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 Channel Futures

Best Practices


MSPs: Four Ways to Boost Customer Satisfaction

  • Written by Paul Barnett
  • January 5, 2010
Do you want a few quick and easy ways to upgrade your customer satisfaction now? The answer lies in your phone -- and the following four tips. They're simple tips. But will you actually embrace them?

managed services customer satisfactionDo you want a few quick and easy ways to upgrade your customer satisfaction now? The answer lies in your phone — and the following four tips. They’re simple tips. But will you actually embrace them?

Few small businesses, including VARs and MSPs, grasp the significance of phone etiquette and call handing.  Customers often cite call handling as their number one complaint when it comes to the customer service they receive from small businesses. Yet, these complaints often fall on deaf ears.  The great news is that this failure can be your opportunity.  Here are a few tips:

1. Answer the Phone

This might sound obvious, but most small businesses fail to dedicate resources to answering the phone. Often when calling our small VAR/MSP partners at Virtual Administrator, I get a direct line to a personal cell phone which, in turn, leads to a voicemail. What happens when a prospective client calls inquiring about your services or a current customer calls with an emergency and they get the same? Most likely, a lost sale or potentially, a lost customer.

Here is my solution: Get a dedicated business line with someone answering every single incoming call. If you can’t afford to hire someone, use a call answering service. The expense will be well worth the improvement to your business.

2. Avoid Auto-Attendant Hell

If you use an auto-attendant, make sure the dial tree is logical and there is an option to speak to a live person. Clients often punch the zero right away to speak to an operator. Nothing peeves them more when they get the message “sorry, that option is not available.” Having an operator option with a live voice on the other end is a must.

3. Phone Answering Etiquette

Nothing gets under my skin more than when people answer the phone with just the company name. Don’t be that person. Here are some simple rules when answering calls.

  • Announce the name of the company.
  • Announce yourself.
  • Ask the customer how you can help them.

Rather than answer the phone with just an “Acme MSP,” say “Thanks for calling Acme MSP. This is Joe. How can I help you today?” This will put you on the right foot from the start.

4. Return Your Calls

Tom Hopkins, real estate sales guru, credits a large portion of his success to returning customer calls. He has a simple rule, “return all calls the same day you receive them.” Doing this will have a huge impact on the satisfaction of your customers. Give it a try.

Make these simple changes and you will have a huge impact on how your customers and perspective clients will perceive you. I guarantee you that you will see a long term increase in your business because of it. Will you make this change in the New Year?

Paul Barnett is marketing director for VirtualAdministrator, which offers hosted solutions for managed service providers. Read all of Paul’s guest blogs here. Guest blog entries such as this one are contributed on a monthly basis as part of MSPmentor.net’s 2010 Platinum sponsorship.

Tags: Cloud Service Providers Digital Service Providers MSPs VARs/SIs Best Practices

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11 comments

  1. Avatar Andrew Pohran January 5, 2010 @ 2:21 pm
    Reply

    Great post! These 4 suggestions, though seemingly obvious, are often overlooked by MSPs. We often forget that while we may be comfortable communicating via email, texts, IM, etc. our not-so-tech-savvy are often not. Part of being a service provider involves timely communication with your customers – in a method that they are comfortable with.

    Andrew Pohran
    MSP Partners

  2. Avatar Phil LaForge January 5, 2010 @ 2:33 pm
    Reply

    Right on Paul! A human being needs to be an option in any Automatic Call Routing Scheme. Nothing drives an upset client to new depths of unhappy like the inability to vent to a person. Conversely a person skilled at answering the phone can do a lot to defuse any situation by displaying empathy early.

  3. Avatar Joe Panettieri January 5, 2010 @ 2:39 pm
    Reply

    To reinforce your points: We hit some bumps with our service provider but constantly gave them the benefit of the doubt because they always pick up their phone and they always take our service calls, 24×7. And the service calls (unlimited) were free as part of our monthly managed plan.

    The longest I ever waited on hold was 5 minutes.
    -jp

  4. Avatar David Schafran January 5, 2010 @ 3:33 pm
    Reply

    These are great suggestions Paul. The one thing I would add is that the MSP owner / manager needs to have a methodology to get the word out to their entire staff. As Andrew said, they seem obvious but they need to be communicated to the team along with a discussion about the basic foundations of customer service that the MSP wants to to become their company’s norm.

    David Schafran
    Transformation Strategies
    http://www.TransStrat.com

  5. Avatar Paul barnett January 5, 2010 @ 4:53 pm
    Reply

    When I ran my own company, I would hold training sessions on call handling at least once a year. I would also do role playing with new employees on how to handle calls. Never assume that your employees understand how to answer the phone. Most do not.

    Good customer service starts with training and culture. You have to teach your employees how to give great customer service.

  6. Avatar Heidi Wieland January 12, 2010 @ 9:26 pm
    Reply

    Offering the customer the choice of communication modes is right on and so is rapid resolution…Web-based remote support is another mode for service and support once the customer gives permission. Check out NTRsupport as a solution that integrates phone, chat and screensharing for instant customer and tech support service @ http://www.ntrsupport.com.

  7. Avatar Auto Attendant Answering Service January 13, 2010 @ 12:44 am
    Reply

    An auto attendant can be a good image enhancer for a business and communication booster. But over stuffing it or making messages too long can ruin your business and even drive callers away. Always make your messages short, concise and meaningful. You wouldn’t want callers getting pissed off.

  8. Avatar oynetwork January 14, 2010 @ 6:13 am
    Reply

    I totally agree. Customer satisfaction should always be put first. Next to quality products, pleasing your customers is something that is much challenging to accomplish so we must invest on that. The 4 tips indicated are simple yet very effective means to magnet customers. A real person who is sensitive as well as responsive to the needs of clients will do the trick. Nothing beats good public relations when it comes to doing business.

    local customers

  9. Avatar Joe Panettieri January 15, 2010 @ 6:33 pm
    Reply

    Oynetwork: To see customer service in action visit a Ritz Carlton hotel. Little known fact: Apple hired consultants involved with the Ritz Carlton to help shape the customer service efforts in the Apple Stores.
    -jp

  10. Avatar Anthony Chiappetta January 19, 2010 @ 12:36 am
    Reply

    I’m going to re-assess our incoming call route based on the points made here. We’ve used auto-attendents in the past to show off the phone systems we sell, but perhaps its best to use them only if the phone can’t be immediately answered via a live person with a friendly voice? I always prefer a quick pickup, by someone that can help when calling a vendor for support, and I’m sure my customers would appreiciate the same.

  11. Avatar How to boost customer satisfaction | Biz Spark News November 9, 2010 @ 8:54 pm
    Reply

    […] of the best ways to boost customer satisfaction is to have a data base that manages all the customer relations records that the company has in a […]

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