CPA firms who aspire to grow have used referral networking, direct mail advertising, telemarketing, and other marketing practices to improve their businesses and reach out to more clients. As part of the basic rules of marketing, these methods never fail to work if implemented the right way. However, there is another system that can boost their marketing strategies by far. Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Believe it or not, CRM can be hauntingly painful and stressful for accountants and thus many may choose to ignore it. Despite this, CPA firms should learn to use CRM systems for the following reasons;
• Target marketing
CRM tools collect data that is useful for targeted marketing communications. Rather than sending newsletters for your general client base, why not craft it for a specific client? Accounting firms can save so much and improve their services using CRMs. Do not just create content only for it to be 50% helpful to your clients.
• Customer satisfaction
Isn’t this what every business wants? Satisfied clients will have no trouble coming back to your CPA firm or even recommending it to others if they find quality in your practice. Customer (or client in this case) Relationship Management systems work towards building this satisfaction. How do you ask? The information you mine from the CRM tools can assist the firm to anticipate the needs of clients making sure you are always meeting their expectations. Once the firm is able to capture their preferences and needs, nothing prevents you from offering quality professional services.
• Enables firms to offer value-added services
All accounting firms have solutions to the client’s typical problems, i.e., tax filing, auditing accounting compliance and so on. Basing the point on this fact, how can you convince new clients that your firm has value-added services when there is no uniqueness? It is an easy fix though. CRM data helps identify the latest trends which will be the foundation of your services. Tapping into the trends, you transform the accounting services to be in line with the demand of the trends.
• Improves efficiency
Traditionally, tax files, subscriptions, working papers, contact tables, and e-marketing applications had different storage applications. Retrieving data, therefore, became hectic and overall, the system was disorganized. The situation is different with CRM tools. It centralizes all this data and is accessible in one application. Clearly, CRM system is much efficient as compared to the traditional ones.
• Provide remote access capabilities
How cool is that? If your accountants are at clients offices, they can still do some constructive work on their laptops and mobile phones. They can even work from home. This is one of the biggest advantages of using CRM tools. Cloud-based systems are the best as the information is on the cloud for backup purposes. It’s safe, fast and reliable.
In essence, Customer Relationship Management systems still have their part to play in the field of accounting. No matter how hard you try to avoid integrating them in your marketing strategies, you will feel the need to. So, research on the commonly used CRMs, their reasons, and functionality in order to assist your firm to settle on one that suits the firm’s needs for their growth.
