User Review
( votes)Finding customers for your business, establishing and maintaining strong relationships with them is not easy. However, you can easily tackle all these challenges with the help of a CRM system for accountants that allows you to optimize and streamline your communications with current and new clients. Remember that the better you know your clients, the stronger your relationships are.
CRM tools have lots of benefits, but what about accountants? Do they use accounting firms’ software? Let’s have a look at this question in greater detail. In this review, we’ll talk about the benefits of CRM for accounting firms and have a look at the main reasons why accountants should use CRM tools. So get comfortable and have a look!
What is a CRM System?
Being a powerful system for maintaining relationships with clients, CRM is a must-have tool for the majority of businesses today. No matter what business you are running, your clients are the most important asset for you. When using a CRM tool, you’ll have one main place where the information about your customers is stored. It allows you to organize the details of your clients and leads, and gain insights into the current state of your business.
Why Accountants Need a CRM Tool
Unfortunately, not all accountants understand all the benefits of CRM tools for their business. If you are one of those still thinking that CRM solutions are only for marketing professionals, you are mistaken. Today, CRM is one of the most effective tools for accountants, and here are the main reasons why you should start using CRM software:
- You’ll enjoy centralized document management. CRM is an ideal tool for bringing together all your referrals, leads, partners and clients. You can upload all the necessary files and documents to the CRM platform and easily find them when necessary.
- Fast follow-ups with referrals and leads. When using a CRM tool, you can easily set up activities or tasks for absolutely every lead. Moreover, you’ll be able to keep your pipeline under control. When you integrate the CRM with accounting programs, it will be easier to delete duplicates and boost the productivity of the whole team.
- Make your marketing campaigns more effective. If you start using a professional CRM tool, it will be easier to automate email campaigns and create automatic responses.
- It is easier to identify profit centers. Simply put, it will be easier to find the most profitable client with a CRM platform.
- You’ll have access to your business at any time and from any place.
What Distinguishes a CRM for Accountants
If you are working as an accountant, you need to use a variety of accounting programs on a daily basis. However, accounting software is mostly focused on numbers, while your job includes more responsibilities. If your goal is to make your relationships with clients better, you need to consider using CRM software.
The main distinctive feature of CRM for accountants is easy integration with accounting software. As a result, an accountant will have a clear view of the whole transaction history. A good CRM tool for accountants should also boost client onboarding, enhance customer management and speed up communications with clients.
Features to Look for in CRM Software for Accounting Firms
The modern market is overloaded with a variety of CRM software solutions to meet different needs. However, accountants have definite requirements for CRM tools. So here are the main features to look for:
- Client self-sufficiency. If you want to spend less time on repetitive tasks, you should opt for a CRM that includes features for building self-sufficiency among your customers. For example, when a CRM platform comes with built-in self-serve portals, your customers will always have access to the dealings with your company.
- Brand-building solutions. When choosing the best CRM tool, you need to opt for the one that can help build your accounting brand.
- Customization of automated workflows. Accountants usually handle a variety of repetitive tasks. CRM software for accountants must help complete some tasks automatically.
- Easier communications with your clients. Accountants are constantly contacting their clients via emails or video chats. However, it is really hard to keep track of these messages. CRM tools allow you to take care of your customers without the necessity to backtrack for information.
- Enhanced customer management. After choosing a multi-featured CRM tool, you and your team will spend less time on data entry. Moreover, you’ll reduce communication errors that may cost you valuable and profitable clients.
A Brief Overview of the Best Accountant Tools and CRM Solutions
Accounting companies usually offer a variety of services to their clients. So to speed up some processes, they use many accounting programs. Here’s an overview of the best accounting tools and CRM platforms.
- Nimble CRM – the best tool that helps track your team’s activities, organize contacts, control the sales processes and much more.
- Aero Workflow – the software that includes a variety of tools that help control the firm’s work.
- BTC Software – a well-known independent provider of business self-assessment tax software.
- Centrix One CRM – the main mission of this tool is to help accountants better achieve their goals and mitigate their challenges.
- FreeAgent – a popular, cloud-based accounting tool for accountants and freelancers. It allows professionals in this niche to set up recurring invoices and track expenses.
Nimble CRM for Accountants
If you want to work smarter and reduce the number of repetitive tasks, the first thing you should do is start using Nimble CRM – the best CRM system for accountants. It is an all-in-one tool that allows you to organize your contacts, build relationships with clients and faster reach your goals.
If you are currently looking for the best tool that can help you organize your appointments in one intuitive dashboard, the use of Nimble might be the best idea. This tool enables you to unify your contacts, communications, social media connections, and calendar appointments with more than 160 apps.
With Nimble, you’ll be able to easily locate your contact information and team’s interaction history, add notes and update deal statuses. Overall, it is an all-in-one solution that can help you speed up a variety of routine daily tasks.
Customer Journey with Nimble CRM
Nimble is a multi-featured tool that can meet the needs of the most demanding accountants. With the help of this solution, you can easily build your relationships with clients, raise brand awareness, and keep track of all business processes. So, let’s review some options that will help boost your productivity:
Adding a lead
Nimble allows you to deal with hundreds of clients simultaneously. Here are the main directions for adding a lead:
- Open a contact record and find “View Fields”.
- Here, you’ll find a few features, including Lead Status, Lead Type and Lead Source. To choose one, you need to click on the hyperlink text.
Following up
This option will come in useful for all the accountants because it allows professionals in this area to follow up with potential customers in a few clicks. Following up is necessary no matter what kind of business you run. So what are the main benefits of following up?
- You’ll be able to analyze your proposal and easily check its effectiveness.
- At any moment, you can ask why your client refused your services and take some measures to avoid these mistakes in the future.
