The demands of the new market conditions (more competitive, economic crisis, draconian tax policy) has meant we need to up our game to provide a service that you need to win in this new environment.

Since Hive was first established (10 years ago now) things have come a long way, with many significant improvements being implemented. One thing that has been increasingly obvious to us over the years is that the traditional way of accountants servicing their clients is not durable in meeting their needs. As a result, we came up with the plan of launching Associates’ Club which saw us roll out incremental optimisation in stages throughout the year.

Associates’ Club content

We created a bank of educational resources to form the Associates’ Club content on our educational portal. This consists of useful training videos and many different resources that would help an associate dentist get the most out of their dental business.

It includes useful information on utilising Xero, what expenses can be claimed, and top tips on understanding your financials.

Structural enhancements

We made a change to the way our team operated to ensure that the correct person was always doing the correct job at the correct time creating an effective system, resulting in significant improvements for our clients. The Accounts Team has been restructured into three departments: Inbound, Outbound and Support. These are explained in further detail in a previous blog.

We have always been a Xero led organisation with the focus of always being on the frontfoot. By introducing the Inbound Team, we have built a department that has sole responsibility for the data on Xero. We encourage and work with our clients to maintain their Xero accounts to enable them access to real-time visibility over their finances. Whilst this does require engagement from our clients, having a designated department looking after this provides our clients with the full resource and training to make this possible.

I have taken on the role as Head of Client Services . This allowed me to take a holistic view of the service we were providing to our clients and feedback on the many great elements, and also the areas of focus. Having come from a hospitality background, I’ve always been keen to focus on the customer experience and how processes impact our clients, helping us to make improvements as needed.

Support inbox

The biggest launch we saw go live was that of our new Support Inbox (support@hivebusiness.co.uk) which was designed to take our communication with clients to the next level.

9 out of 10 of our new enquiries are Dentists that can’t get a response from their accountant. Responsiveness is key to the Hive Service. We have created an inbox dedicated to our clients which is monitored all day with the view of getting accurate and timely responses to your queries, so you’re never left in the unknown.

This gives you access to a Team of accountants with capacity rather than one person, where your enquiry will swiftly sink to the bottom of their inbox. It’s seen great results for Dentists!

Ongoing support

We have always had confidence in our expertise and the advice we provide our clients. This saw us identify over £360,000 of tax savings for 15 new clients via incorporation, alongside an additional £169,000 in one-off savings.

Whilst identifying and implementing tax saving opportunities has always been a real strong suit of ours, we identified a gap in our service offering. We were setting clients up with new companies and providing them with the information and resources they needed to optimise this, but saw evidence that additional support was needed. As a result, we pulled together an enhanced onboarding process to ensure that our clients remain supported throughout every opportunity, without having to ask for support .

Positive feedback received

Since launching these changes over the past year, we have received incredible feedback from those benefiting from the enhanced and personalised service offering. From our long standing clients, to our new business relationships, it’s been obvious across the board that these changes have seen huge improvements.

Whilst we are extremely proud of what we have achieved over the past year, our plans to improve continue. We know that in the world of business, you cannot stagnate, and so we will continue to strive for the success of our clients.

We offer a ‘360 feedback call’ 6 months into our new clients’ journey with us to ensure that we are accommodating their needs from the offset. This allows us to hear exactly what’s going well from a customer perspective, and what could be improved upon. This gives us the perfect platform to better understand our clients needs and tailor our service offering accordingly.

If you have any feedback to offer on the service you’ve received over the past 12 months, please do let us know. We love to hear your thoughts and always value the feedback. Likewise, if you’re not yet a client, but like the sound of the way we operate, please do get in touch to discover how we can support you in your dental career.