We talk a lot about providing excellent customer service to your external constituents. But what about your employees?
When you’re in customer service, whether internal or external, you always have someone that needs your help. HR professionals and internal communication professionals know how hard it can be to help employees throughout the year.
Whether they are assisting with navigating benefits, or health and wellness perks, or they are giving help to employees through a benevolence fund, the ways you can serve your internal staff are endless. When it comes to tax season, people get easily stressed. That stress impacts everything in their lives, including how well they work. What if you could provide proactive customer service to your staff
Give Them Early and Easy Access to Tax Documents
If everyone in your company is on payroll, it shouldn’t be too difficult to get W-2’s out to everyone on time. Good customer service is about exceeding expectations. Don’t wait until the last minute to get these forms out. Countless electronic services can help you expedite these forms and give your staff access to them online. By giving them their W-2’s early, you can help ease their stress and give them a head start on preparing and filing their taxes.
Remind Them About Important Deadlines
Some of the tax deadlines were shifted this year. This may confuse some people about the due date for taxes in 2022. One way to help is to remind staff of all the upcoming deadlines. Even quarterly tax deadlines could be beneficial to communicate as many employees file these due to unique financial situations. Sometimes with everything happening in life and work, it’s easy to miss a critical deadline. Reminders from internal customer service associates go a long way.
Give Them Access to Resources
Some companies purchase a subscription to tax software on behalf of their employees. This is a great way to support your staff. Why not offer them something like a license for doing their taxes through an online service for free? It’s a small investment for your company but goes a long way to provide a needed service to your staff. You could even offer tax preparation workshops to help them learn new deductions and credits they might qualify for. You could hire a Universal Tax Professional to come in and host a series of workshops leading up to tax time.
Help Them Learn What to Look For in a Tax Professional
There are many ways to find a good tax preparer. Some businesses use social media for tax professionals, while others use word-of-mouth marketing. It’s crucial to give some tips on hiring the right person. Some ideas include reading reviews, checking for complaints on the Better Business Bureau, and even asking for references. A good tax professional will be available to answer questions and won’t make you feel silly for asking them. They’ll also have experience in the services you need most. Whether you have a simple 1040 to file or something more complex, a good tax pro will be able to help.
Give Them Time to Do Their Taxes
Have you ever worked for a company that gave you time to get critical tasks done? What a great way to retain extraordinary employees. What if you gave each team member half a day to focus on their taxes when tax season came around? Can you imagine how much better they’d work? Your customer service team could get staggered time off so that it would not impact the quality of service you provide for external constituents.
Remind Them About How Their Child Tax Credit Advance May Affect Their Return
This year is unique for many taxpayers. Qualified parents of children under 18 are receiving an advance on their child tax credit for next years’ taxes. While this is advantageous right now, it can cause trouble later if employees aren’t claiming the right amount on their W-4’s. A great way to help would be to remind them of the ways that the child tax credit could impact their tax returns later on. It would be a shock for people to discover in February 2022 that they owe a significant amount in taxes because they made an error on their W-4.
Teach Them About Pre-Tax Investment Opportunities
Whether it’s a 401K, 403B, or even a health savings account, there are many ways to maximize your tax savings. Help educate your staff on all the different options available at your company. By contributing to various accounts, staff members can better utilize their resources pre-tax. Give real-world examples about how contributing to these funds helps reduce the amount of taxes you owe each year. Show examples that give different scenarios such as single, married, married with children, etc.
As a customer service professional, you are used to helping customers succeed. Think about your staff as your customers and look for ways to serve them come tax time. Most people are not particularly excited about taxes, and all these little things go a long way to helping them out. It makes for happier employees who are less stressed.
