I think it is important right now to point out that there are A LOT of small business owners, bookkeepers, accountants, and probably even a couple Intuit’s own employees who still have not heard about QuickBooks Live.

I draw attention to this for one reason, every time someone discovers QuickBooks Live for the first time, they are likely to share their reaction through the first social media channel they can connect to.

It was not that long ago that Lynda Artesani and I decided to share our opinions live on Facebook (QB Community Live) after discovering the A/B testing being conducted by Intuit.  At that time, we had mixed feelings about a software company’s decision to offer bookkeeping services and wondered how this new competition would impact the bottom line of our businesses. As the hype continued to build and suggested pricing started to form, I final saw QuickBooks Live as an opportunity instead of a curse.

So, what changed? My perspective of the situation.

About nine months ago, my business partner Mike Snelson and I, started the journey toward our unique version of value pricing.  This hybrid approach required us to evaluate the local “price floor” for services against our own rates. Like many of my industry colleagues, we were struggling to understand the true value of our services and had been undercharging as a result.

Already unsure about our pricing structure, we initially thought that the price of our future services would be dictated by the price set by Intuit.  It was easy to imagine losing all our clients to QuickBooks Live until hearing the perspective of a fellow accountant.

During a session of Friday Night Live with Accountants, Hector Garcia suggested that Intuit’s revised pricing for QuickBooks Live offered accountants the opportunity to charge more for their services as well.

Hector’s comment stuck in my head and reminded me that most consumers will happily pay more for something if they perceive it provides a notable difference in quality. Simply put, if we focused on providing a service that is both memorable and valuable, we are far less likely to lose clients, even if our price is higher.

Instead of being concerned about the price Intuit landed on for QuickBooks Live, we embraced it. We realized that it presented us the opportunity to use their price as the new price floor for the industry.

While our perspective of the situation may have changed, it does not mean that we have turned a blind eye to the entire topic of QuickBooks Live.  To ensure that we were not surprised by any clients deciding to convert over to QuickBooks Live, we took a proactive approach and made the decision to send out an email informing them about the current A/B testing and the possibility that they come across it only. In the same email we invited all clients to connect with us if they had any additional questions.

“With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility”

Without a doubt, social media is one of the most powerful and destructive inventions of our time. With a single post or tweet, a person can inspire those around them to reach for greater dreams or rabble-rouse the masses through fear-based uncertainty.  It is up to each of us to decide how to accept the information presented and what should be done with that new knowledge.