Member Article

Watergates Launches Own App to Help Future Proof the Practice’s Communication Strategy

Watergates Launches Own App to Help Future Proof the Practice’s Communication Strategy

The App will make it easier for the firm to communicate digitally with clients, aid practice management and support its marketing programme

Darlington, July 4th 2019 - MyFirmsApp, developers of the leading OneApp platform for accounting firms worldwide, today announced a new contract with the accounting practice, Watergates. The three-office firm has chosen MyFirmsApp to develop its first custom App to help make it easier to communicate digitally with clients and prospects, aid client management and to support a pro-active marketing programme.

The order was signed at the recent Accountex exhibition in London following a thorough evaluation of available solutions by the Watergates team. Farook Chaka, Managing Director, Watergates takes up the story. “We are always on the lookout for innovative new products that will make it easier to communicate with clients and before visiting Accountex, had already identified the need for an App. We had even thought of developing our own but were so impressed by the MyFirmsApp presentation, we decided to buy their customised solution.”

Farook believes that having their own App will help future-proof the practice and solve the communication challenge so many accounting firms now face. He explains: “So many of our emails now end up in junk folders and our clients complain that they haven’t received them. Push notification messaging will provide us with a far better way of communicating that we can track and identify whether clients have received the message. Use of a digital communications platform offers the real benefit of keeping everything all in the one place.”

Watergates plans to use push notifications as an integral part of its marketing programme and sees these new communication channels as very much part of a more pro-active service that post millennials and the Z generation now expect from their accountants. These pop-up notifications can be used to help communicate with clients and contacts quickly and easily and delivery can be automated to individuals and groups, which almost immediately ‘ping’ onto the home screen of client’s mobile devices. They have a 93 percent open rate which means that these messages are almost always read – typically, within minutes of delivery. This functionality presents firms, such as Watergates, with the opportunity to automate the distribution of content, ranging from reminders about tax deadlines, to news on services and invites to webinars.

Farook comments: “We are gearing up for the future as new technologies will inevitably allow clients to do more compliance work for themselves. It is up to us to transition to a more pro-active advisory service and a tailored digital communications platform will help us to achieve this goal. Our long-term aim is to transition all clients to the cloud and consolidate all the Apps our clients are using into our custom Watergates App platform to reduce complexity and confusion.”

Daniel Richards, Strategic Partnerships Director, MyFirmsApp commented: “Watergates knew exactly what they needed to future-proof their communication strategy and immediately saw the benefit of buying a customisable platform that firms worldwide are already using. This is a great firm that is putting digital at the heart of their practice and looking for new ways to connect with clients. This strengthening of bonds will give them the flexibility to grow and and help retain control by making all the software the firm and clients use accessible from a single place, the new Watergates App.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by MyFirmsApp .