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There is a common misconception that an IT service company, by nature, must be in a constant state of chaos where time commitments are extremely difficult to make, customer service is only whose problem you can get to next, and growing a business is next to impossible because there just is not enough time. There is no doubt that supporting technology for small to medium sized businesses has its moments of high activity and even anxiety. Not to worry, this paper will give you 5 simple ways to create more time so you can control your business and grow.

As you think about your business and your relationships with your clients if you feel like the ‘tale is wagging the dog’, then pay attention – instituting one or all of the following time saving business processes will start you down the path to managing time effectively with clients.

1. Support clients remotely whenever possible to cut down on unnecessary travel that eats up valuable time. At some point, it just is not feasible to be everywhere for everyone, even if you have a larger number of engineering staff. Clients actually appreciate your capability to support their business efficiently with a mix of remote and on-site work if it is explained which kind of work will be done remotely.
2. Pre-schedule on-site time with clients to maintain ‘high touch’ visibility, but allows you to control more of your schedule. Most IT service companies visit clients when something has gone wrong or needs hand holding to fix. It is a best practice to pre-schedule on-site visits whether something is wrong or not as a part of your agreement to provide service to your clients. This way your weekly schedule is mostly pre-determined and your clients get to see you when things are running smoothly.
3. Automate systems monitoring and patch update processes across your clients’ networks to reduce the amount of time you spend manually keeping networks updated and in good working order. There are several tools on the market that specialize in providing ready-made solutions for implementing this type of automation in your support processes. Some examples are HyBlue, Kaseya, Level Platforms, N-Able, Zenith Infotech and ProactiveWatch.
4. Process client requests and emails in a single service management system and save time by reducing the amount of re-work that occurs when client requests are dispersed among multiple engineers. Most IT service companies have a support email their clients send requests to and a number to call. But, emails cannot be tied to time that is spent on given activities and a lot of time is spent on the phone where information is captured by a single engineer and not easily visible by the client who made the request, other engineers and or sub-contractors who may be working for you at the client.
5. Automate the communication and client feedback loops with your clients to save time as you triage and complete day-to-day work items. You save time when you have clients create requests that are automatically entered into your service management system and their emails automatically create requests in the same system. This system can also automate communication to clients as you complete work items – this saves more time from writing emails or making calls.

As you read this paper, if you are thinking to yourself ‘I don’t have time to implement any of these things’, then the likelyhood that you ever will is greatly diminished and you will likely continue to have the some difficulties with time you have in your business today. On the other hand, trying to implement these disciplines overnight might be too much to take on at once.

The rewards for deciding to take control of your business and time are well worth the effort. There are several ways to support your effort to get on this track and build this into their service management disciplines.

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CoreConnex specializes in professional services automation (PSA) software for VARs, MSPs, channel distribution partners, IT service providers and other professional service companies. We encourage you to share experiences and perspectives as players in this professional community. This blog is moderated. Comments that are unprofessional or derogatory will not be posted.