"

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 13 seconds

Block to Seek "High-value" Clients

Bill Cobb, H&R BlockH&R Block will seek to increase the percentage of high-value clients it serves. That new direction was announced this week by CEO William Cobb during the earnings conference call for results for the tax services company's year ended April 30. Cobb did not define high-level, but noted that Block's operations in Canada and Australia had successfully tested the approach.

 

Block is going to be more selective in its pursuit of paying customers. And the company's leaving Wal-Mart after tax season in 300 stores could reflect the move for a better margin mix. It also parted company with Sears last year.

"Not all clients generate the same economics for the business," Cobb told call participants. Noting that the number of assisted clients was down 3-percentage points from fiscal 2012, he continued that Block's business is "not just about increasing clients.  We will be evaluating driving a better mix of high-value clients" to its tax preparation services. He also did not state whether the goal is to drive them to stores, online tax preparation services or both.

With overall tax filings for the United States down 1 percent, Block described the last tax season with the word that has come from most company's providing services or software - tough. Net income did well because of what the company said were greater than expected savings from the year's cost cutting. The bottom line for 2013 was $465 million, an increase of 34.4 percent from $346 million in net income for 2012. However, revenue nudged up only a half a percentage point to just over $2.9 billion from $2.89 billion.

Cobb initially focused on digital returns in which he said Block had increased market share at the expense of its main competitor. "I am pleased we grew and took share from Intuit for the third consecutive year in the digital category," he said. Cobb reiterated past claims that the growth in digital tax preparation is stalling since there are fewer manual preparers to convert.

Bob Scott
Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards.  Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He  has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that.  A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind
Read 5953 times
Rate this item
(0 votes)

Visit other PMG Sites:

Template Settings

Color

For each color, the params below will give default values
Tomato Green Blue Cyan Dark_Red Dark_Blue

Body

Background Color
Text Color

Header

Background Color

Footer

Select menu
Google Font
Body Font-size
Body Font-family
Direction
PMG360 is committed to protecting the privacy of the personal data we collect from our subscribers/agents/customers/exhibitors and sponsors. On May 25th, the European's GDPR policy will be enforced. Nothing is changing about your current settings or how your information is processed, however, we have made a few changes. We have updated our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy to make it easier for you to understand what information we collect, how and why we collect it.