Rees Pollack Gains a Competitive Edge

The Client: Rees Pollack

Established in 1990, Rees Pollock is a London-based firm of chartered accountants specialising in small to medium sized companies and partnerships. It employs 50 staff and works with entrepreneurial businesses of various sizes in a broad range of industries. These include well-known high street names such as Wagamama, YO! Sushi and Wimpy, AIM listed companies including Fairplace plc,and retailers Hotel Chocolat and Tula.

Rees Pollock has been awarded Accountancy Age’s Small Firm of the Year, and was recently positioned eighth in a CIMA survey of the Top Ten accounting firmsfor MBOs and MBIs.

Differentiation and Professionalism

Rees Pollock often competes with much larger accountancy firms and therefore needs to differentiate itself against organisations that have considerably greater marketing resource. As a result, Rees Pollock always seeks to innovate and was amongst the first accountancy firms in the country to launch its own website. In keeping with its innovative approach, Rees Pollock saw Rocketseed as another opportunity to innovate, stand out and positively impact its clients through its everyday communication.

It’s new, different and it projects image without being too flashy. We focus on being responsive and on providing a high-quality, cost-effective service. Our clients don’t expect anything fancy from us so we’ve deliberately kept it simple, clean and professional.

- Andy Pollock, co-founder and Senior Partner at Rees Pollock

Using Rocketseed’s Intelligent Business Email, all the company’s emails have a consistently branded header showing the company logo, which links though to Rees Pollock’s website. Additionally, each mail contains a personal business card that is bespoked for each sender. Finally, all mails also contain an approved legal disclaimer inserted byRocketseed to ensure 100% compliance.

Prior to Rocketseed. everyone generated their own electronic signature at the bottom of emails and there was duplication of footer text and inconsistency in disclaimers. Using Rocketseed ensures consistency and reinforces the firm’s professional image.

- Phil Vipond, an audit manager at Rees Pollock

Rees Pollock also benefits from Rocketseed‘s unique ability to ensure that the emails that it processes maintain their integrity even when forwarded to a third party. “We grow our client base largely through word-of-mouth so the fact that our emails retain our imagery and website link even when they are forwarded is an added advantage”, comments Andy.

Christmas message

Rees Pollock also used Rocketseed to send each of its clients a personalised Christmas email, making a charitable donation instead of posting hundreds of Christmas cards.We felt this was a small contribution to saving natural resources and actually got about 150 replies to our Christmas email, which is something you never get when you send out Christmas cards. Rocketseed enabled us to tell who the responses were from, which again helps us build and maintain relationships with our clients.

- Phil Vipond, Audit Manager at Rees Pollock

Ease of operation

As a small but growing company, Rees Pollock’s IT and Marketing resources are often stretched so it was essential that Rocketseed was easy to implement and operate.

It’s very low maintenance. We’ve had no problems at all since implementing Rocketseed, which means that we have not had to divert resources to solving IT problems. It works well and does exactly what it says on the tin.

- Phil Vipond, Audit Manager at Rees Pollock

Enhancing future communications

With new business coming in largely through recommendations, Rees Pollock does not generate large amounts of marketing collateral. It does, however, regularly produce client briefing papers, such as budget updates, that traditionally have been posted to its clients. Building on the success of its Christmas email and the quality of its day-to-day email communications, Rees Pollock is now looking at other ways in which to enhance its dialogue with clients.