Customer service can be one of the most frustrating aspects of running an MSP.
It’s sole existence is based on waiting for problems to arise, and then fixing those problems. It can bring out the worst in people on both ends of the issue.
As an MSP, your business thrives on customer service being at it’s best to retain customers.
So if you find that your company is struggling, here’s our cheat sheet to having amazing customer service for your IT clients.
Do you have a goal for your ticket resolution time?
Do you have a turnaround ticket time for your company? And is your team actually meeting that goal? What is your goal?
A lot of times, MSP’s set unreasonable goals for their technicians to resolve a problem. Try timing your team and see where they are falling, timewise.
If they’re struggling to resolve service tickets in a reasonable time, try investigating into what’s causing the delays.
For example, is the CRM/PSA you’re using not notifying your team of the tickets sitting in the que? These are all issues that could be preventing your team from solving service requests quickly.
Do you have an automated email followup?
This may seem like a small detail, but having an automated email that sends immediately after a client submits a service request can give your clients a bit of peace of mind. Ensuring this email is going to the right people is also critical.
That email, even if it’s automated, shows that your clients’ ticket has been received, and assures your clients that you’ll be following up with them. It’s a simple task, but it goes a long way in creating a trusting relationship between you and your clients.
Are you fixing problems before they start?
What’s your business model for your IT firm? Are you a company that likes to wait for people to call, and then bill out per problem? Or do you have a managed service contract in place that covers your clients, from a billing perspective? In your managed service agreements, are you proactive with an RMM tool that you’re billing, or are you simply waiting for your IT clients’ to call you?
You’re going to have more stress and frustration coming from your clients, without having the proper expectations set up front.
For example, instead of waiting for problem calls, do monthly tests and check ups. This means your IT clients will not be afraid to call you for smaller issues, and less likely to let small issues become massive ones.
Are you recycling problems?
Are you noticing multiple calls coming in about one particular problem? Are businesses on this side of town are experiencing power or broadband outages? Are specific types of servers malfunctioning? Are your IT clients’ struggling with broadband because they don’t have network redundancy?
Pay attention to themes and patterns, and make a sort of quick guide to fixing them problem.
Even better, if you can, send out a “heads up” email to your clients, mentioning the problem, and giving instructions on how to fix the problem, helping you lower your call times. Use email marketing services like MailChimp to do this, or better yet, use the Campaign Director function inside of ConnectWise to help you deliver this “heads up” message.
Are you making it easy for clients to pay you?
If you don’t have any sort of automated billing setup, it can be a pain for your clients to pay you.
If your business model is a wait-and-break-approach, and you take the same wait-to-get-paid-approach with your invoicing, then you need help. Automation within your PSA, like Autotask or ConnectWise, can help you setup your billing for faster collections than you ever thought possible. As an added bonus, the automation we offer can help your IT business by integrating into your PSA as well as QuickBooks on-prem and QuickBooks cloud.
When you have a payments solution that integrates with ConnectWise or Autotask, you avoid those uncomfortable collections conversations from the very beginning.
It creates stability for your customers, and for yourself.
Learn more about simplifying your billing
Read here about how your peers have solved their ticketing, and payments issues. These free, downloadable case studies are sure to educate your MSP on how to alleviate your most basic A/R annoyances.
