7 ways to boost efficiency with an app
Apps have become a critical channel and mobile is undeniably now the first screen with each user spending nearly 1.5 months using apps per year. Today’s apps can do so much more than just connect accountants with their clients. They are comparable to integrated suites of practice software that roll up tools, features and content and help firms thrive in the digital world.
Here are seven ways we believe an app can boost efficiency and help a firm grow:
1. Perfect tool for data gathering
The gathering of client data is set to become an important challenge as we move closer towards the introduction of Making Tax Digital for Business. There needs to be a simple answer to the challenge of getting information from those that want to use their Smartphones to communicate with their accountant. The solution lies in the newly developed, easy to use ‘Collect’ App that is ideally suited to recording simple transactional data.
Using a single simple app, clients can collect the information needed by using the in-built camera on their smartphones and tablets to photograph receipts and by taking photographs of their invoices. These are sent across to the accountant literally at the touch of a button enabling the MTD return to be produced quickly and easily.
2. Secure, effective and compliant client communication
Messages sent from within an accountant’s app using mobile phones are proving to be the one of the most effective ways of connecting with clients. Push notifications are short, text like messages, which are sent instantly and automatically, land on all App users’ phones or tablets. The beauty of this method is that most people have their phones with them all the time and messages don’t have to fight for visibility with hundreds of other emails in a crammed-full inbox or a pile of junk mail carefully filtered by a secretary or PA.
The result: a 90 per cent open rate compared with emails that have an open rate of around 4 per cent. They also provide a helpful, additional layer of protection and ensure any information relayed is totally secure.
3. Simplify GDPR compliance
UK business is braced for yet another challenging year of legislative change with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on the 25 May 2018. Apps can be a useful aid to GDPR compliance; making it easier to collect and verify data and gain the necessary opt in permissions. There is huge potential for an app to help in the sharing of privacy policies and also in the storage and management of data.
Client contact data, and segmentation held within the accountant’s App control panel, is totally secure and access can be restricted to selected members of the team. If a user wishes to be ‘forgotten’ then they can simply delete the app from their device and notify the practice that they do not wish to be contacted again. All their contact information can be easily removed from the control panel and a complete audit trail is available to demonstrate these actions have been completed.
4. Increase Visibility
Apps are the way forward for accounting practices that want to increase their visibility. Each time the client or prospect scrolls, unlocks, and uses their Smartphone, they see their accountants’ branding and name. This becomes a regular daily reminder that their accountant is on hand and increases the chance of more contact and more opportunity to sell value-added services.
5. Tailored marketing
Time and time again, the personal approach to marketing is shown to be more effective and mobile apps can deliver a lot of information about customers and prospects including demographics and geographical locations and preferences. Practices that use this information to market directly to their customer base with carefully selected news items or information on new services, gain a huge advantage over their competitors.
6. Build Brand Recognition
By simply creating an app with useful features such as tax calculators, mileage and expense trackers, clients will see this as their ‘go-to’ point for all information relating to finances. Rather than ‘Google’ the answer, the app steadily becomes an essential part of their day-to-day lives. And the more often they interact with it, the more likely they are to request more services.
Apps come with a sharing option where users can share your communication with their friends. This is the most valuable form of recommendation as it is perceived that a friend is personally telling you about a great service. Studies indicate that referrals and third-party sales are among the most valuable marketing strategies.
7. Increase Customer Engagement
All prospects need a way to reach a firm that they are interested in. If you are unreachable, you run the risk of losing that new customer. A mobile app can solve this with the potential to have a help desk where prospects and clients too, can post their questions and comments.
The fact that a mobile app sets you apart from the crowd cannot be over-emphasised. Take advantage of this effective communication and marketing tool and be one of the first in your area to offer clients an app. At the tap of a button, your clients are able to see your services and this ease of use can drive customer engagement and loyalty to an unprecedented level.
But more than that, a future-proofed app platform can help boost practice efficiency and save time when gathering data. With MTD literally just around the corner, apps will come into their own and provide the fastest and most efficient way for accountants to handle this latest challenge.
MyFirmsApp will be on stand 798 at Accountex 2018 at ExCel in London on 23-24 May.
