Tax season is the busiest time for accounting firms. During tax season, they have the pressure to meet the deadlines which require them to focus on work and nothing else. However, tax season is also the time when new clients come with their inquiries. So, how can accounting firms balance both important aspects of their work? Here we give a few tips that will help them prepare beforehand to handle the customer calls.
Hiring Call Answering Services
Effective communication is important for every business including accounting firms. During tax season, time is critical and so accounting firms need to do away with things that fritter with time. However, it is crucial that communication lines of accounting firm remain open to cater to clients. By hiring after hour answering service, these firms can route the calls with the recommended setting and dedicate their time focusing on core accounting tasks. Here are some ways in which an answering service prepares accounting firm before the tax season.
Virtual Receptionist
Just like other businesses, accounting firms also know the struggle of hiring someone just to manage communication for the tax season. For many firms, hiring a real-life receptionist is an unnecessary luxury and redundant. Hiring after hour answering service provides you a virtual receptionist who will manage calls for you. One good thing is that a virtual receptionist will do everything a real receptionist does including answering and transferring calls within your organization. Another brighter side of using answering service is the accounting firm pays only for the calls answered.
Appointment Setting
Most accounting firms don’t take walk-ins. Clients need to book an appointment to discuss money and tax matters in detail. Imagine an accountant juggling between accounting and setting appointments. In most cases, it would be difficult for the accountant to give the concentration needed for accounting. Answering services can handle this job. The service provider has a dedicated and high-quality appointment setting team. It uses software that interfaces with your appointment calendar. This way, the accounting staff will always stay updated about appointments with old and new clients without wasting time in appointment setting.
24/7 Customer Response Service
Today, almost everyone is busy and clients may call your firm after normal office hours. It is quite common for people to expect businesses to offer 24/7 customer response service. When you hire answering service, you can rest assured. With these services, if your clients call your office during holidays or after-hours, they will communicate with a real person who can understand their concerns and give them right answers or connect them to one who can.
Thus, you can see hiring an answering service can help the accounting firm to concentrate on their accounting work without fear of losing new clients.