To the Clients, Colleagues, and Associates of Clifton Douglas, LLP:
I founded this firm over seven years ago with the goal of providing an exceptional experience for my clients and colleagues. Since that time, I have worked tirelessly to find others who share this passion and instill a firm culture committed to the relentless pursuit of this “white glove” service.
As a constant reminder to ourselves of this unwavering commitment to you and so that you will hold us to the high bar that we have set for ourselves, today I proudly introduce a term which I believe encapsulates the ultimate client service experience that we strive to offer – White Glove Tax.
White Glove Tax is a philosophy we live by in everything we do as a firm. It isn’t just a catchy marketing tagline which will be quickly forgotten. We understand that when it comes to client service, actions speak louder than words and no short cuts exist. Your trust and loyalty can only be earned by providing consistent long-term results with an emphasis on these three tenets:
Personalized Care and Peace of Mind. Similar to the butler that the white glove imagery creates, we are here to serve you and make ourselves available whenever you need us. You shouldn’t have to ever worry about the accuracy or timeliness of your company’s tax provision or return – that’s our job.
Do industry standards require that a partner personally meet with you to discuss and deliver your returns at least two weeks prior to the due date and have them mailed out of our offices on your behalf? No. Do we have to provide immediate access to all of your tax returns and provision files in an online file room? No. But could we provide you with greater ease and peace of mind by doing so? Absolutely. And so we do.
Uncompromising Standards. Today’s environment leaves virtually no room for error. This is why we have established highly disciplined processes that help us focus on developing and delivering near-perfect results.
Do we have to include diagnostics schedules, referencing systems, and proofs and reconciliations in our tax provisions built to suit your specific internal requirements? No. But we could, and tailoring these safeguards increases the accuracy of our tax provisions while facilitating review by you and your auditors. And so we do.
Unwavering Commitment to Perfection. We understand that when you set the bar high, expectations go up, too. We are continuously seeking to improve and look for new ways to exceed your expectations.
So what are we doing? First, while we take great pride in our proprietary tax provision model, we continue to invest in the development of the fourth generation model to further ease the review process and insert even more stringent controls. We strive to provide immediate responses to all client communication and provide virtually instantaneous responses in many cases. But we can be better. So we are providing our clients with a High Priority e-mail address and expanded emergency receptionist hours to ensure that we are there whenever you need us. Finally, we want your input and will be mailing out surveys to you, our clients, in the coming months to get further insights on opportunities to better serve you.
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White Glove Tax not only offers an excellent means for us to evaluate our tax services and business in general, but also provides you, our clients and colleagues, with a measuring stick to grade our performance. We encourage you to regularly ask yourself “Am I receiving white glove service from Clifton Douglas?” We sincerely hope your answer is “yes,” but if for any reason it is “no,” please call me immediately. While we cannot guarantee that we will get it right all of the time, we can guarantee that as soon as we don’t, we will immediately begin work on getting it right again, i.e., providing you with white glove service.
We have always been and will always be about the white glove service. White Glove Tax is Clifton Douglas… period.
Sincerely,
Doug Sayuk Matt Fricke
Doug Sayuk and Matt Fricke
Tax Partners, Clifton Douglas, LLP
