RSM

Tell us about RSM – what do you do?

We’re an accounting firm that also offer Audit & Advisory services. But, we’re more than just accountants, we’re partners with our clients on their growth journeys.

We bring the best of our local expertise combined with the 6th largest international accounting network of independent audit, tax and advisory firms.

We have around 120 valued members of our team, spread across three offices in Auckland - the legacy of the representative firms that now make up RSM New Zealand spans over 70 years in Auckland!

What role does music play in day to day life at RSM?

For our team, music is often a source of calm and focus - it provides a bit of a soundtrack to the work we do for our clients.

As you can imagine, each day brings with it complex challenges and it’s our job to forecast and review – so when we need a break from the ‘noise’, ironically – music is often where our team turn.

RSM has a licence to play music to callers on hold, what’s your first port of call to source music to play?

Our team are often the best source of feedback, and the music is always reflective of someone in our team, and their ‘song of the moment’.

With such a diverse team (including members who support artists and songwriters at home!) the feedback is always interesting – and greatly received!

How important is it that the music you play reflects the RSM brand, and why?

More important than brand alignment, is whether what our clients hear makes the process of waiting less of an inconvenience that it might otherwise become.

We’re not aiming to keep people on hold long enough for them to hear an entire album – equally, if it’s only a snippet they hear, we want it to trigger a smile and maybe a cheeky singalong!

We haven’t caught anyone mid-sing along… yet!

Aside from brand, what do you consider when selecting music?

It’s got to make you feel good – and it’s got to be a kiwi artist!

How important is music on hold? Do you have any interesting stats around wait times, and whether you are playing music to callers on hold?

As I mentioned earlier, the goal is to avoid putting our clients on hold – but if we do, we want their experience to be short, and sweet – and that includes the song they hear while they wait!

Here’s some geeky insight and a trade secret – we’ve avoided songs with heavy bass and/or production elements, instead opting for more acoustic sounding songs. It’s a softer listen!

You recently choose to opt-out of the OneMusic COVID-19 discount, so that more money could go back to people that write and record music. Why was this important?

Creatives have to eat, right?!

Seriously, though – we opted out because it’s the right thing to do – and if you’re in a position privileged enough to avoid contributing to the impact Covid-19 has had on Aotearoa, you should.

As a firm, we felt the Covid pinch – it’s been tough for us as a company, our team and our clients. But it taught us a few things, too.

One of the most important lessons was the importance of people, and while only something small – if opting out of a discount meant more money for creatives – we’re proud we could help.

Finally, RSM’s desert island album. If you could only play one album, all day, every day, what would it be?

It would be an impossible task to determine one single album – but I canvassed the team, and here are some Kiwi classics that make the shortlist, in no particular order: Supergroove – Traction, Lorde - Pure Heroine, Breaks Co-op - The Sound Inside, Dave Dobbyn - Available Light & basically all of Six60’s Discography.