The following is a guest post from Damien Enderle, National Director of Marketing with Reznick Group, a top 20 accounting firm. Check out Damien’s profile here on Reznick Group’s website. Follow Damien on Twitter @ReznickEnderle and LinkedIn here.
Q. What is your core message by embracing mobile technology for Reznick Group?
A. For 35 years, Reznick Group has been a national leader in helping our clients gauge business trends and seize upon new opportunities for their accounting, tax and business advisory needs. In just the past two years, we’ve seen a significant new demand by these very same clients in providing immediate, fast access to our people, our tools, and our knowledge. Whether it is information on our website about our industries, practice areas, or details about our events and conferences, Reznick Group clients want the same access and experience on their mobile devices as they have on their laptops. Our goal in embracing mobile technology is to provide our clients, people and potential new hires with fast, easy access to information about our firm and their industries.
Q. Are you seeing your target audiences more hungry for on the go content from Reznick Group?
A. Absolutely. In the past 12 months alone we have seen a 340 percent increase in the number of site visits to our website from mobile devices. As of May, more than 10 percent of the total visits to our website are from mobile devices. Not surprisingly, the Apple iPad and iPhone deliver more than 80 percent of our mobile traffic.
It’s an interesting dynamic for Reznick Group and the accounting industry which for years has been much like the legal industry – very, very reliant and loyal to RIM and Blackberry – for mobile needs. Not surprisingly, we’ve seen that loyalty give way to the technology of choice for our clients and next generation employees, which is Apple and Droid smart phones and tablets.
Q. What is the tie-in for the core Reznick Group brand?
A. The Reznick Group Experience is about delivering outstanding client service. Trust, Insight, Character and Access are the core values that guide us as a firm and which set us apart from others in our industry. The mobile experience we deliver for our clients, our people and our communities of interest is critical to giving people easy, meaningful access to our people and providing timely, relevant information on the industries in which we focus.
Q. What do you expect the mobile experiences you’re launching to do?
A. Simple, timely and meaningful access to Reznick Group’s knowledge and people is paramount in launching our mobile experience. Whether the user is a client, a prospect, an employee, or a potential new hire, we want the user to have the same, simple access to information on their mobile device as they do when they hit our website from their laptop or desktop.
Here’s a good example: Many of our clients and prospects are developers, bankers and commercial real estate executives who can earn lucrative tax credits through the U.S. Department of Treasury’s New Markets Tax Credit Program. Reznick Group recently developed a mobile version of our NMTC mapping tool to help investors instantly determine the eligibility of their projects based on qualified Census tracts. The mobile user experience is exactly what one would experience on their laptop or desktop. These types of tools and mobile experience are what we’re now looking to deploy across a number of our industries and practice areas for users of our website.
Q. Do you foresee social and mobile converging in the future and how do you envision Reznick taking advantage of this trend?
A. I believe we’re already there. Attend any conference or any industry event these days – I don’t care if you sell cars, pharmaceuticals, diapers, hamburgers, or professional services such as accounting – the ways in which people communicate and share information across websites, social media and email has already converged. In the accounting industry, if you’re just now thinking about how you’re going to integrate the desktop, social and mobile experience, you’re too late. The train has already left the station and you’re going to be running after it for the next several years. And here’s the surprise: even if you do catch that train, there may not be a seat on that train for your message in an already crowded mobile environment.
Q. What kind of device do you prefer and why?
A. I too am a late covert, but I now kneel before the altar of Apple. I’m a big blues music fan, so for me there’s nothing like hopping a plane or train with my iPad and be able to seamlessly move from webmail, to gmail, to Twitter and Facebook while listening to music. My iPhone is also the simplest and most reliable hand device I’ve ever used.
Check out Damien’s profile here on Reznick Group’s website. Follow Damien on Twitter @ReznickEnderle and LinkedIn here.