Athletes, business owners, and all other aspiring professionals share a common vision of achieving success. Whether on the field, on a balance sheet, or by measuring customer satisfaction, all ambitions and conscientious professionals are in pursuit of perfecting their craft in order to reach their goals.
For IT services providers and managed services providers (MSPs), such as yourself, a key element of mapping out a business philosophy to help you improve the strength of your IT services business is to continuously improve your business’ processes.
From improving customer satisfaction, to strengthening relationships with your suppliers, by constantly augmenting working relationships and other elements of your IT business, you can transform your business into something even more accomplished.
Starting with improving customer satisfaction, it is important to remember that customers come first because, if your paying customers are happy, your bottom line will be happy. Satisfied customers repay you for your quality service by providing you with repeat business and referrals.
In order to cultivate a more rewarding relationship with your customers, you should evaluate the services you provide to them. Are you tracking all elements of your working relationship with your customers? The time it takes for you to respond to their service call inquiries? Repeat technical issues they face? Discounts on warranties, licenses, etc. for which they might qualify? Are you managing your customers’ assets, including hardware and software products, licenses and subscriptions, so that your customers don’t have to?
By keeping track of and measuring the comprehensiveness and quality of the service you provide to your customers, you can identify ways in which you can improve your service, and consistently strengthen your relationships with your customers.
While there are a variety of ways in which you can measure these performance indicators, our PSA software for IT providers and MSPs offers you detailed statistics on the quality of service you are providing. With the new Statistics Board and Reports window, you can measure technician response times, charge histories, and track warranty expiration dates. By utilizing the options in the Accounts and Assets windows, you can always access a full picture of your interactions with your customers, including the problems you have resolved for them and the assets you manage for them. Furthermore, you can also use the software to maintain a history of all time you have dedicated to your customers, including non-Billable time. By tracking items, such as these, you can evaluate the current services you provide to your customers, and determine how to foster an improved relationship with them.
Similarly, you can also get better deals and services from your external suppliers by improving your relationships with your vendors. You can manage your supplier relationships with the some of the CRM tools, such as being able to log any conversation you have with your suppliers under their vendor account and being able to file email conversations you have with them. Moreover, by becoming a regular and dependable customer, you encourage your suppliers to provide you with good services, goods, and prices. Moreover, by using the CRM’s feature – Sales Opportunities – to track times in which you have referred third-parties to your suppliers, you can also boost your relationship with your suppliers. Just as you benefit from your customers’ referrals, so do your suppliers. By helping to strengthen their businesses, they will reward you by improved service and/or pricing.
The principle of continuous improvement however, is not limited to customer and supplier relationships. You can always improve upon every element of your business. As such, your aim should not be to try to improve all aspects of your business at once. Concentrate your efforts on a particular aspect of your business, and use the tools you already have, such as those found in our CRM software, to improve.
By strengthening one element of your business at a time, you will succeed in your professional quest to see you and your IT business reach higher rates of success.
The best of luck in your professional pursuits!
Success Team