Andrew VanVladricken gives his take on the state of client collaboration and explains how tax firms can improve their service
Your tax workflow is only as successful as your clients allow it to be. Late signatures and document submissions can derail busy season before it even starts. But that doesn’t mean it’s out of your control. That’s why choosing the right client portal for tax firms has become critical to improving engagement, reducing friction, and keeping work moving.
We sat down with Andrew VanVladricken, Director of Product Management at Thomson Reuters, to discuss how modern client collaboration tools like SafeSend make tax season easier for professionals and clients.
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Why do you think tax clients procrastinate? Why are they so reluctant to engage?
Do you think there’s truth to the idea that firms are suffering from “SaaS sprawl”?
What do you think sets SafeSend apart from other tools that serve as a client portal for tax firms?
What do you think clients like most about SafeSend?
What do you think tax pros like about SafeSend?
What kind of support does Thomson Reuters provide for SafeSend implementation?
Why do you think tax clients procrastinate? Why are they so reluctant to engage?
Andrew: It’s a pretty cumbersome process, and I think it’s very confusing for a lot of people. They don’t know if they’re doing it right, and I think that causes a lot of procrastination… They just default to, “I don’t want to deal with this. I want someone else to deal with this.”
That’s why there’s a prime opportunity for tax and accounting firms to offer a better client experience. To be able to really take advantage of that pain point by saying, “Don’t worry. We have it.”
Do you think there’s truth to the idea that firms are suffering from “SaaS sprawl”?
Andrew: 100%. Over the years, constantly interfacing with firms and professionals, this is a constant bit of feedback: There’s too much in their tech stack. Firms tend to solve one issue at a time with independent, siloed applications that directly solve that singular problem, whether it’s a workflow manager, a document management system, or an e-signature tool.
You don’t realize it at first, but when every one of these has their own training, onboarding, and user management, you almost get this inverse level of efficiency … that no longer saves you any additional time. I think a lot of firms are now trying to cut their tech stack down. Saying, “Hey, we have too many applications.”
What’s nice about SafeSend and the Thomson Reuters ecosystem as a whole … all of the solutions and features are in one suite. You can say, “I have one salesperson, one customer success agent, one support person that I can reach out to … instead of going to 10, 11, 12 different companies.”
What do you think sets SafeSend apart from other tools that serve as a client portal for tax firms?
Andrew: I’d like to think we have a very big emphasis on collaboration with firms. We want to talk with them at industry events and personal one-on-ones. Not just our customer executives and account managers, but also our product managers.
We want to know what you’re doing and what you’re not doing. We want to know what works and what doesn’t. We really want to know what you care about so we can update our product to solve those problems specifically. The whole SafeSend ecosystem has begun to encompass this larger and larger set of functionalities … so we really value having that special relationship with the industry.
What do you think clients like most about SafeSend?
Andrew: In my opinion, taxes are a very cumbersome process that requires a lot of expertise, and clients are paying a firm to deal with it. So in their mind, most of them think: “Look, I want as little input as possible. Here’s my tax forms. Just tell me when the return is ready.”
That’s kind of our north star: Making the client experience as easy as possible. They can engage more if they want to, but at the bare minimum we say: “Just sign this, click a couple buttons, upload these documents and you’re good.” I think that resonates with a lot of clients.
What do you think tax pros like about SafeSend?
Andrew: SafeSend tackles the core pain points of admins, and they have to deal with it a lot. Whose return is ready, who got delivered, what signatures did we get, did they give us everything that we need? Did we collect the invoice? Are they ready to be e-filed?
As the core of the firm, if the admin’s job is made easier and more efficient, then it affects the well-being of everybody else. The partners are happy, the owners are happy, and the clients are happy.
We also wanted to build SafeSend in a way that could support those different processes. Regardless of how firms operate, they can still retain their unique character while getting the efficiency gains of this product.
When tax firms roll out a new client portal, some worry about their older clients who aren’t as tech-savvy. How does SafeSend address those anxieties?
Andrew: That knee jerk reaction happens a lot. “Oh, they’re too old. They prefer their paper one. They’re not going to switch to this.” And as a result, it creates a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy in which they don’t even bother trying. You’d be surprised by the capability of older clientele that are willing to engage with technology when given the opportunity to do so.
We’ve designed SafeSend in a way that’s really easy to use and walks them through each step. They like it a lot, and really do tend to engage with it a lot more. They’ll probably surprise you.
What kind of support does Thomson Reuters provide for SafeSend implementation?
Andrew: We have a very robust support team that’s always available for phone calls and e-mail if needed. But beyond that, we set clients up with a whole onboarding and implementation plan. We identify key champions and stakeholders in the firm, we have these robust training sessions … and we have specialists that really try to understand your firm.
There’s this collaborative back and forth… Based on how you work and how you would like to work, we’ll suggest a workflow plan to make sure things run as smooth as possible while being as minimally disruptive as possible. Given that we charge based off of a per-usage basis, it’s very easy just to start off slow and small and see the gains gradually. Then you can go ahead and scale up.
Want to learn more about SafeSend?
To see how SafeSend fits with your client workflow, visit our product page for data points, case studies, and a video demo. Check it out and book your own personalized demo today!
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