Small business owners know that the customer is the top priority, but so many tasks demand your time that customer service often gets lost in the shuffle. 

 

Not only is it a good practice to keep in touch with customer needs, but statistics show it costs five times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. Not only that, according to one study, a 5% increase in customer retention can increase profit by more than 25%.

 

Needless to say, it makes good business sense to keep your finger on the pulse of your customers’ wants and needs. While not all small businesses have the luxury of a customer service department, there are many steps you can take to improve customer satisfaction.  

 

Listen to Customers 

 

Customers want to feel valued and heard. Be open to all feedback, and make sure you respond in ways that make your customers feel listened to. This will create a greater affinity for your company and encourage continued honest feedback. Sometimes, the best way to get feedback from customers is to just ask! It may seem obvious, but many small business owners overlook this simple step. Don’t let feeling awkward about it hold you back.

 

Build rapport with your customers, and start with those you have the closest relationship with. It doesn’t have to be a daunting formal conversation; simple, open-ended questions about a customer’s experience with your company, your product, or customer service can produce valuable insights. 

 

Ready to reach more customers? Create a simple survey on one of the many form-making platforms, such as Google Forms, and link to it from your homepage, share it on your social media platforms, or send it in a newsletter. Allow customers to remain anonymous for more honest feedback. 

 

Make it a habit to solicit feedback. Consider offering incentives. For example, a free download or a discount on their next service to thank customers for taking the time. Be sure to keep track of all this valuable information. Combine this survey and interview data with feedback from customer service for a more complete picture of customer experience. Analyze your compiled data for patterns and opportunities to improve.

 

Monitor Social Media 

 

Keep an eye on those social media accounts! Ensure you’re monitoring and responding to all mentions, comments, and private messages. Whether positive, negative, or neutral, every message should receive a direct response. This is vital to ensure that customers know their opinions matter to you and your company. 

 

Social media has transformed customer service. People often vent their frustrations with companies on social media. It’s important to be aware of what’s being said about your company and get out ahead of any issues. 

 

Not only is it important to know what comments people are directing at your company, but be sure to search your company name, abbreviations, and relevant hashtags regularly. Some customers will voice their feedback without directly messaging or linking to the company’s account.  

 

Social listening tools allow businesses to automate the process of monitoring social media by gathering all comments, whether or not customers directly mention a company. Many of these tools also track relevant keywords, customer demographic information, and overall sentiment.   

 

Social media is also a great place to solicit feedback! Ask simple and direct open-ended questions of your followers in posts. You can also share your surveys on your pages and encourage customers to reach out in comments or messages with any comments, questions, commendations, and complaints. This makes customers feel listened to. In addition, you can add this data in with the rest of your customer feedback for even more insight. 

 

Improve Response Time

 

It’s important that you address all customer correspondence directly, professionally, and in a timely matter. These types of communications can build up. Even if your business doesn’t have a dedicated customer service professional, be sure to check regularly. 

 

A great way to handle this with a small team is to dedicate 30 minutes every day to check all inboxes and respond. Ensuring regular and timely responses. You can even block this time out on your calendar as a reminder.   

 

Facebook business pages automatically monitor your average response time and report it to customers once you reach a certain threshold. This can let customers know how quickly to expect a response, help you keep track of how you’re doing, and even provide motivation to improve.   

 

If you find you’re getting a lot of similar questions and feedback from customers, why not try out a chatbot? Chatbots were once reserved for large companies that could afford to develop them. Nowadays, Facebook and many AI website-builder platforms offer the option to create your own chatbot.  

 

Offer Simple & Flexible Payment Options 

 

Technology has made it simple to collect payments, with friends easily splitting bills in real-time on P2P networks, so why are checks still the most commonly used form of payment for B2B transactions? Lack of options. Still, your customers expect the same convenience they’re accustomed to in their personal lives. You can offer it to them, even without an existing merchant account.  

 

FINSYNC is a secure payment platform that allows your customers to easily make payments without ever revealing their sensitive account information. It also gives your customers the option to use their preferred method of payment, including check, ACH, debit, or credit card. This freedom of choice will go a long way toward customer satisfaction. 

 

But what if you don’t have a merchant account set up to accept credit cards? No problem. FINSYNC makes it simple for you to accept credit card payments in a few quick clicks. The platform can even convert paper checks to ACH. You can still receive payments electronically if your customer prefers to pay by check. 

 

With FINSYNC Pay, all of your payments (no matter the type) are streamlined into one integrated platform that connects all of your accounts, which helps you stay on top of your cash flow.

 

Free up Time & Resources to Dedicate to Customer Service 

 

As much as business owners would like to dedicate time to improving value for customers, the reality of running a small business means that there’s rarely enough time for everything. If customer service tends to get pushed to the bottom of your to-do list, take steps to free up some time in your day-to-day schedule. 

