Elevating Customer Experience with Effective Tax Solutions

Taxes | November 27, 2024

Elevating Customer Experience with Effective Tax Solutions

Here are some strategies organizations can use to implement CX in the rapidly evolving age of digital transformation, where customer demand and expectations are at an all-time high. 

By Mindy Cunningham.

Customer experience (CX) has emerged as a pivotal driver of success across industries, with studies revealing its profound impact on brand loyalty and revenue growth. Research has shown that 32% of consumers will abandon a brand after one bad experience and 86% are willing to pay more for a good experience. These statistics highlight an undeniable reality: delivering outstanding CX is not optional—it is a strategic imperative, even in specialized sectors like tax technology.

In this profession, we’re finding that this concept is proliferating across every aspect of our business. Retailers expect to have instant, accurate tax calculations at the point of sale to meet customer expectations for seamless transactions. Tax professionals require efficient tools and proactive support from their technology providers to enhance service delivery. Additionally, tax technology vendors are expected to collaborate closely with their business clients to ensure their solutions provide integrated user experiences.

Here are some strategies organizations can use to implement CX in the rapidly evolving age of digital transformation, where customer demand and expectations are at an all-time high. 

Deliver exceptional experiences

Elevating the service experience hinges on the integration of people, processes, and technologies to create a unified, cohesive customer journey. A best-in-class service experience is not just a goal but a foundational standard that sets the tone for every subsequent interaction a customer has with your brand.

By ensuring consistency and excellence at every stage –from onboarding to ongoing support–organizations can strengthen trust and foster loyalty. When all elements work seamlessly together, the customer journey becomes more than a series of transactions; it transforms into a relationship defined by reliability, satisfaction and value.

Getting things right the first time

Errors in data collection or repeated information requests can derail CX and disrupt compliance. This can be avoided by implementing the right software and processes in the onboarding of customer information.

By leveraging advanced tax software and streamlined workflows, organizations can ensure that data is collected once, with clear communication about its purpose and benefits. This information should then be strategically shared across systems to support tax reporting, regulatory compliance, financial audits, and analytics.

When information isn’t captured accurately from the start, businesses often face costly corrections later. Effective onboarding lays the groundwork for long-term success by preventing these issues and ensuring smoother operations.

Implement resilient tax calculation systems

Retail environments perfectly exemplify the critical need for resilient tax systems. Just 10 minutes of downtime at checkout during peak hours can translate to tens of thousands of dollars in lost sales, highlighting the importance of uninterrupted service.

To address this, resilient tax systems—such as those with local processing capabilities—enable tax calculations to continue seamlessly, even during connectivity disruptions or periods of high scalability, like Black Friday. These systems can accurately process taxes, ensuring smooth transactions during peak demand while preserving customer satisfaction. At the same time, transactions are aggregated centrally for compliance and reporting, striking a balance between real-time functionality and accurate oversight.

Retailers and many others depend on this level of reliability to meet customer expectations and prevent disruptions from eroding trust and revenue. By implementing resilient tax systems, businesses across industries can ensure consistent, customer-focused operations, even under challenging conditions.

Enhance business processes with intelligent automation

Tax professionals increasingly expect the tools they use to mirror the benefits they deliver to their clients—efficiency, reliability, and proactive support. Intelligent automation addresses these needs by transforming complex tax processes into seamless, intuitive workflows.

The most effective tax technology solutions go beyond basic functionality to anticipate user needs, foster engagement, and build trust. These platforms simplify tasks, provide actionable insights, and enhance decision-making, empowering tax professionals to deliver greater value to their organizations.

This focus on intelligent automation creates opportunities for tax technology providers to differentiate themselves by offering solutions that streamline business processes while improving CX for both practitioners and their clients.

Proactively configure automation systems to meet evolving business needs

Business environments are dynamic, and tax obligations often change as companies expand into new markets, keep up with legislative changes, launch innovative revenue streams, or prepare for peak demand periods. Proactive collaboration between tax organizations and technology providers is essential to meet these evolving requirements.

Customer success managers play a vital role in aligning tax solutions with an organization’s unique goals and challenges. They offer personalized guidance, provide insight into system updates, and ensure solutions are prepared to scale during critical periods. For example, a retailer planning seasonal discounts can work with their customer success manager to configure tax systems that handle complex promotions while maintaining compliance.

By staying ahead of business changes, tax organizations can ensure their automation systems remain efficient, reliable, and responsive.

Conclusion

Expectations for seamless experiences are at an all-time high, as such, CX has become a strategic priority for tax organizations and their technology partners. Delivering superior CX requires a comprehensive approach – accurate data onboarding, robust technology infrastructure, intelligent automation, and proactive collaboration – all designed to meet customer demands while ensuring continuous compliance with evolving tax regulations.

By focusing on these strategies, tax leaders can not only meet compliance demands but also build stronger relationships with their clients and stakeholders. The result is a competitive advantage that drives long-term success in an increasingly customer-centric world.

Mindy Cunningham is Senior Vice President, Customer Success and Services at Vertex.

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