How AI in accounting can help offer better client support - ChatGPT on Timworks
AI is becoming increasingly popular in many areas, and if you are in accounting you are probably wondering - surely, it can help me?
One of the main roles of every accountant is to offer support to their clients every step of the way and make them feel valuable. Since accountants’ role is rapidly evolving into more than just ‘number-crunchers’, clients are expecting regular communication, fast query resolution, and helpful business advice and insight. For the modern accountant to keep up, they need the right tools and the ability to be flexible, quick and agile (and have more time to read our awesome blog posts).
But with only so many hours in the day, it can be a challenge to support clients at 100% efficiency and keep your focus on your business running (and keep your sanity).
Using the right client support app that allows regular touchpoints and saves time with native integrations, such as Timworks can be one way to ensure excellent client support is provided. But that still doesn’t solve the problem fully, because it takes time to support clients and manage a growing time.
That is, until Timworks introduced TIMi - an accountant’s best friend and online assistant, taking some of the load off by answering common questions and queries clients may have. Best part? It’s powered by ChatGPT - a powerful AI.
Author’s note: This is not one of those articles where at the end I reveal that ChatGPT generated the entire text for me. Any mistakes or odd opinions are a result of me being just another human being.
Why should accountants start relying on AI?
We will start with the most obvious one - time, speed and efficiency. If you haven’t yet seen the numerous ways in which ChatGPT is revolutionising any industry, you must live under a rock. In case you do live under a rock, here is what ChatGPT does - it is an impressive AI which upon asking a question provide you with a natural-sounding answer, and then hold a follow-up conversation referring back to earlier information asking for re-phrasings, clarification, summaries, or additional details.
While it is not here to replace human interactions and involvement and we strongly advise against that, it can help to answer common questions and save you a ton of time checking resources or googling information.
Using TIMi (Fig.1), powered by ChatGPT, can save you time, educate your clients with information related to their taxes, payment deadlines or anything else they are worried about.
Fig.1 Real example of TIMi Assistant responding to a query
It is extremely efficient in saving you time and providing clients with support, which in results delivers a better user experience. This in turn can lead to better client satisfaction, improved brand image and reputation, and revenue generation. In fact, it can boost your company productivity up to 40% by 2035'
1.https://levity.ai/blog/ai-for-customer-support#:~:text=AI%2Dpowered%20customer%20support%20enables,up%20to%2040%25%20by%202035.
Accountants’ role is evolving rapidly
The role of an accountant is constantly evolving and this can offer opportunities for growth but also be challenging for those stuck in the old ways of dealing with clients.
Adapting better client support and the ability to reach out to the business owners you support on a single app can save you tons of time. Modern accountants see a lot of value in various cloud accounting software tools because they save time and offer the convenience of automation, integration and cloud storage, not to mention the ability to work from anywhere (hello, nomad accountants). It sets you ahead of the competition and shows you really care about the people you are doing business with. Which, suprise-suprise - brings more clients, increases revenue and brings more of that great feeling of fulfilment which made you start in the first place.
So what is TIMi?
For current users, TIMi can be easily accessed - you can find it at the top of your conversation list (see Fig 2.). Try it out by asking it something your clients often ask, which is not personal or related specifically to their business, but a more general query.
Examples of these can be many and you probably hear the common: “What is a UTR number” and “How much tax do I pay for X amount of earnings” already. Go on - play with it a bit. Over time it will get smarter and give you even better answers (hopefully not smart enough to take over the world).
Fig.2 Finding TIMi Assistant at the top of your conversation list in Timworks
Why Timworks?
There are many ways to communicate out there - Slack, Teams, WhatsApp to name a few, but not only are they not fully GDPR compliant and don’t allow secure audit trail, they also fail to deliver what accountants truly need. A scalable communication and client support software, enabling you to have full control over your internal and external conversations, real-time query resolution and collaboration and the ability to send your invoices directly to your data capture tool whether you are using Dext, Datamolino or HubDoc.
Now, with the additional power of AI it also saves a ton of time by taking away mundane tasks such as answering common questions or queries your clients may have.
But don’t just take our word for it - book a demo to see how it will help your practice scale and enjoy a free trial after the demo.
