The Business Exchange Swindon & Wiltshire Edition 38: Aug/Sept 2018 | Page 38

BUSINESS ADVICE

Are you aware of Research & Development tax relief?

By Martin Gurney
“ There are many business owners who don’ t consider R & D tax relief because they believe it’ s only suitable for research based businesses”
Looking to the future of business, this government has shown a commitment to innovation through research and development.
It was recently announced that up to 2.4 per cent of GDP would go into this over the next ten years. Part of this investment will be R & D tax relief or, as it’ s sometimes called, tax credit.
Many businesses can apply for this tax relief although awareness of that fact is poor. However it’ s very important to take advice around it says Martin Gurney, tax partner at Haines Watts Chartered Accountants in Swindon. Why?“ Firstly to ensure that the available relief is maximised and secondly to ensure that only allowable expenditure is claimed.
“ It is also important not to fall foul of rules that state that receiving grant funding which qualifies as“ notifiable state aid” will potentially result in the reduction in( as well as the clawing back of previously received) R & D tax relief.
“ There are many business owners who don’ t consider R & D tax relief because they believe it’ s only suitable for research based
businesses – in other words it’ s only suitable for businesses where staff wear lab coats!
“ That’ s simply not the case. For example, we have a client that designs, builds and installs ramping systems for disabled access, together with other related products
“ They didn’ t think R & D tax relief could possibly apply to their business – however we suggested that there was potentially relief available and arranged a meeting with our specialist R & D Team.
“ The key is that any activity which“ seeks to attain appreciable improvement to products, services or processes” can qualify. In any sector.
“ We worked with the client and our R & D Team to identify the activity and related expenditure that would qualify for the relief. Over the past few years claims have been submitted annually and rebates received which have been re-invested to continue development.
“ We have invested recently in a series of animated videos on this subject, in order to help get the message out to UK business owners that are missing out on this valuable relief. You can find it on our website, Facebook and LinkedIn feeds”
01793 533838
To find out more contact Martin Gurney at Haines Watts Swindon on the number above, or email msgurney @ hwca. com
For more info: www. haineswatts-swindon. co. uk

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE THE DIRECTORS CUT

By John Morris, director at Swindon-based JxD Consultants
The problems on the high streets have not escaped our notice and customer experience should now be high on everyone’ s agenda.
We know there is a direct correlation between a brands leadership team involvement and great customer experience delivery, however we have also found that in many cases what the board thinks is happening and what is actually happening are often two very different things.
Why and why now?
The macro business trend is that customer experience has overtaken product quality and price as the key differentiator with research showing that 86 % of customers will actually pay more for a better customer experience. Oracle Customer Experience Impact Report. …. why now?
• Customers are better informed and more demanding.
• Increasing threat from disruptive competition.
• Much more choice
• Direct impact on profitability and survival.
The benefits
The argument for making an investment in customer experience improvement becomes more and more obvious and necessary with the benefits being a combination of revenue increase, cost reduction and customer and price preservation with Bain & Co stating..“ companies that excel at customer experience grow revenues 4-8 % above the market.”
So what if we do nothing and let a few customers down?
Three-quarters of consumers say they are unwilling to stick with a brand that has treated them badly even if they love the brand’ s products. However it’ s not only that, distressed customers leads to increasingly stressed employees, brands become open to competition and social media allows disgruntled customers to make their dissatisfaction known to a wide audience generating a spiral of discontent.
Who’ s accountable?
The simple answer is, everybody, however who takes the lead? Many departments will believe that they should‘ own’ the customer experience, however this isn’ t about ownership it’ s about leadership and accoutability. If the leadership team deprioritise the customer so will everyone else, the right attitude starts at the top and supported by cooperation across the departments with a common goal to deliver an exceptional experience to the customer.
Where to start?
Customer Experience is all about people and getting the right balance of investment and effort to make improvements. The JXD 7Ps Approach to Customer Experience is designed to help organisations take a step by step approach to improving their Customer Experience by starting with the basics and building out from what’ s already working.
For more info: www. jxdconsultants. com
38 THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2018