Pros
I love my office with all my heart. I love those I recruit and it brings me so much joy to watch us all grow and learn together. We all love each other and honestly couldn’t care less for the rest of our district, region, market, or company honestly. We all love Tax and do well for each other.
Cons
Get ready folks. 1- THE SURVEYS!!!!!! Those STUPID Client Experience Surveys are such an awful depiction of whether or not an office is great. For those who don’t know, we have surveys sent to clients after the service is over. It asks questions from will you come back next year to was your tax pro friendly. It’s on a scale of 1-5. We ask maybe 8 questions? Well the only one that matters is whether or not the client is coming back. AND ANYTHING LESS THAN A 5 IS A ZERO. Our district and regional managers literally tell us to have our office “educate” about the survey. In other words, ask for 5s. I refuse to let anyone in my office ask for 5s because why would I do that if I wanted an AUTHENTIC AND REAL survey response??? We have so many survey scores who give us a four and say how it was such a great experience, but too bad because it wasn’t a 5, so it’s a zero so our CES score drops drastically. 2- The #1 issue that comes up on our survey as bad is our outrageous pricing. BLOCK IS SO EXPENSIVE TO FILE IN PERSON. The pricing system is broken and unforgiving. The company tries to bleed every poor client dry of their refund. I understand tax prep doesn’t have to be cheap, but the number of clients I felt I have legitimately robbed over the years has been sad. Oh but don’t worry, our full pricing is only for fools, if you beg hard enough or plead we’ll be able to give you some kind of discount. We have lost SO many clients over the years and our revenue is dropping (despite having higher prices) because we have to now compensate for all of our smart clients who have left to find somewhere that pricing is actually reasonable. 3- Experienced Tax Pros get paid like garbage. Franchises can be different stories, but company offices are so cheap. I know individuals who have their EA or have 15+ years of experience who are getting paid $20/hr. I remember a while back I was younger and extremely inexperienced. I interviewed with intuit and they offered me $26/hr like it was a starting offer and I could negotiate it. H&R Block STOP UNDERPAYING YOUR EXPERIENCED TAX PROS AND FEELING BAD FOR YOURSELVES WHEN YOU PAY THEM A DECENT WAGE. 4- Virtual “tools”. A huge part of Block’s effort right now is to be 100% paperless by 2025. If that were an honest and sincere goal I’d feel different. I know for a fact it isn’t. All of you clients who use Block are just a dollar sign to them. They want to see how many of you they can cram down one associates throat as possible. There are scenarios where I love virtual options that we have. Video appointment and sending a text to have a client upload a missing document is awesome. Having us literally take office returns and upload them to our fulfillment network because “we’re too busy” is unacceptable. It’s tax season hun, everyone is busy. 5- Stop trying to “make a difference.” We are a tax company. We should do taxes. Not celebrating when we go paint a neighborhood wall. No one other than yourself cares. The only reason the charity work is around is to absolve yourselves of the guilt you feel with underpaying your associates.