 

Automating administrative back-office tasks can save you significant time so you and your team can spend less time pouring over spreadsheets and put the focus back on the customer. Automating your accounting with FINSYNC helps you streamline all payments going in and out, integrate with bank accounts, track cash flow, prepare taxes and see high-level graphs and reports all in one place. 

 

Don’t waste time tracking down invoices and keeping track of payment dates. With FINSYNC, you can automate manual processes like invoice requests. Automated reminders let your clients know when it’s time to pay. This will help you avoid uncomfortable late-payment interactions, which can hurt the rapport you’re working so hard to build. 

 

With all these back-office tasks off your plate, you can focus on what matters most: the customer! By keeping the conversation going with customers, addressing any issues quickly, using feedback to find opportunities to improve, and offering convenient payment options, even a small team can deliver ongoing customer satisfaction and boost retention.  

 

How FINSYNC Can Help

 

FINSYNC allows you to run your business on One Platform. You can send and receive payments, process payroll, automate accounting, and manage cash flow. To learn more about how we can help your business start, scale, and succeed, contact us today.

If you’re like most small business owners, you probably don’t enjoy pulling monthly financial reports and managing things like payments and bank reconciliations. If you did enjoy these things, you probably would have opened an accounting firm. Nevertheless, managing your small business finances is something that you have to do if you want to stay in business.

 

At FINSYNC, we’re committed to helping your small business succeed and know how many business owners struggle with bookkeeping. 

 

We turned to Linda Cappadona, a bookkeeper in the FINSYNC Network, for bookkeeping tips and insight into the best ways to keep your business in the black.

 

Don’t Neglect Bank and Credit Card Reconciliation

 

Think of bank reconciliations as balancing your business checkbook. It’s how you verify that the funds going in and out of your bookkeeping solution coincide with the funds going in and out of your bank account.

 

According to Linda, “The best place to start is by reconciling your bank and credit card accounts. That covers everything you’ve ever done because everything feeds either through a bank account or credit card. If you can do that, it gives you a really good sense of where your money is going.”

 

Start from your beginning balance and reconcile to the end of the month every month. If the closing balance in your accounting software doesn’t match the closing balance of your bank account, then you need to find out why and make a correction. If you don’t conduct bank and credit card reconciliations, you won’t be able to discover what’s causing the discrepancy and fix it.

 

Build a Payments Rhythm

 

The second rule of small business bookkeeping for beginners is to build a payments rhythm. Don’t push data-entry and reconciliation tasks off because it’s tedious and time-consuming. It’s crucial that you review your books at least once a week. 

 

It can help to set recurring calendar events and automate processes wherever you can. One way to build a payment rhythm is to automate your bookkeeping to ensure your books are always up-to-date. 

 

Falling behind on bookkeeping can create a mess, and problems become more difficult to undo. At the very least, make sure you always keep accurate and consistent records. 

 

“Before a bookkeeper comes on board, if you aren’t reconciling your transactions and bank accounts, you need to keep good records,” says Linda. “When you start a new business and are moving in a hundred different directions, that can be difficult.” 

 

Make a Category for “Ask My Accountant”

 

Once you have an accountant on your payroll, it’s important that you utilize them. Make a category for “ask my accountant” and keep them busy with questions. It’s a good idea to file any items you aren’t sure of into this category as they come up. That way, they don’t slow you down when making payments or running reconciliations. 

 

Then, at the end of the month (or sooner), you can bring all of your questions to your accountant’s attention to get the answers you need and broaden the conversation as to how you can mitigate inefficiencies and improve your business finances.

 

Hire a Bookkeeper

 

At some point, your books will become too complicated and time-consuming for you to handle. A pro can help you categorize, process bank reconciliations, prepare sales invoices, enter purchase invoices, and help you choose the right accounting software for your business. 

 

Most importantly, a professional bookkeeper will understand what is legal and what is taxable. And how to organize your accounting solution to maximize efficiency. Researching and learning these things yourself can quickly consume all of your time.

 

According to Linda, “Trust is the main reason business owners are gun shy of hiring a bookkeeper.” She advises business owners to get references, only hire from a reputable company, and don’t hire the cheapest person out there. 

 

“Remember, a good, ethical, trustworthy bookkeeper can streamline your business and monitor your spending habits while keeping an eye out for fraud or unusual activity, and in turn, ultimately save you money,” she says.

 

FINSYNC’s Virtual Assistance Network is staffed by skilled bookkeeping professionals like Linda Cappadona. Her role is to help you keep your books on track and improve cash flow management. 

 

Tapping an independent financial professional through FINSYNC’s network can help your business run more efficiently without sharply increasing your labor costs or investing time to go through a lengthy employee search. 

 

Here’s a refresher on 5 differences between an accountant and a bookkeeper.

