Success Story: How a Tax Relief Company Streamlined Customer Onboarding & Cut Operating Costs

Pressure mounts for millions of Americans during tax season. A recent study revealed that 35% of people worry they won’t have enough money to pay on Tax Day this year, while roughly 50% rely on tax refunds to make ends meet. When it comes to those who don’t expect refunds, 35% fear they won’t have enough money for their tax bill, and nearly a quarter anticipate taking on debt to meet their obligations.

For tax relief companies, these statistics translate to a surge of new clients seeking assistance. While this can be seen as a revenue-driving opportunity, it also presents a challenge by intensifying operational demands, particularly in customer onboarding.

In this blog post, we explore how one tax relief company overcame this challenge – and reduced operating costs in the process – by reimagining their approach to customer onboarding.

Recognizing the Problem: A Manual Process at Breaking Point

This tax relief company was growing and, therefore, drowning in incoming customer onboarding documents. With every new client came more tax forms, financial statements, and correspondence all filing in through various channels. Some were sent as physical mail while others arrived in email attachments.

Once the tax relief company received the documents, they had to manually sort through all of them, review them for completeness, and, finally, enter them into their CRM system, IRSLogics. This labor-intensive approach was incredibly time-consuming. In fact, industry research shows that 76% of employees waste up to three hours every day on data entry tasks alone.

Leadership realized that the documentation intake workload was an overload, and that continuing with a manual process would force them to scale staff and office space linearly. This realization prompted a search for alternative options – ones that would allow for more scalable operations.

Evaluating Options: Technology vs. Outsourcing

Initially, the tax relief organization explored technology solutions. After evaluating several document capture and indexing systems, the team determined that while they offered appealing features, these systems posed significant customer onboarding challenges of their own.

Implementation, for instance, would necessitate substantial investment, requiring both capital and operational budgets since staff would still be needed to manage the system and handle exceptions. The ROI calculations were troubling, and the payback period stretched beyond their comfort zone – as did the implementation timeline. If the organization went the software route, their IT team would have needed to devote a significant amount of time to integrating the new system into their CRM.

With these concerns in mind, they began exploring outsourced customer onboarding services as an alternative. They discovered several advantages to going this route:

• No large capital expenditure, allowing funds to be directed to core business activities
• Implementation timeframe of weeks rather than months
• Minimal involvement from their IT team
• Ability to scale document processing capacity – and, therefore, business – without expanding staff or real estate
• Freedom for existing staff to focus on higher-value client services tasks

After a thorough cost-benefit analysis, the tax relief company determined that outsourcing customer onboarding would be the better option.

Choosing the Right Customer Onboarding Partner: Selection Criteria

Once the decision to adopt an outsourced customer onboarding automation solution was made, the company began the hunt for the right partner. They quickly discovered that experience is key, focusing on the following criteria:

• Comprehensive Document Handling: Because they receive onboarding files in paper and electronic forms, the tax relief company required a partner with experience processing both with minimal-to-no aid from their internal team.
• Process Expertise: They determined that the ideal partner would provide assistance beyond just task execution, bringing proven best practices for mail redirection and change management to ensure a smooth transition as well.
• Industry-Specific Experience: To ensure they could have peace of mind throughout the document handling process, the organization looked for a partner who was familiar with tax documentation. They needed a vendor with the ability to recognize different IRS forms and supporting financial documents common in tax relief cases.
• Commitment to Security: Given the sensitive nature of client information, the tax relief company required a partner with strict security standards and a proven record of handling confidential data.
• Personalized Approach: Since their customer onboarding process was closely tied to their specific workflow and CRM system, they needed a solution that could adapt to their unique needs.

The tax relief company evaluated several outsourced customer onboarding solution partners and, after being impressed by our financial services industry experience, document handling expertise, security credentials, and willingness to customize based on unique needs, selected MetaSource.

Adopting a Solution: A Streamlined Customer Onboarding Process

The implemented outsourced customer onboarding automation solution transformed the tax relief company’s document processing. Here’s how:

1. Incoming Document Centralization: The company’s incoming paper and electronic documents are consolidated into a single, digital platform.
2. Document Identification & Classification: Using advanced recognition technologies, their files are instantly classified – no manual review or sorting required.
3. Data Capture: Information is automatically extracted and validated.
4. Exception Resolution: Exceptions are quickly identified, so resolution can be handled seamlessly.
5. Data Synchronization: Their CRM system is updated with extracted and validated information in real time.
6. Document Routing: Digital documents are routed for review based on the company’s business rules.
7. Instant Access: Staff members can have fingertip access to all customer onboarding documents.

Achieving Ideal Results: Efficiency Gains & Cost Decreases

Since partnering with MetaSource to upgrade their customer onboarding process, the tax relief organization has achieved transformative results. Operating costs have decreased significantly compared to their previous manual process, thanks to reduced storage and labor requirements.

They have been able to grow without adding personnel. In fact, they’ve actually been able to reduce headcount in document processing through reallocation. Team members who previously handled manual document sorting and data entry were reassigned to roles where their industry knowledge is put to use.

Additionally, processing speed has improved dramatically, leading to optimized time-to-resolution and, in turn, enhanced customer satisfaction levels.

MetaSource’s 30+ years of experience in document management, industry expertise from maintaining strong partnerships with leading debt management companies that process similar documents, customized approach, and adherence to critical security standards like SOC 2 Type 2, HIPAA, GDPR, and PCI DSS made us the ideal partner for this company.

Interested in learning more about our outsourced customer onboarding automation solutions for tax relief companies? Contact us today to speak to an expert.

Not quite ready to chat about upgrading your process? Feel free to download our customer onboarding guide to learn more.