It has been our great pleasure to implement HubSpot for UK accountancy firms and see the huge difference this software can make to a business.
During 2020 and 2021, many firms were forced to review how they do business. Processes that enable staff to work from home were at the forefront of many minds, and, being cloud-based, HubSpot absolutely meets that need.
But HubSpot enables firms to go beyond just being able to do the same work in remote locations.
HubSpot enables accountancy firms to automate processes with the aim of doing more work with the same team, whilst simultaneously improving both employee and customer satisfaction.
And, in an industry that relies very heavily on reputation and word of mouth for sales and recruitment, employee and customer satisfaction should be the focal point of any accountancy firm business strategy.
Here's a run-down of some of the ways HubSpot can be used to improve business processes, accelerate sales and improve customer retention in UK accountancy firms:
HubSpot CRM allows you to set up as many user-defined fields (properties) as you need in order to run your business. VAT registration details, company year end and more.... You can set up fixed choices through radio buttons, check boxes and drop downs, or allow free text and document uploads where flexibility is needed.
You can customise the properties that are visible to the user on company records, contact records, service (help desk) tickets and sales deals.
You keep HubSpot in synch with your practice management system using HubSpot integration tools.
You can create dashboards of reports for your MI.
And you can automate processes based on your particular needs.
No more fiefdoms of information.
No more multiple versions of the truth contained in copies of spreadsheets.
No more missed opportunities to sell and service clients.
No big effort to create MI for board meetings.
Do you find yourself constantly asking your team "What happened to that sales opportunity for Company X" or "When did we last speak to client Y?"
There are four features of HubSpot that will help accelerate sales:
HubSpot enables you to set up your own dashboards to report on marketing, sales and service work for your team / location / client set. These can be exported as a PDF on a regular basis, or viewed on line with the added benefit of drill-down capabilities. All information in the dashboards is literally up to the minute.
Your personal dashboard might for example:
- list all the clients who haven't been contacted in the last quarter
- show all companies whose VAT returns are due next month
- show which website pages are attracting the most number of views with a drill down to see who looked at those pages
- and more...
HubSpot allows you to set up reminders for tasks / deals / service tickets that are approaching your service levels. So, if a deal doesn't move forward within a defined time period or a client issue is not resolved quickly, the right people are alerted to do something about it.
As for all those regular jobs like VAT returns, year end etc., HubSpot's workflow engine can be used to email reminders to your clients to provide information and set up tasks for your team.
Does your team waste time going back and forth to set up a meeting with potential clients?
The meetings link function in HubSpot provides clients with access to view and book available time from your diary. Simply keep your Google or Outlook calendar up to date, set some parameters for meeting lengths and the time you'd like to reserve in between meetings, and let your clients choose a slot that suits them. To see how this works (and, optionally, book a slot with one of us) try this meeting link.
Use HubSpot to automatically maintain lists of potential prospects. The list tool enables you to set parameters for ideal prospects for each service line. As you add new contacts into the database, they will automatically be added to the appropriate list(s) for you to prospect.
If you have a wealth management practice, for example, then you might want to set your criteria so that anyone added to the CRM who is designated as a company owner or director based in the UK could automatically become a prospect for your wealth management practice (provided you've collected the right permissions, of course!).
HubSpot's Service enables accountancy firms to record, manage and report on all client requests in a systematic way. Service tickets can be automatically routed to the right team / person, and their progress can be monitored though visual dashboards and reporting.
We automated the creation of tickets for VAT returns and year end processing with some outstanding benefits. Here's what we set up:
All in all, this is a very smooth process that enables accountants to spend more time doing the job they qualified for and less time on administrative actions.
Just as HubSpot Service can be used for clients, it can also be used to provide efficient support services for employees.
Keep employees productive by ensuring they have access to helpful information and the ability to raise tickets for IT, telephone or other problems that get in the way of them doing their job.
The knowledge-base can be used to store documents, videos and guides to provide self-service password-protected online help for all employees.
HubSpot's quotes module provides a seam-free approach to online signatures. Signed documents are stored within HubSpot, but can be exported or printed if needed.
Business card scanning and sales opportunity updates are just two of the features of the HubSpot mobile app. As soon as you scan a business card, the details are set up as a contact in the CRM and you can start to record details of any sales opportunities.
You can view your tasks, create emails, see reports, look up contact details and more. All on your mobile phone.
HubSpot is synonymous with Inbound Marketing and provides email marketing, a blogging platform, social posting, forms, CTAs, PPC, website analytics and a host of other marketing tools.
The great thing about these tools from an accountancy firm's point of view is the control you have over who gets what.
And, most importantly, a complete and detailed view of which areas of marketing spend lead to the most revenue.
Last, but by no means least.....this one is so simple, yet so very powerful.
When anyone in your firm views a contact or a company, they can see - ON ONE SCREEN - all of the following:
So, if you're trying to sell a new service line, you can see any outstanding service tickets and gauge whether or not this is the right time to contact them to sell more!
Or, if a client raises a query, you can see and/or record any potential sales opportunities.
And something everyone loves - access to the CRM is free! Anyone in your firm who wants to view and use CRM information can do so absolutely free of charge!
All in all, HubSpot is a proven CRM for accountancy firms that delivers real benefit, not just client record keeping functionality.
If you'd like to find out more about HubSpot, eg: