4 Digital Communication Tips for Growing Bookkeeping Firms

The digital era has tremendously improved our ability to communicate with people in different places. With a few clicks or taps, you can be face-to-face with a friend or colleague across the world. And though digital tools make it easier than ever before to connect with others, there are some well-documented negatives of digital communication.

Most of them relate to how these methods aren’t great at capturing nonverbal communication: tone of voice, facial expressions, and other subtle cues that humans have been using for centuries. Some research indicates that as much as 90% of communication between people happens without words.  

As bookkeeping firms, we can’t get away from digital communication. But we can implement a few important guidelines that will help make sure that all of our interactions—whether with clients, teammates, or supervisors—get across the intended message. 

Start with a strong internal organization system 

For communication to be clear and effective between any two parties, each one needs to understand where the other is coming from.  

In the case of an accounting firm employee speaking to a client, it’s particularly important the team member knows where things are with regard to the client’s account and what their expectations are for the next steps in the project. 

This simply isn’t possible without an efficient, clear method of keeping your team members on track.

When your internal systems are set up with tools like reporting and analytics dashboards and streamlined workflow management protocols, it becomes much easier for your firm’s representatives to stay on track and communicate more concisely with clients.  

Any uncertainty in your team will eventually bleed into their interactions with clients, which could cause major issues.  

Use email etiquette 

As modern bookkeepers, it’s almost impossible to get away from using email. Most professionals view email as something of a necessary evil, a chore they have to get through so that they can get to the more focus-intensive parts of their work.  

Email is actually a lot less difficult to wrangle when you and your organization follow a few basic guidelines: 

• Put the gist of an email upfront. If the purpose of an email is to ask a question or get clarification on a specific item, make that request as early as possible in the note. Many people deal with such a high volume of email messages that they only have time to skim.
  
  If you bury a question or concern deep within the message, they might miss it, resulting in a lot of wasted time and energy from everyone. 
• Use subject lines to explain the message. Along those same lines, lots of people will read the subject of an incoming message but not actually open the full email. If there’s a way you can communicate the gist of your message in the subject line, try to do so.  
  
  For example, if your email is about a meeting that’s taking place in a new location, include the specific location in the subject line – don’t just use something vague like, “New meeting location.”   
  
•  Understand how to direct your email message. The main recipient(s) of the message should be in the “To:” field, while people who just need to see the message for awareness and don’t have a specific request should be included in the “CC:” field.
  
  Be careful about forwarding messages, especially if it’s a long thread that’s been going on for a while. Someone may have written something earlier in the note that they didn’t want your new recipient to see.

Stick to a few main communication types 

There are many different methods of digital communication today. Broadly, we can break them down into three categories: email, async messaging and live meetings.  

While everybody has their own specific communication preferences, most of the people you encounter will express a desire to use one of these categories. For example, sending text messages or using chat programs falls under the async messaging category. 

Instead of trying to meet the unique communication request of each new client, we recommend offering one option in each of these subcategories. This way, your firm can still maintain flexibility in the way you engage with clients, but you don’t have to completely change your communication protocol every time you sign a new account.  

You can also keep your internal communications separate, using a method that works best for your own needs.  

Consolidate your communications as much as possible 

Some chat or virtual meeting programs are standalone communication tools, while others are built into larger platforms. However you decide to handle digital communication at your bookkeeping firm, it’s helpful to have the fewest possible separate tools to communicate with clients and teammates.  

One excellent option is the use of accounting practice management software. The top practice management software solutions offer features like project tagging, email notifications and integrations with other top industry applications.  

Practice management software can make your bookkeeping firm communication streamlined and efficient, ensuring stay on a steady path towards the kind of growth you’ve always envisioned for your firm.  

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