Companies are rapidly moving to a utility model of IT explaining why many more VARs are building managed services divisions. Running a managed services practice within a VAR is a challenge which requires the full commitment of the management team. My previously published article went into more detail on the disruption driving IT channel transformation.
It is difficult for an MSP to provide a differentiated level of service which stays profitable whilst growing the practice – but it’s not impossible. As intermediaries, VARs have always had to focus on customer service in order to win contracts for technology manufactured by a third party. As there is increasingly less to differentiate between the vendors’ technology, VARs will need to draw deep on these skills if they want to compete in a crowded MSP market.
This article discusses two common customer service challenges and then lists ten ways to raise your game.
Being a “Prisoner of the Past”
Do you remember when you bought the home you are living in now or the car you are driving? Do you recall how quickly the excitement wore off and boredom set in? It’s the same for your customers. Typically, the value of your service is driven down as they start to take you for granted.
It’s in the early stages of the service when you make the most improvements. For example, in data protection it’s not hard to improve the percentage backup success rate from say 90% to 98%. Achieving perfection however is not only resource intensive and costly for you but could also be boring for your client causing them to disengage.
The early stage of any service encounter benefits from the “Halo Effect” which is why it’s important to focus especially hard on the first 90 to 180 days of the service.
Murphy’s Law #7 – “It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious”
Anyone who has worked in IT for any length of time knows that “stuff” happens. My experience in data protection services (backup and recovery) is that 99% of the graft you put in goes unnoticed. Then a big restore is required and suddenly your whole customer service score is measured by that one moment of truth. How should an MSP resource for this whilst still remaining profitable?
Ten tips for customer satisfaction nirvana
1. Make your best resources available
I see too many VARs penny pinch their fledgling MSP business by not making their star technical people available to the managed service team. Those that are serious about the MSP practice will have a process in place to escalate level 3 incidents to their top technical people. Level 3 incidents, like the system recovery “moment of truth”, should not be an everyday occurrence and hence manageable.
2. Use old fashioned communication techniques
If you want to be profitable you should train your customers to raise “calls” via a portal or if you don’t have a portal, via email. It saves time and it creates an audit trail. That said, studies have proven that people rate customer satisfaction higher with people they like. It’s hard to build a relationship via email so try picking up the phone when you close an incident to check their experience. As your business grows consider hiring someone who can visit the customer’s premises on a scheduled basis.
3. Be proactive
If you have good monitoring systems in place you should know bad news before your client does. Make sure you’re the first to tell them.
4. Set expectations
Customers can have fuzzy or sometimes unrealistic expectations and often assume you know what they want. As a good MSP you need to actively shape or at least agree your customer’s expectations.
5. Tell the customer something they don’t know
When you deal with a large client base it can be time consuming to know each business intimately. That said, you will be more competitive if you can tailor your offering to the needs of the client or a specific industry. In dealing with many customers you will have experience of more best practices, so make sure you pass them on. Have a process in place which distributes, either via your portal or a simple newsletter, interesting bits of information or articles.
6. Do something unexpected
As the “Halo Effect” wears off and the routine of providing a managed service sets in, offer something of value which is not in your statement of work or service agreement. A VAR / MSP which decides to show the customer how they can avoid a hardware expenditure, especially if this delays a transaction for the VAR, is one example of an unexpected act and will certainly build trust.
7. Remind the customer of your value
I see a lot of MSPs share key performance indicator (KPI) reports with customers but with little historical context. If you provide good services, then the performance of the system should have improved. If this is the case, make sure to remind your customer and reset performance goals together with them so that you cannot be found guilty of simply maintaining the status quo.
8. Consider using a cool customer facing portal
A big fear of potential clients is the fear of losing control. A portal which provides transparency, insight and a connection to your service desk helps to build customer confidence and trust in you.
9. Run a service improvement programme
This needs no explanation. The MSP market is competitive and getting ever more so. I don’t care if you use Six Sigma, ISO or an excel spreadsheet, but do something and make sure it has board level visibility.
10. Build your brand
For a VAR the focus on marketing is typically one of sales lead generation whereas an MSP requires much more in the way of brand development.
People pay more for a recognisable brand – even in IT services.
It might pay you to seek out the skills necessary to build your managed services brand.
