What are "Advisory Services" & who cares?

I've seen lots of post recently from accountants, both on here and other platforms discussing the provision of "advisory" services. Primarily the discussions have focused on:

1. Should they offer them
2. If they are offering them what do clients think
3. Are they the future of the profession
4. How to market them
5. How to charge for them

Lots of the posts contain fairly bullish statements from some that do want to work in this way and those that don't. I don't think either are particularly flattering for our industry, because ultimately they represent a fairly self serving view of the world from the accountant - rather than looking at this through the lens of a client/customer.

So what are "advisory services" and should a client care?

Broadly speaking I think the services that accountants provide can be broken down into 4 areas:

1. Compliance work - making sure you file what you need to file on time, accurately collated and using the expertise of the accountant to present the information.
2. Tax advice - a more intricate understanding of what tax allowances, legislation and rules can be used to maximise the benefit to the client, based on an understanding of their circumstances and what they are looking to achieve
3. Management Accounting - this is the provision of more regular accounting information (monthly or quarterly) to help the business owner understand their financial position.
4. Ongoing advice & support - a pro-active engagement with the business to aid decision making, understand the "so what", identify opportunities, access funding. The list goes on.

What most people are referring to with "advisory services" is number 4 but it might also include 3 as well for some.

Clients don't know what they don't know (why should they).

What they want (in my opinion) is value, they want to know that their accountant has their interests at heart and that they will use their expertise to help steer the client through the maze that is accounting, taxation and all things financial. What is of value to one client will be less so to another one and it might also change over time.

So to my mind the client shouldn't really care what we call it or how we market it. But what they should care about is what service are they receiving and does that represent value for what they are paying. What they should also care about (and here is where it is our job to educate people) is:

1. Is the service they are receiving comparable with what they could get elsewhere
2. Could they benefit from additional services such as the more pro-active type of support and can they see the value it could add
3. Is there some tech out there that could help save time and money (what is out there gets better by the day)

A bit like changing bank accounts there is a reasonable degree of inertia when it comes to changing accountant. My observation is that people have a pretty high level of intrinsic trust that they are getting what they need. I'd just challenge that thought process.

What has been refreshing is despite all the frustrating posts, I have talked to some like minded souls who don't quite see this as a purely transactional supply/pricing issue but more of a case of what we want to be known for. I would welcome a discussion with anyone who just wants to understand more about how the financial and accounting support you can receive can add greater value - because without clients who see our value we are nothing.