What's That Service Really Worth?

What’s That Service Really Worth?

Written by Ted Roller 1
May 27, 2015

Ever had a customer balk when they get your bill? It's in your best interest as an MSP to know your customers' cost expectations and, if they are out of line with reality, make sure the customer knows that before you start the work. Here's a cautionary tale, and how to set up the right expectations.

My oldest son is into gaming. It started like it almost always starts, play game, like game, play more. In our case, it started with watch dad play and get interested, and then start playing. As he got older, he became more interested in the evolving video game industry, but still has a healthy interest in gameplay. If you want to read some of his blogs about gaming, you can do so here: http://www.gameinformer.com/members/the-rolling-gamer/blogs/default.aspx.

The point of all of this is that this year for Christmas he asked for (and eventually received) an EVGA GeForce GTX 980 4GB graphics card and a Samsung 28-Inch Ultra High Definition LED Monitor (the picture is amazing – and as soon as finals are over he is going to be out of pocket for a while). I have been out of the PC building game for a while (the last video card I installed went into a 16 bit slot on a Pentium) so I pinged a local MSP and scheduled a service call to get it installed. At the same time I asked them to add an SSD HDD I had lying around.

Then the bill arrived

Yesterday I got the bill in the mail – just short of $500 for the services rendered. I had a new water heater installed 3 months ago and the labor charge on that job was less. That seemed a little unreasonable to me, considering the results:

The job was not finished – we needed an internal power cable and did not have one. Not their fault, but it required that we order, install and button it up ourselves.
We spent some time configuring the monitor, which is not nearly as tricky as it sounded online, but there was still some effort involved.
They were busy, and this wasn’t urgent, so it took some time to actually get the work scheduled and completed.

So, I need to add a disclaimer here – these guys came and did what was asked professionally and to the best of their ability. I am not unhappy – but will use this as an example to make a point.

MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR CUSTOMER IS EXPECTING THE SERVICE TO COST BEFORE YOU GET STARTED – or you can do everything well and still risk losing them. Doing the best you can do under the circumstances isn't a great strategy. The whole thing was like an out of body experience for me. In a past life, I owned an MSP. I remembered all the times customers called me complaining about their bills. I flashed back to reviewing tickets with technicians and learning that the service calls did not go as planned, or when extra services were added on site. Sometimes the customers were just looking for a free lunch – other times they were justified in their frustration and, from time to time they were simply honest. They felt exactly how I was feeling – that while the tech was there for the full time they billed us for, I would never have engaged their company if I knew what the cost would be.

A better way to handle it

The takeaway is simple. Let’s break it down:

Wherever possible, know what your customers' cost expectations are and, if it is out of line with the reality of the situation, make sure they know that before you start.
If your model is such that it is really expensive for you to do the job, simply apologize and don’t do the work. Explain that you cannot be cost-effective and, whenever possible, recommend someone who can. Everyone will be happier in the end.
If the work goes over cost projections through no fault of the customer (the scope didn’t slide) then make it right by them – charge a little less – and you will be amazed how positive the result will be most of the time.

At the end of the day, I am always going to be a little slower to recommend the company that did our recent work. I'll be a little more hesitant to call them and will definitely be on the lookout for someone else to do the work. I like these guys – and the service they provided was valuable – but in the game of my wallet vs. your wallet, the reality is that if I am not comfortable with the situation, I am probably not going back. There are times when MSPs should simply say no or charge less. This is absolutely a "word of mouth" industry and you never get a second chance to make a first impression.