Managed Services could help your business grow in numerous ways. Managed services can bring several advantages to your organization. Mostly, Managed Service Providers take up the mundane day to day IT requirements of an organization so that the business could focus on their core competency. Some of the advantages of hiring managed service providers were already discussed by us in a previous blog.
Managed Service Providers (MSPs) are usually hired on a contractual basis as retainers for several months. Once the retainer contract comes to an end, there is an evaluation and the organization decided if they would want to continue their services or they would look for another MSP. Why an organization should shift MSPs is because they are not satisfied with the work the current MSP has delivered. Dissatisfaction is caused by the mistakes made by MSP.
Not all MSPs make the same mistakes as each project and its challenges are different. But, combing through customer reviews and concerns posted online, there are some mistakes that are more common than others. These are also simple mistakes which could be easily avoided. Here, we have listed some of the most common mistakes so you won’t have to lose that business because of that.
1. Assuming the Technical Knowledge of your Client:
Many MSPs assume their clients are knowledgeable about IT and could easily understand the various intricacies associated with IT. This is not true in most cases and that is one of the reasons why miscommunication takes place between the MSP and the client. It is important to address the technical knowledge and related issues right from the on-boarding stage. You should also establish clear communication about benefits, risks, and costs associated right at the beginning to avoid complications.
2. Losing Intensity:
This is the number one reasons why MSPs lose business. Many follow the sell it and forget approach. This gives the client zero reasons to retain you at the end of your contract. On the other side, over 90% of MSPs who provided constant support and resolutions were retained by clients. One thing that should be learnt from here is that issues are bound to happen, but the deal breaker is not the number of issues noticed. Deal breaker is the number of issued that were promptly resolved or not.
3. Claiming to do what you can’t:
This happens in marketing of all products and services not just with MSPs. But why it is important for MSPs is that they get into a relationship with the client for a period of time. Over this period of time, the clients will notice if you haven’t accomplished something that you have promised. In many cases, MSPs claim to have complete knowledge about a particular new technology but have no idea about it. When the technology is not implemented, it amounts to breach of contract by the MSP. This not only makes you lose business, it might also lead you to very expensive law suits as well.
4. Treating as Product Only:
This is similar to the 2nd point but it is very different. Many MSPs think providing IT managed services to having a solution in place and let it do the job. But in Managed Services, you are not just selling your product or technology, you are also selling your service along with the trust and reliability you have. You should regularly take updates from the client on how their business is moving forward to customize and scale your solution to suit their needs as they arise.
5. Pricing:
This is one of the most important aspects and getting it wrong could affect both the MSP and the client. Many newbie MSPs choose to price it lower than your closest competition. There are two things wrong about this. First their pricing would not even help them to break even. Second the budget would not be adequate for the MSP to provide the services, technology, or monitoring that was promised. This would lead to serious complications and could even get contracts to be terminated mid way.
XCEL Corp is one of the most well recognized Managed Service Providers in New Jersey. The technology, solutions, and services that we provide help businesses to forget about their IT and concentrate of their primary competence – to serve their customers better and increase their business’ profits.
If you are looking for the ideal MSP, contact XCEL Corp today!
