London accountants ABG discuss their path to success

ABG Accountants innovation awards

After their triumph last year at the 2020 Innovation awards, ABG are not resting on their laurels. Having collected the award for Most Innovative Large Firm of 2016 at the annual Conference, the London-based firm have come a full circle from successfully undertaking a merger to being recognised for their achievements.

In recent times ABG undertook a rebranding exercise and at the same time concentrated their efforts on integrating all staff members (existing and incoming) seamlessly to make sure the move worked for everyone. A big part of ABG’S culture is built upon team work and having fun – ABG organise numerous staff social events throughout the year, which have included Darts evenings, raft building, canoeing and hiring a boat on the Thames.

“We got everybody involved very quickly, it was clear from the outset what the goal was to get clients bedded in, make sure they were all happy and then to ensure we provide the service that ABG is known for,” says Kay Merryman, Marketing manager at ABG.

The firm have moved with the times to embrace new technology, moving clients to the cloud where the demographic is right and they’ve also had their custom Accountancy App since 2015. This has allowed the firm to make great use of push notifications to update clients on the Autumn Statement and Budget announcements, as well as tax reminders. They also post their seminars on YouTube, and use the push module to notify users that the video is available to catch up on. ABG are hosting an International Conference in London later this year, which Kay believes is a perfect opportunity to connect and get seminar delegates to download the App, and interact with the UK Tax Data, Expense Management tools and more.

“Everyone has a Smartphone – people are tech savvy. It’s great to be able to send push notifications to people and
you can’t put money on that. When I talk to people about our App, I talk to them about the Mileage Tracker – I think that is great. The App is a great tool.

“I would think the biggest users of our App are probably our extended network made up of other professions, I am really happy with that!.”

ABG has changed a lot over the last 18 months, and to display their innovation, they summarised their key changes, journey and philosophy via a unique video which Kay created on a beach in the build-up to the event.

“I was on the beach on holiday and created the video whilst there on the Cloud. We heard that we’d got through the nominations round and they said that if we win, we’ll have to do a presentation. I sat on the beach one afternoon and put that together in a few hours. It makes us different and it’s great for our YouTube channel and SEO – anything we can do that’s slightly quirky, slightly different; innovative, it works in our favour.

“We’ve had clients that we’ve converted as a result of finding something of ours on YouTube.”

Kay is also thinking of creating future marketing videos on YouTube to best showcase the App, including animations and showcasing the App’s key features and tools, and implementing as part of ABG’S marketing strategy this year.

At the 2020 Awards Ceremony, Kay and John Donohoe stood up and spoke about their hard work, effort and drive to be where they are today, and summed their key philosophy up in 7 simple points:

  • Thinking outside the box
  • Prepared to go the extra mile and beyond
  • Ensure they always use the best in class technology
  • Recruit and retain clients
  • Communicate by all channels
  • Client centric services
  • Centralise all data

They’ve promoted people from within, survived big changes, adapted to a profession under change and continue to go from strength-to-strength.

 

Categories: Android, Apps, Blog, Client News, iPhone

Connor Mullins

Connor Mullins | connorm@myfirmsapp.com

Connor specialises in marketing and customer enablement, handling App calls and providing a key service to ensure clients can promote their App effectively using a range of marketing strategies.

MyFirmsApp provide the world’s leading App solution for Accountants and Bookkeepers, and Connor helps professional service firms in overseeing the progress of their App project and helping them to drive engagement with their clients, and getting the most from Push Notifications to drive interaction.

Connor and the team at MyFirmsApp™ recognise that unless firms have their own App, they will concede control over their clients to these third parties. By putting accountants first and creating an affordable and effective App that will help them remain the anchor in this mobile relationship, MFA is helping thousands of firms protect their client database, save time, generate referrals and create new client relationships.

His experience and skills through having a BA Hons degree in journalism are invaluable to the team.