How can I help prospective clients access my services?
01 Jan, 2017
Swamped by paperwork?
There’s a lot of paper flying around in service-based a businesses. Before you even start working with a client, you need to ask for documents to qualify them. But the client rarely has all the documents you need... If it's not a missing tax return, it will be a missing certificate or invalid licence...
When the client (finally) responds, you have to make sure you have renamed and filed all the documents in the right place so the file is not missing crucial documents. How else are you going to recall that 123456.jpeg is a driver's licence and 123456.pdf is their rental statement four weeks after the initial meeting?
If you deliver services in a heavily regulated industry, there are so many compliance boxes to tick, you probably spend more time chasing documents than on delivering the service or advice (which brings in the cash)... Then come audit time, you’ll have to spend even more time proving you did things the right way.
If you've been in business for a while, you may have come to accept that a long drawn out exchange is just part of the onboarding process. But if you want to experience a different result or outcome, maybe it's time to consider a different approach...
Delegate admin to your clients, add value to your service offering - and get paid faster
What if, there was a system which empowers your client to do all your administration once you created a template listing the documents you need?
What if, this "smart template" could generate emails to the client asking for the documents you need? And as your client works their way through your list, uploading files, each document is automatically labelled and filed at the time of upload. If your client doesn't have a document, they are guided by your template on how to source the documents...
Does it matter if a client uncomfortable with computers? No, at your initial meeting, send them the template, help them log in, ask them for their driver's licence, take a photo of the licence on your smartphone and click a button to upload it for them - now your client has a logically named copy of their driver's licence at their fingertips, whenever they need it.
This not only makes it easier for customers to buy from you again, if your business is referral-based, most of the work has already been done when you hand over a client or when a client is handed over to you, so everyone gets paid faster.
If the client doesn't have a document handy like their tax return, ask the client to call their accountant as you click the button to request it from their accountant - now you know the request has been sent, you can confidently complete the paperwork in one or two meetings...
Thanks to your client, you now have the documents you need, filed accordingly, and labelled correctly. No more sifting through email in-boxes, filing cabinets or shoe boxes looking for lost files... and come audit time, you just show the auditor your digital folder. No more burning the midnight oil re-labelling documents.
For people working in teams, you can add collaborators to the "smart template" so when the client calls, everyone's on the same page and provides the same update.
Here's why your clients love access to their documents
Your clients get a free personal folder of logically named documents so they don't need to start the document collation process again every time they buy another service. And the documents can be accessible to a trustee when it's time to pass the baton - More than 60% of people don't have a will, and even people who do, may not have a valid will.
When you ask clients to UploadOnce, you are using a secure document management system to facilitate the document exchange instead of using email. It's like using a digital locker to exchange documents. Only people with a key can open the locker - At no stage are you trusting an unknown party to deliver documents. If you press send on an email with documents attached, you digitally 'post' the parcel of documents; you trust the mailman doesn't open the parcel and you hope no-one with bad intentions intercepts the parcel whilst it's in transit.
Documents in UploadOnce are stored in secure data centres located in Australia. Knowing where the data centres are located, gives your clients (and you) peace of mind about the legal protection, such as spam or privacy, for the documents.
Just an email is all you need to help clients buy services instantly
If you want to see how changing how you ask for documents can transform your business, watch this 2 minute YouTube video or see a step-by-step presentation of the system using a mortgage example.
An email is all you need to get your clients to UploadOnce. If you make simple changes and use a better process, you can build a better business and get more productive hours every day...