When you use Nimble, it will be easier to do!
Upselling
Sometimes, it is really hard to target the right company and make the customer journey shorter. Moreover, the success of your business also depends on your intelligence. Nimble CRM can help you update the information about your clients, their emails and phone numbers. If your goal is to upsell, you need to know absolutely everything about your clients!
How to Use CRM: Overview of the Best Practices
Considering all the benefits of CRM platforms for accountants, unfortunately, not all accounting firms implement these tools. Some of them still think that manual processes are more effective whereas others just don’t want to overpay. If you still can’t make your choice, here are the best practices where you can use CRM in the area of accounting.
Provide customers with unique touchpoints at each step of the sales process
On average, it takes seven touch points to close a sale. However, you should remember that all these touchpoints should feel relevant and compelling. The most popular sales funnel touchpoints are as follows:
- Phone calls touchpoints;
- Email touchpoints;
- Social media touchpoints;
- Connecting with clients in-person.
You probably know that all these touchpoints require time and effort. When using Nimble CRM, you can easily reach out across different channels without spending time on repetitive tasks.
Organize your leads with lead scoring for each sales stage to identify customers who are ready to move to the next level
Nimble CRM allows you to keep everything under control. Simply put, you can easily organize your leads in a matter of seconds.
The main purpose of lead scoring is to adapt your marketing communication to those who are potentially interested in your services, recipients who have already looked through your offer, and absolutely any person who is ready to buy. When using Nimble CRM, you can easily organize all your leads with lead scoring for every stage of your sale. As a result, you’ll be able to see which clients are ready to buy and which of them are still hesitating.
Integration with accounting software
The greatest benefit of CRM platforms is integration with accounting software. A good CRM platform helps users keep track of all the front-end processes such as sales management, interacting with clients and marketing campaigns. The main goal of accounting software is to help experts in this niche control all the back-end processes such as customer information, shipping info, billings, etc. When both systems are integrated, you’ll save your precious time. As a result, you won’t have to enter data manually.
Streamlined client onboarding
If you want to be competitive on the market, finding a way to streamline the client onboarding process must be the question of major concern for you. The main goal of client onboarding is to familiarize them with your services. Simply put, you need to understand whether your clients are well familiar with you and the service that you offer. When using a CRM tool, you’ll make sure that there are no communication gaps with your clients.
Improved Client Management
It is easy to deal with one or two clients without any software solutions. But what if you have dozens, hundreds of them? It is really hard to keep everything under control manually. A CRM platform will definitely improve your client management. You’ll be able to organize your work, monitor your leads and your communication with clients in one platform.
Easier client communications
When using a CRM platform, it will be easier for you to communicate with your clients. Moreover, you’ll never forget to follow up, personalize some communications, etc. The main objective of a CRM tool is to control a company’s interaction with its clients. To improve your business relationships, the platform uses data analysis about your clients’ history. When you know everything about your customers, it is easier to drive sales growth!
Brand building
When using a CRM platform, you’ll also improve your brand awareness, loyalty, and association. Moreover, you’ll also be able to improve your company’s efficiency and provide much better services to your clients.
CRM platforms help to know more about your clients and their preferences. Thanks to this information, marketing experts can run campaigns that meet their customers’ needs.
CRM tools allow you to:
- Differentiate your brand;
- Define your brand;
- Retain your clients.
Customization of automated workflows
You know that automation is the main tool that can increase efficiency. CRM platforms allow you to customize automated workflows. For instance, when someone wants to sign up for your email newsletter, you can create a workflow that can automatically send the confirmation, add this person to a mailing list or add a new user to a definite lead segment.
Begin tracking leads immediately
When dealing with hundreds of clients simultaneously, it is really hard to track sales leads. In such a scenario, the use of Nimble CRM might be the right solution. This tool allows you to better understand the buying process, control your lead repository, properly qualify leads and remove old data, and assign follow-ups.
Segment customers
What is customer segmentation? It is a strategy that allows you to divide your clients base into small groups that have the same characteristics. When you segment your clients into small groups, you can target them with client-centric marketing campaigns that can generate a higher ROI. When using a CRM platform, you can streamline these processes and reach the right customers.
Choose a CRM Vendor That Offers Support
The choice of CRM platforms is really huge today. However, it would be more effective if you choose a service that offers 24/7 support. No platform is bug-proofed, so in this case, you can feel certain that if problems occur, they will immediately be fixed.
Surface insights to make it easier to build relationships
When using Nimble CRM, it will be easier for you to check sales intelligence insights on each customer. Thanks to this option, you’ll be able to easily update notes about your clients, keep track of deal opportunities, monitor social profiles and see complete communication history.
Automation features
It goes without saying that experts from absolutely different niches use CRM tools to speed up a variety of time-consuming and repetitive processes. As a result, they will have more time to concentrate on other tasks. With choosing the right CRM tool, it will be easier to keep track of calendar appointments, conversations, contacts, etc. Simply put, you’ll have them all in one place.
Focus on Collaboration
Not all CRM tools that are offered at the market are the same. Some of them include a broader functionality whereas others are focused on certain tasks. The greatest benefit of Nimble is that this tool has a set of collaboration options. This means that you and the members of your team can interact with each other and work smarter. You know that the information is always updated, and you won’t miss anything when working with your clients.
When you see that you forget important information about your customers, it is time to use a CRM platform. Moreover, if you want to increase sales and improve relationships with your clients, you simply can’t do without a good CRM platform.
Conclusion
When choosing the right CRM platform for accountants, you should consider your budget, scalability, and usability. Nimble CRM is the best solution for those who want to work smarter and keep track of all business processes.
