AccountingWeb has an intriguing contest going on to discover the most progressive firm in the UK. It’s intriguing at multiple levels.
- The firms get to pitch yet with one exception have provided no links to their site
- The pitches vary widely but are mostly generic as Mark Lee would put it
- They are all tiny firms – what happened there?
- They are invited to answer questions on the website
- So far, only Bob Harper has put any of them to the test asking some reasonable questions but not really addressing the client need
I decided to do my own review following criteria I believe are appropriate. So for example – does the candidate have contact details on the front page of their website? Is there a named contact? Does the firm use Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn? Does it offer a client login facility if it is providing access to an online system? Does it have a business plan? If so then what does that look like? What would you say if I am interviewing you as a potential client? There are many other questions but that gives you a taste of what I am trying to discover from these finalists.
The first two I called were on answer phone. To me that’s an instant fail as a prospective client. If you don’t have enough staff to answer the phone or have a call forwarding service then what does that say about you? Even the message was bland and unappealing. You know the kind of thing: “I’m sorry I can’t take your call at this time…” I’ll try again in the coming days but so far…not impressed. On the third call I managed to reach Marshall & Co, specifically David who had answered some of Bob’s questions.
I explained who I am, it seems he knew of me and started through my routine. It struck me that the firm is typical of a start up. Doing the minimum necessary on a tight budget to get onto the runway and in take off mode. So for example while it uses LinkedIn, there is no reference to that on the website. The same goes for Facebook. There is a Twitter link but it is bottom left and so I didn’t immediately spot it.
David says that in an ideal world he’d like to have a portal through to his clients. He is a Xero partner but also has some clients on Kashflow. He’s having to use a clutch of payroll solutions because as he rightly says, there is no really outstanding online payroll product. He’s having to run Excel spreadsheets to get data from the online and offline systems into his IRIS final accounts production. Hardly ideal.
At the end of the conversation, I got the impression of a young person working like crazy (and doing OK) but not having the time to stop and think about practice development or marketing. He’s doing the best he can with what he’s got. He had solid answers to the ‘What’s in it for me as a client’ question but in the end his web presence is so awful I felt he’s wasting effort at the back end for the sake of stopping for a moment and thinking about how his web presence fails to express the depth of what he has to offer or what his clients think about the firm.
Does that mean he is NOT progressive? Not at all. But it is clear that the technology and services support markets have a huge education job on their hands. They could do a LOT more to help people like David. He mistakenly thought a website refresh that gets all the things I mentioned into position would cost several thousand pounds. My advice: spend on design but not on tools and pressure your suppliers to give you what you need.
Although he’s thinking about what he needs from a tech standpoint, he wasn’t aware of many aspects that could make his life easier. This again reinforces in my mind the notion I’ve had for a very long time that the tech community is plain awful at providing the very help its customers need.
Over the coming days I plan to contact others on AWeb’s list. While I will be sense testing ‘progressiveness’ from my perspective, I will at the same time be looking for further evidence of what needs to be done to help practitioners be more successful.
One thing I am certain – there’s plenty of room for creative destruction and new polymath thinking.
