How to Get the Most Value Out of Your CRM

Would you like to guarantee the ongoing success of your accounting firm? The secret is to take advantage of your client relationship management tool, or CRM for short. Your CRM is one of the most powerful tools available. You can use it to establish new client relationships and strengthen the relationships you’ve already built with your existing and previous clients. In this article, we’ll explore how to turn your CRM tool into a value driver for your accounting firm.

What is a CRM?

CRM is short for client (or customer) relationship management. It’s a software that allows you to manage your prospective, current, and previous clients in one location instead of via sticky notes and email threads. Your CRM serves as a central hub that contains all of your client information, and the more information you record, the better. Why? Continually building your CRM will turn it into a massive resource. All the information you have on the client will exist in one place, including your correspondence and tasks that you or the client still need to do.

But your CRM isn’t just a tool that displays information. You can use it to create and automate tasks, such as sending out billing emails to ensure that your clients pay on time. Your CRM shouldn’t just be a digital copy of your client list. It should improve the efficiency of your daily workflow, and it should be used by your clients too.

Your CRM shouldn’t just be a digital copy of your client list. It should improve the efficiency of your daily workflow, and it should be used by your clients also. Share on X

When you operate an accounting firm, you need a CRM software that can support your unique workflow and objectives. This is why we created Mango, our client portal software, which is the next evolution in client relationship management. In Mango’s client portal, you record all of your clients’ information in one central location, and then use this tool to communicate easily and effectively with your clients. You can send a request for documents, and your client can then respond to the request using the same portal.

And, by the way, we’ve intentionally built our client portal so that it’s a painless experience for both your team and your clients. We’ve discovered that if a CRM is complicated and confusing to use, your accounting clients simply won’t use it. And your team won’t use it effectively. But if your CRM is as simple and intuitive as email, both your team and your clients will use it, which is why we made our client portal software intentionally user-friendly.

For your team members:

Mango’s client portal offers unlimited storage. You can record as much data as needed, and retain documents about the client. This includes contact information, notes, messages, invoice history, and a history of client activity within the portal.

For your accounting clients:

Mango’s client portal makes it easy for clients to access the information that they care about, such as an answer to a frequently asked question or a list of their previous invoices. Your client portal reduces the client’s need to reach out to your team for simple requests. It empowers your clients to help themselves. It also provides a new level of transparency that will increase the client’s trust in your firm. All this collectively will improve your relationship with your client.

As you can see, a CRM is a great tool, but not all tools will give you the results you’re after. If you’re looking for a superior way to build a relationship with your accounting client, use a tool that was built for that specific purpose. Mango is a fully integrated practice management software that includes a CRM as one of its core offerings. It was built by accountants and specifically for accountants, which means that we’ve walked your path, we’ve shared your same pain points, and we’ve created a solution to help you improve your client relationship. Check it out now.

How to Get the Most Out of Your CRM

Having a CRM is the first step, but simply having a CRM won’t ensure your success. To get the most out of your CRM, follow these steps:

Keep it Updated

The more information you add to the CRM, the more useful it will become in your day to day workflow. In fact, your CRM is only as powerful as the information it contains. Be sure that your team records all client information into the same CRM, instead of on their locally saved database files. Using the same CRM will increase your team’s overall efficiency because everything they need to know about a client is in one central location. This eliminates the back and forth that can happen if only one team member knows information on a client.

Maintaining a central client hub is also important for team efficiency. For example, if a team member gets sick or is not available for answers, someone else on your team can still access the same information about a client if it’s maintained in a central location.

Analyze Your Clients’ Activity

Use your CRM to analyze your clients’ activity so that you can offer smarter advice for the future. With a CRM like Mango, all of your client’s activity in the portal is recorded and visible for you to analyze. This isn’t throwaway information. You can use this data to improve ongoing communication and formulate your future marketing. For example, you can look at what services they used in the past, and how often they’ve accessed information on your portal to determine if they’re a good candidate for a different accounting offering you may have, such as advisory services.

Automate Reminders

One of the best ways to use your CRM is by taking advantage of its automation capabilities. Use your CRM to notify your clients when there’s a deadline approaching, such as when to submit a time-sensitive tax document. You can also send out payment reminders to gently nudge your client when an invoice is due. Since this task can be automated, it’s one less burden that your team has to remember.

Take Advantage of Demand

As you begin to track trends over the course of a year, you’ll discover when your clients are more likely to access the client portal, respond to requests, or request unique services. For example, prospective clients are usually on the hunt for tax services between December to April. This is your cue to increase your marketing outreach to clients who may be in your portal but aren’t actively using your service. Use your CRM to gently remind them to come back to you before they start doing business with a different firm.

Grow Your Practice

Beyond payment reminders, you can also use your CRM to grow your practice.

As we mentioned above, your CRM provides insight into how your clients use your services. Leverage this information to create a more robust marketing strategy. By analyzing your CRM, you’ll soon discover the types of clients who use your service (by demographics), the average lifecycle of a client, what types of clients stick around, and which clients are most likely to leave. Seeing this information in black and white can help you make smarter decisions on how to market your accounting services in the future.

Check out this list of 30 critical metrics every accounting firm should have on hand.

Final Thoughts

Your CRM holds the key to your accounting firm’s ongoing success. Implement the above tips to maximize the value of your CRM and build stronger relationships with your clients.

Would you like to see our accounting client relationship management in action? Click here to schedule a demo of Mango Practice.