"More teachers use TurboTax than any other method [of tax preparation]," according to Maurer, SVP and general manager of Intuit's consumer group. "What would it mean if we personalize it?" He did not elaborate on what personalization means. But after a tax season in which it failed to grow market share and its online share dropped a percentage point. Intuit is revamping its approach significantly."We are going to have a technology refresh for a substantial part of our new users to TurboTax this coming year," he said. Besides changing technology, Intuit also plans an important change in its TurboTax advertising.

 

Part of the new direction is apparently based on the fact that those using manual preparation are no longer a major source of new Turbo customers. Prospects now are more likely coming from tax stores or have been using professional preparers. Maurer also repeated Intuit's recent theme that it can attract a slice of the business going to professional preparers. That segment includes filers with simple returns. In Maurer's words professional preparers "would tell you '"They're a simple tax filer; they should be using software.'"

The company provided professional advice to consumers from CPAs and Enrolled Agents for the first time during the 2012 tax season. But Maurer repeated a view expressed earlier by CEO Brad Smith that while those who took advantage of the service were extremely happy with it, not enough customers were aware of it. Maurer said advice needs to be more accessible, more relevant and there needs to be increased awareness of it.

Intuit also plans to provide its agents the ability to know what products customers are using and history.