For some customers, the prospect of moving to the cloud can be a daunting one and if your client is from the “if it’s not broken don’t fix it” school of thought, you might be facing an up-hill battle by adopting cloud technologies. Customer reluctance to adapt is a common issue we hear from bookkeepers so we wanted to put together a step by step game plan for you to use when attempting to move a reluctant customer to the cloud.
Step 1: Knowledge is Power
In order to convince your customers of the ultimate gains they can expect from moving to cloud based bookkeeping, you need to become an expert in the area yourself. There are many wonderful blogs and resources available online for bookkeepers who wish to know more about moving to the cloud including community based resources such as QB-HQ and QBO in Quinte Facebook groups along with the wonderful Kninja Knetwork.
Step 2: Clearly Communicate the Deficiencies of Traditional Software
Chances are your customer is not aware of many of the main deficiencies of using traditional bookkeeping and accounting software versus cloud-based technologies. Bookkeepers and accountants who wish to move reluctant customers to the cloud should be able to explain the main issues they face using traditional software including greater upgrading costs and hidden fees, licenses limited to one computer and insecure data transferal between computers (particularly if you are using USB keys).
Step 3: Explain the Benefits
The next step in your game plan should be to communicate the many benefits of moving to the cloud to your tech-averse customers. The main customer benefits to moving to the cloud are as follows:
- Outdated software or IT costs are no longer an issue
- Bookkeepers and accountants can instantly review client information using any device with an internet connection
- Better workflow which leads to faster task completion
- Payment tends to be on a subscription basis for only the services that are used
- Ease of use
Step 4: Focus on Security
If the benefits haven’t successfully convinced your customer you should focus on the improved security to be gained from using cloud-based bookkeeping and accounting tools. You can explain to them that the customer has increased control over who has access to their data with cloud software and that by choosing this method they protect their data against stolen hardware and natural disasters with cloud based backups.
Step 5: Begin a Trial
The final step in your plan should be to begin a trial process of using cloud based software with your reluctant customer. A great way to do this is to try a 14 day trial with our LedgerDocs app which allows you to upload and store financial documents in the cloud and can be used alongside traditional accounting software (such as QuickBooks Desktop) and cloud based software (for example QuickBooks Online).
30 Minute Webinar — Learn how LedgerDocs can streamline your accounting today.