 

Choose The Right Bookkeeping Software

 

The key to selecting bookkeeping for beginners software that will provide the greatest benefit to your business is finding software that takes a centralized approach to payments and helps you manage cash flow with less time, effort, and cost to your business.

 

FINSYNC is the only all-in-one payments platform that can help you keep your business finances in sync, centralize control of cash flow, and connect you with the right financial professional at the right time.

“FINSYNC has a really good platform for projects,” says Linda, adding, “I actually like the FINSYNC platform better than QuickBooks.”

 

“A business owner can easily get on the FINSYNC platform and see where everything is,” says Linda. “They can see where their money is going, where they need to cut back, and they can access reports. Such as Profit and Loss and Balance Sheets. As a business owner, that is what you should be focusing on.”

 

How FINSYNC Can Help

 

FINSYNC allows you to run your business on One Platform. You can send and receive payments, process payroll, automate accounting, and manage cash flow. To learn more about how we can help your business start, scale, and succeed, contact us today.

Integrated software that syncs up a client’s accounts gives business advisors a leg up with valuable insights that can help a business grow and prosper. Learn how fintech helps business advisors deliver better results for their clients.

By FINSYNC

It’s never been easier to pay bills, stay on top of accounts and even get access to credit.

Innovations in financial services applications are not only making transactions faster and more transparent. They also make it possible for users to organize and view data from various types of accounts. This provides valuable insights about what an individual, or business, does with their money.

The growth of Fintech is driving this trend. The nexus of technology and financial services can be a game-changer for business advisers. These new and powerful tools can deliver an accurate, comprehensive, real-time view of a client’s financial health. In addition to giving them the means to glean valuable insights. Insights that can help them save money and chart a more profitable course.   

Beyond Accounting Software   

Businesses typically rely on off-the-shelf accounting software that churns out a fairly limited, if useful, set of details about their books.

Their bookkeeper or other accounting professional will generate month-end snapshots such as an income statement and balance sheet. This is essentially a backward-looking snapshot of a business, offering a limited path toward a more forward-looking, strategic outlook.   

Business advisors generally work with this baseline to provide counsel on how their client can better manage their finances. Here’s where the new class of Fintech solutions can make a big difference.

When businesses use integrated, cloud-based cash management software to manage all of their finances, they open the door to proactive work. Such as mapping out a big-picture strategy. An area where a business advisor can really add value.   

The key is in linking the digital platforms used to handle everything from making payments and processing payroll to automating invoicing and tracking employee work hours. This integration makes it possible to analyze data from the various components of the business. In a way that yields more thorough, intelligent business forecasting.  

Consider the task of cash flow analysis. A business advisor can more easily and accurately forecast a business’ cash flow when the firm uses integrated financial software.   

This type of approach provides an up-to-the-moment view of a company’s payables, including payroll and receivables, and can be used to automate tasks like invoicing and bill payments in order to maximize available cash ahead of expenses, such as payroll or an essential purchase of supplies.   

The result is something every business can use more of strategic flexibility. 

Valuable Insights, Better Outcomes   

Armed with more useful accounting data, business advisors are likely to offer more valuable insights. Such as identifying whether a marketing campaign is justifying its cost. Or which products or services the company should focus on to maximize sales in the next year.   

Business advisors can also glean valuable insights when a small business client connects their payroll system with project profitability software. This enables them to offer clients both short-term advice and long-term advice. Such as “you’re over budget on phase 1 of your project” or “you’re not adequately covering the cost of your transportation needs.”   

Not Just for Clients   

An integrated system like FINSYNC’s financial platform connects a business’ financial transactions in one place automatically. This can help business advisors build projections that translate into more profitable decisions for their clients.   

Fintech software can also help business advisors manage their own business while handling their client-facing tasks more quickly and efficiently. A recent study by Schwab Advisory Services found that nearly 60% of independent financial advisory firms planned to invest in new technology this year.   

Digitized, cloud-based software like FINSYNC connects advisors to their clients easily, making it a snap to share charts and other presentation elements remotely. There’s also little to no need for manual data entry. Spending less time on tasks that can be automated means more time available for business development activity.

As we close in on the start of a new decade, the wave of Fintech innovations is expected to continue growing. Last year alone, global, venture capital-backed Fintech funding jumped more than twofold to $40.3 billion. This is from $18.3 billion a year earlier, according to CB Insights.   

The trend increases the likelihood that an integrated, software-led approach to managing finances will be more widely adopted by small businesses eager to remain competitive and save money — and that’s good news for business advisors tasked with the job of guiding them to a brighter future.

 

How FINSYNC Can Help

FINSYNC allows you to run your business on One Platform. You can send and receive payments, process payroll, automate accounting, and manage cash flow. To learn more about how we can help your business start, scale, and succeed, contact us today.