was "getting it adopted."

For the first three weeks, the staff's data entry rate was only about 40%. Comments included, "I don't have time to enter the data," and "I don't know why I'm doing this."

The turning point came during a morning meeting one month after the system was implemented.

Sato, the person in charge, reported to me, "Last week, when I checked Nakata Construction's dashboard, their emotional temperature was low, so I made a follow-up visit and they asked for additional advice on tax saving."

At that moment, another staff member said, "Wow, that field is actually usable?"

"The experience of saving myself by entering information"—as the director, the most important thing was to be patient until every staff member had this experience.

Three months after implementation, the input rate exceeded 85%. Now, it's become a culture where people feel embarrassed if they haven't recorded something in EMOROCO.

The most important thing I realized this past year

It's been a year since we implemented EMOROCO CRM Lite.

The technical setup wasn't difficult. It could be configured without coding, and explaining it to the staff was simple.

What I really struggled with was "changing the philosophy of design."

The shift from the traditional way of working, where "it's over when the financial statements are finalized," to the idea that "the real relationship begins when the financial statements are finalized," wasn't about "changing the tools," but about "changing the meaning of work."

One thing I noticed while looking at the EMOROCO dashboard every week is that "CEOs of my client companies who have a strong emotional temperature tend to call me first when they're in trouble."

Tax accountants are experts in dealing with numbers. However, what our client company presidents truly seek is not just "accuracy of numbers." I've become even more convinced over the past year that the essence of "why choose a tax accountant" is the confidence that "this person will be there to advise me when I need it most."

EMOROCO is a tool that designs a system for creating "relationships that foster confidence."

The transformation our office underwent, thanks to a single automated workflow for "financial closing follow-up visits," is encapsulated in a single comment from one of our clients: "Your office always comes to visit us."

Key design points to learn from this case study

You can start doing this in your office today.

It was several years ago that I almost lost company XX.

If President Tanaka had moved to another office at that time, I might never have had the opportunity to encounter EMOROCO CRM Lite. The crisis became the catalyst for change.

However, your firm has the opportunity to start before the crisis hits.

Starting from ¥1,500 per user per month. Today, begin by intuitively setting the emotional temperature for all your clients.

The number of companies offering cool-cold products—that number becomes the starting point for the design.
EMOROCO CRM Lite Product Page

Related article: ["You won't get chosen if you think 'it's over when the financial statements are up' - How tax accountants and accounting firms can systematize their financial statement follow-up with EMOROCO CRM Lite"]

Related article: [EMOROCO CRM Lite Implementation "First 30 Days" Complete Roadmap - Week-by-Week Design, Implementation, and SoI-PDCA Launch Procedures]

Related article: [The decisive difference between companies that "failed" and "succeeded" in CRM implementation—common points revealed from the voices of those on the front lines]