The fiduciary sector is in a state of flux, and the working methods and role of fiduciaries are changing as a result. Instead of carrying out routine activities, the focus is increasingly on building on strengths and competitive advantages and deepening the relationship with customers. In this blog post, we show how fiduciary clerks become customer happiness managers – who are primarily responsible for customer acquisition and support.
With the transformation of the fiduciary industry, more and more customer happiness managers are needed to take care of the acquisition of new clients and the relationship with existing clients. As the name suggests, Customer Happiness Managers make sure your customers are happy. We have summarised below what the shift away from the clerk: and what customer happiness managers means for fiduciaries.
Clear focus becomes essential in the fiduciary industry
Smaller fiduciary companies in particular are unlikely to be able to serve all client segments effectively and efficiently in the future due to the increasing complexity of the fiduciary business. Do customer segmentation before you start medium-term strategic planning. This means that you divide existing and potential customers into groups based on self-defined characteristics. Finally, determine which client segments your fiduciary company can and wants to serve in the future. Focus on the most important customer segments – i.e. the most lucrative, exciting ones that match your expertise – that are served by customer happiness managers.
Reading Tip: The shortage of skilled workers is causing problems in the fiduciary sector. In this blog post, you will learn how fiduciary companies can recruit and retain the skilled workers who are struggling in the labour market.
Fiduciary companies need to build on their strengths and develop innovative services
Routine work with high automation potential no longer represents a major benefit for many SMEs. Thanks to a high degree of automation, fully automated accounting systems today handle many tasks faster and more cost effectively than fiduciaries. Consequently, in the not too distant future, hardly anyone will be willing to pay for the handling of routine activities. This is problematic in that, according to a recent Survey by Accounto and TH Suisse accounting is the main source of income for 57 percent of all fiduciary companies in Switzerland.
However, the advancing digitalisation and the increased emergence of software solutions for the automation of accounting tasks does not ultimately mean the elimination of work for fiduciary companies, but rather a shift. Fiduciary companies remain the central point of contact for all business and financial concerns of the companies they serve. When you outsource repetitive tasks such as document extraction, sub-ledger reconciliations and report generation to fiduciary software, you save valuable man-hours. A fully automated accounting solution without software breaks completely eliminates the need for manual data entry, which reduces the effort involved in accounting to control tasks and allows clerks to concentrate on customer acquisition and support.
In the future, only those fiduciary companies will survive that deliver recognisable added value to their clients. Define how your fiduciary company stands out from the competition. What do your customers particularly appreciate? What are the strengths of your team? Which customer segments could you expand further? With the right fiduciary software you have a stable and secure platform to reduce the time spent on routine activities and to create, promote and bill innovative services.
Would you like to find out how Accounto’s fiduciary software can help you realise the potential and opportunities of digitalisation for your fiduciary business? Make an appointment here for a free needs analysis.
This is how you can deepen and expand the relationship with your clients
It is often easier and cheaper to retain existing clients than to attract new ones. Customer Happiness Managers build the relationship with your customers and lay the foundation for up-selling and cross-selling. Up-selling means offering more sophisticated services than before and cross-selling is selling additional services. Up-selling or cross-selling in fiduciary services can range from assistance in drafting an expense policy to advice on choosing the appropriate VAT accounting method to tailor-made packages to cover specific knowledge gaps in SMEs.
Find out in which administrative activities your clients need additional support and what role your fiduciary company can play in this. Customer Happiness Managers can find out what challenges the companies they support regularly face. When talking to clients, ask open questions and don’t be afraid to ask if there is anything unclear.
This is why you should promote and develop your employees
In many sectors, training and further education of young talents and lateral entrants is a sensible way of attracting loyal skilled workers. In view of the shortage of skilled workers in the fiduciary industry and the competition for well-trained fiduciary professionals on the labour market, many fiduciary companies can no longer afford to wait for the perfectly suitable applicants. Give candidates a chance who do not yet meet all your criteria. Look together for ways in which the applicants can acquire the knowledge they are still lacking. Especially in the function as Customer Happiness Manager, not only industry knowledge and practical know-how are required, but first and foremost a strong customer centricity.
Our transformation partner tomorrowanders supports fiduciary companies in the digital transformation. Here you can book a non-binding and free initial consultation with morgenanders.
