Consider a Website as an, everyday, proactive business tool, to get it performing to it’s full potential!

Although this article is primarily aimed at Websites for Accountants, it is also just as relevent to the majority of other industries/professions.

This article will be of benefit if you are considering owning your first Website, or if your Website is proving a little disappointing. We will attempt to give a balanced viewpoint why we, as Web Designers, feel it is important for you to understand the real advantages / benefits of owning a Website. Ultimately, it could save you a lot of wasted time and money. A fact you may already be well aware of.

It’s a simple case of recalibrating perceptions

Most Accountants tend to view a Website as just another form of advertising or a box that needs to be ticked. They don’t really expect their clients to use it, since, clients already know what services the business offers, so what is the point of visiting (although, an Accountant’s Website offering a Client Resource Area, goes part of the way to acheiving this). Other than the above, website owners, generally, believe: the website has served it’s purpose; there is nothing more to be gained: and the Website has met it’s objectives (assuming Website objectives were set in the first place). They haven’t considered:

• Their website is, effectively, their Sales and Customer Service Teams, rolled into one i.e. it can easily take on some of the daily workload of these teams.
• It is, most likely, the only service related aspect of their business that is available 24/7 and always open for business.
• It can consistently put foward key business sales messages and continue to offer high levels of customer support, even after staff have left for the day.

Once we bring this to the attention of our new clients and explain how it could work in the context of their own business (typically, during the pre-sales stage), many go onto to tell us, how rewarding and revealing, the conversations proved to be. It leaves then feeling excited about the potential of their new Website. 

In fact, a well developed website is a terrific leveler and allows smaller Accountants to compete favourably with larger organisations, on the Internet, at least.

So, what does this translate into?

• Use the Website as a tool for bringing the business  closer to your clients.
• Give clients / visitors reasons to visit the website again and again i.e. client resources, such as, Tax Tables, HMRC Forms, Helpsheets.
• Operate a Blog and comment on breaking news stories. Encourage clients to visit the blog in the first instance, to keep up-to-date on articles that should be of interest to them, saving the time of having to address clients individually. Prompt interaction by encouraging them to comment on blog posts.
• Run client surveys and gain valuable feedback from the client base.
• Reduce the need for sending hard-copy Forms, by including Electronic Forms on the Website, instead.
• Make clients feel important by creating a members only area on the website or by making some blog posts, member only.
• Adopt a more professional approach for transferring files to and from clients, by operating an integrated Document Portal
• Significantly reduce the time spent answering  repetitive questions, by creating a Frequently Asked Question section on the Website. Give visitors information when they need it and not when the business want to give it.
• Consider running a Helpdesk system, to help monitor enquiries coming into the businesss, especially from the client base. Share the same view of Support Tickets.
• For example, if staff are working remotely from home due to COVID-19, making it difficult to keep track of who has responded to what, a Helpdesk system could be the simplest and most cost effective solution.
• Interact with website visitors in real time, by operating a Live Chat facility. Use it as another customer support option.
• Consider an Ecommerce facility for the website, to help speed up payments.
• Encourage potential new staff members to leave their details, giving you a good starting point when looking for new staff and possibly reducing your recruitment costs at the same time.
• Significantly improve the lead generation, by writing compelling content on all services i.e. each page should be able to stand alone and give solid reasons why the visitor should contact the business. See either our own Website Content For Accountants page, or one of our Accountant client’s Business Start-up page, as two good examples.
• Include all sales literature on the Website as PDFs, to speed up sales cycles and save on postage.
• Consider running a free, local Business Directory (as we do), to encourage potential clients to the website, giving a legitimate excuse to subsequently contact them.
• Likewise, consider running a Forum. Create an environment for potential new clients to seek advice.
• Use the Website as the focul point of all marketing initiatives.
• If your website is very popular, why not consider offering advertising space and let it help generate additional revenue.
• If you advertise in yell.com, confirm if it is a good investment by monitoring, via Website Statistics, the number of referrals coming from their Website.

In Summary

A Website is a terrific lead generator but is much more than that. It has the ability to reduce admin costs, improve customer service, streamline business processes and help make business processes more efficient. It wants to become and has the ability to become: an invaluable, everyday, proactive business tool. The business just needs to keep asking itself: can the website help, can the website do this better?