What clients really want from their VAR, MSP or IT service provider
3/25/09 at 9:11 AM by Tony Lael IT service companies who are getting the best results during these challenging times are the ones who have built the strongest business relationships with their clients over time. These relationships are based on the IT service firm understanding what really matters to their clients:
- Be a part of their business team
- Coach them on changes in technology so they are aware, but not overwhelmed
- Stick to planned budgets – monthly budgets work best
- Take responsibility for making their technology run smoothly and reliably
- Be proactive in managing relationships and communications
We interviewed several business executives who are clients of successful IT service firms – watch this video to see what really matters to them.
It comes down to visibility. If you are present for your customers, especially when they need you, you will raise the bar on and demonstrate the value-add of the service delivery you are providing. It doesn’t take much for an account manager to be present… aside from getting in to their client’s offices and off the golf courses (of course, I am NOT saying to STAY off the golf courses)… just hang out with the service delivery teams… understand your client’s challenges… It’s incredible how much I learn just by being at the client site observing our people’s interaction with the client.
Thanks for the insightful post.
Regards,
Darren Sproat
Darren, it is interesting that you bring up the term visibility when talking about account management because during our interviews for this video we learned ‘visibility’ to businesses who use IT local sourcing means a few different and specific things;
1. Stay in tune to changing business priorities and have a forum to communicate about those priorities as they change.
2. Let the client see which areas their employees are submitting service requests for so that if there is a need to handle those requests in-house the business has that choice – businesses want more than ticket management.
3. This has to do with your observations – pre-schedule time on site whether there are issues to resolve for the client or not. If you can, make these visits a part of the service agreement you have with the client.
No one mentioned anything about staying away from golf courses during our interviews.
Thanks for the comment Darren.
What the client is looking for is predictability and something they can understand. This is true for both the work done and the costs.
Predictability of costs can mean a set monthly fee, a well controlled project cost and/or a well communicated and understood hourly engagement.
Any of these models can work or a combination of all three.
Predictability of work done means the client’s ability to understand what needs to be done and what was done. Predictability also include meeting your timeline promises — for example, if you said the new server can be installed in one day then it needs to be one day.
Well said Daniel!
Couldn’t the same be said for how your entire client portfolio is managed;
- Predictable workloads
- Predictable resources needed
- Predictable revenues (hopefully under contract)
You may want to look at the following blog if you want to learn more of my thoughts on managing client portfolios – http://www.coreconnex.com/2008/10/19/portfolio-basics-analyze-your-client-portfolio-2-of-3/
Thanks for the comments guys!