Dip in Level of Service from Nixon Williams

[VelcroPower]

FWIW we've had a few clients who have pointed out how useless guaranteed response times are. Reason being what can happen is:

You - "[question]"
Accountant (within guaranteed time) - "hmmm...thanks for your question, we'll look into this and come back to you"
Accountant (well after guaranteed time) - "[answer]"

They technically meet their promise, but may as well have been an out of office auto responder.

Within the larger contractor accountancy firms they usually have a fair number of KPI's .

One of which will be First Call Resolution so they will be targeted not only on how quick they respond but if the first response is sufficient to close off the query.

So the auto "Hello we got your message" response fulfils the response time SLA and then however long it takes to try and cover everything off in one email / call will be taken until the actual response from the accountant is ready.

A lot of the time if the accountant just engaged in a dialogue with the client it would benefit both them and the client but those sausages have to be processed as quick as possible so KPI driven accountancy ends up being the norm.

[Maslins]

Within the larger contractor accountancy firms they usually have a fair number of KPI's

Hehe, reminds me of my pre accountant days when I briefly worked in a British Gas call centre. There were dozens of codes to put into the phone so it knew what you were doing for assessment purposes. The job was sufficiently dull a few of us spent most of our time trying to figure out ways to beat the system, ie have excellent call stats despite not actually working that hard. It's one of the problems with KPIs IMHO...but then I fully appreciate the bigger the firm, the harder it is to know which staff members are performing well. Easy for those of us who are piddly compared to SJD/NW to comment from the sidelines.

[rocketjet]

My new accountant is heaps better and responds same day with a proper reply. If you want more details send a PM.

[Chart Accountancy]

We too answer to queries within 24 hours.

[Lance]

Ditto...... shut up and stop whining

[DolanContractorGroup]

When's your cutoff for that?

4pm

[Bod]

Hmm... no NW payroll for April yet... not yet a crisis by any means, but it appears to be a small part of a bigger picture. Payroll usually arrives around 21st/22nd of the month from NW.

[rocketjet]

Hmm... no NW payroll for April yet... not yet a crisis by any means, but it appears to be a small part of a bigger picture. Payroll usually arrives around 21st/22nd of the month from NW.

Maybe getting paid isn’t important to NXW?

[psychocandy]

Bit of balance - I was with NW for years until about 6 months ago (closed down ltd to go umbrella) and they were always excellent for me.

Perhaps it was the individual guy (Danny Horner) but he really was excellent. Every email answered same day - I even had to sometimes tell him it wasn't important but he'd still reply at 7-8pm. Couldn't fault the guy.

In 5-6 years I never even needed to speak to him.

I know he got promoted so not sure if he even deals with clients on an individual basis any more though!

BTW - I'm a right moany git and not easily pleased so they must have been good!

[jonskids]

Hmm... no NW payroll for April yet... not yet a crisis by any means, but it appears to be a small part of a bigger picture. Payroll usually arrives around 21st/22nd of the month from NW.

My April payslip just arrived in my inbox. Says I have to pay it on the 28th April. Just starting up the time machine.....