Have you ever had a day like this?

You just arrived at work. You say hi to your coworkers, get a fresh cup of coffee, and settle in at your desk. The day is off to a fine start – until you turn on your computer and discover your email is down. Not good.

Remote Assistance Means Less Downtime

At first, you’re calm. You tinker with this and that, maybe reboot your computer – but nothing helps. Finally you ask someone else in your office whether their email is working.

Bad news: It’s not the network. It’s just your computer.

Now, you start to panic. Every minute you’re not on email you feel itchy and jumpy. And you have no idea how to fix it.

If you called a computer techie, it would cost you $100-$300/hour – and you’d have to transport your computer to his office, or wait for him to show up. You don’t have the money, and you certainly don’t have the time.

You’re about to pick up the phone and call the techie – resigning yourself to a couple lost days of work – when you suddenly remember: your website service with CPA Site Solutions comes with free tech support!

Instead of calling a busy and expensive computer repair person, you call CPA Site Solutions for Remote Assistance – and your email is back up before 9:00 a.m.

Hallelujah!

The Convenience of Remote Assistance

Remote Assistance is included with CPA websites hosted by CPA Site Solutions at the Gold or Platinum level. Remote support is when a technician logs into your computer, finds the problem with your email, and fixes it.

You stay in control of your computer the whole time, monitoring every step – yet you never have to schedule and surrender your desk or office to an IT person while they fix the problem. You never even have to leave your chair!

And if something comes up that needs your immediate attention, simply suspend or terminate the session.

Our Experts Are Here to Help

Most email problems stem from a configuration error with Outlook. We’ve seen it all, and we’ve fixed it all.

We also provide support if your Email Marketing System, secure Client Portal, or other website feature doesn’t look quite right. We see exactly what’s on your screen and explain what will fix it. And we fix it while you watch.

You have to grant access for us to get on your screen. We can’t get on without your permission.

Nothing to Buy – Just Enjoy More Efficiency

If you’re a Gold or Platinum client with CPA Site Solutions, and we host your email, there’s no software and nothing to buy. Remote Assistance is included in your “We Do It All For You” service.

If you have a website with us but we don’t host your email, call 800-896-4500 and make the switch. You no longer have to pay for email hosting and you get full support.

Are you a Silver client who wants more efficiency with Remote Assistance? Call 1-800-896-4500 or email support@cpasitesolutions.com to discuss an upgrade for only an additional $20/month.

Why not let us fix your email in a matter of minutes – instead of hours or days? Don’t waste your time and energy on outside computer technicians. Let us reduce your frustration – and increase firm efficiency – with Remote Assistance.

Making connections with others helps bring people together while increasing your CPA firms overall influence. An example would be to showcase your clients. In fact, sometimes even the smallest gestures, like buying a random stranger a cup of coffee, can influence in ways you might not imagine.

Giving Is Easy

Give and Grow Rich. That is the recent title of a blog post from Copyblogger. An unlikely place for a CPA and other accounting professional to go on the internet? Maybe, but the clear and touching message behind the post make it an excellent read for anyone.

Generosity Speaks for Itself. When you give without the need for something back, you gain. The generosity speaks for itself so you don’t have to. There may be nothing that comes of it but often you do gain in unexpected ways.

Free Content. There is all kinds of free content, like the Financial Guides, available to any website hosted by CPA Site Solutions. A person could come to any CPA website, grab that free content, and leave. Even so you are better off keeping this type of information available.

Free Tools. Along with the free content are free tools, like in the Tax Center of your CPA website. These again could be used and you could never gain a client from the experience. Again you are better off keeping these openly available.

Free Newsletter. There is also the free newsletter with fresh, useful, information each month. Some try to hide the newsletter, or any of these free items, in password protected pages. Yet that would be a mistake. You want visitors to have access to all this free information.

The Value of Your Expertise. In the end a visitor is not necessarily looking for any of those free things. They are looking for reasons to trust your CPA firm. They find that in the information you give for free.

In the end what they really want is the value of your expertise.

They want to trust the general value of what you have to offer. Once they have this, then they know they can trust you with their specific, and personal, situation. When that happens you have naturally converted a visitor into a client.

What do you think about giving information away for free? Do you have your own experience from something you have done on your CPA website? Send a comment below and share with other readers.

Just having a CPA website is no longer enough to improve your business. You need to make your website an engaging place for your current, and potential clients, to visit. When you do, you give reasons for others to talk about your firm. This is the best type of advertising out there, that you have to earn, not buy.

Mind Mapping. There is a great article from accountingweb.com that refreshes the use of Mind Mapping. Mind Mapping is a technique used to find solutions to questions by helping to gently guide, but not control, the flow of brainstorming ideas.

Leverage. Any website hosted by CPA Site Solutions has plenty of content, tools, and helpful information that can help your clients. The next step is to to leverage your clients into a community of participants around your CPA website.

You can use Mind Mapping as a step towards finding unique ways to engage your visitors. Engagement is a way of participating with your website rather than just getting content.

Mind Mapping Brainstorm. You can follow the basic premise (see article above for more exact details). Take out a sheet of paper, put your clients at the center, and think, how can I get clients more involved?

For example, do I have a good way to get feedback from them? Do I actively follow-up on that feedback? Are there ways that I could connect client A to client B and have them both benefit?

Write the ideas down and then keep the paper next to you. Make yourself notice the paper throughout the day and more ideas are bound to appear. Below is a primer for how to think about client participation on your website.

Online Community. Here is an example. In general people like to feel special or that they are a part of something, not just a customer. You can do this with your website by using some of the online tools like, for example, adding comments to your blog.

The more people can interact with your accounting website, the more it becomes something they use rather than just visiting. When they engage with you and other users of your website, they are part of an online community.

Online Communities Make People Feel Connected

Your CPA Website. Take a look at your current accounting website. How could you socially engage them more in your firm? By answering these questions, and incorporating them, you make your website more of a destination.

More Ideas. If you have a CPA website hosted by CPA Site Solutions, you could talk to your account manager. If you know what you want, the account manager may be able to inform you on how to do it.

You can create an online community around your CPA website. Your firm can be part of your clients conversations. Those social conversations are worth more for advertising than you can ever get through traditional means.

Have your own experience to share involving Mind Mapping or creating an online community? Send a comment below and share with other readers.