What makes a good firm great in 2021? There are a lot of factors that you could include on the list but at its core, a great firm starts with management who seek to create a modern, frictionless, productive experience for both staff AND clients, and who use that criteria as the basis to select and use the best tools for each stakeholder.
The sad reality is that many good firms are unable to get to “great” because they ask their clients to use legacy systems that were designed with the firm staff (experts) in mind. For example – a portal may work very well for staff, but when a client is asked to use systems that they don’t understand and often need help logging in to, it leads to a poor experience and many just boycott it altogether.
To get to great, it’s important to match the tool to the primary stakeholder’s needs. For best results, choose a solution that creates a terrific front office experience for clients, and a different solution that creates a terrific back office experience for staff. And if they are integrated, even better!
Think of “front office” as the place where clients are allowed. Expect these sorts of interactions and activities to happen in a digital front office solution: asking the staff a question, answering a staff member’s question, sending or receiving a sensitive document, e-signing a form, filling in an electronic form, or completing a KBA – to name just a few. Anything the client is actually involved in would be considered a front-office transaction. You’ll want a solution that focuses on ease of use, security, and the ability for clients to use it on the go with just a mobile phone in hand. It’s also important that all the interactions listed can occur in a seamless and frictionless way for the client.
“Back office” is restricted to staff only, and is where the real work of the firm gets done. Your staff likely use an accounting package, a tax package, a payroll solution and also a workflow solution to manage the actual work. Your firm would never want a client to interfere with the work that gets done in these specialized expert systems. To find the best solution to manage all the back-office work, look for one that gives managers full visibility in workload, staff utilization, and that increases collaboration for growing teams.
At Liscio, we spend our days thinking about how to improve the experience you offer your clients. Built from the ground up to be drop-dead easy for clients, we help firms create an amazing digital front office for their clients at the same time as we help save clicks and increase visibility and collaboration across staff members. Since all client communications and documents are centralized in Liscio, it’s easy for staff to quickly see what is going on with each client’s account. And since Liscio features an easy to use mobile app with a built-in scanner, clients send documents quickly when asked. No more data silos, and no more chasing clients for documents.
At Karbon, the focus is on staff and managing the client work. Karbon takes the stress out of managing a remote team, increases productivity and visibility across staff and engagements, and allows team members to achieve productivity levels like never before. Managers can make better-informed decisions based on output, status, capacity and client behavior.
We are thrilled to announce that Liscio and Karbon are now integrated! This is a true game changer. By using these two best-of-breed solutions for the purpose they were designed for, all boats rise. Instead of clients communicating in multiple ways with information left in multiple places (which creates confusion, a poor experience for clients and staff and a lot of wasted time), Karbon and Liscio can combine to solve this. Using the two systems together results in an efficient, effective and delightful end-to-end client experience from the initial conversation to service delivery.
The firm immediately elevates the client experience and staff can get more done each day. Friction disappears and everyone’s productivity and happiness levels increase.
We hope you will check out the integration, and allow us to help your firm move from good to great, in 2021 and beyond.
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About Liscio:
At Liscio, we’re dedicated to the craft of client experience. We believe that the front office must start with the client and work backward. We believe that building a great front-office experience is worth the thought and attention of an entire organization, not just a department. We believe in openness and integration so firms retain the flexibility to change their back office systems without disrupting their clients. And we believe that a great client experience belongs to all firms — regardless of size and budget. If you believe in the same, we invite you to get to know us.
To see how Liscio can help you provide a world-class front office experience to your clients, book a personalized demo here.