Three Ways To Increase Customer Retention In Your MSP Business

Now is the time for planning. Even if your MSP business is seemingly unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing shutdowns, perhaps also managing to grow revenue while addressing the needs of your clients, that situation may change in the coming months. Your customers may experience new productivity issues related to government mandates or run into other unexpected challenges that could negatively affect their headcount, seat license usage, income, and cash flow. No one knows what the future may bring for MSPs as the business community heads into uncharted waters.

The unknowns are challenging to address. Will your customers be able to recover quickly as government restrictions lift? How will their business model adapt to the ‘temporary new norm?’ Will they need fewer IT services due to short-term furloughs or permanent staff reductions? Of course, the question on most MSPs’ minds is if customers will survive and be able to pay their invoices in a timely fashion.

Business continuity, especially in times like these, goes far beyond data restoration. MSPs rely on the success of their clients and the resulting rise in income streams to fund additional services, expand support options, and drive their own cash flow. In other words, when the organizations your team supports do well, it creates more opportunities to grow your business. The pandemic and resulting chaos are threatening those interdependent relationships.

Focus on customer retention

Your clients surely have similar priorities. Two clear objectives shared by IT firms and the businesses they support include uptime − keeping systems and employees operational − and client retention. The former has been receiving a lot of attention the past few weeks, ensuring that everyone and everything is working at whatever level government mandates and safety allow. Failure here can negatively affect cash flow if not bring about the end of the business.

Customer retention is another essential element of commerce. What if, when the COVID-19 pandemic and all the related government restrictions lift, fewer clients are willing to pay the previous rates for your goods and services? That’s a real concern for MSPs and their clients. If your customers can make it through this critical period without losing a significant portion of clientele or experiencing a substantial drop in revenue, there may be little negative effect on your business.

So, what can you do to help? As IT professionals and trusted business advisors, you hold more power with your clients than you realize, and more than likely, their leadership team is looking for sound advice. Many MSPs control a big part of their own destinies in that regard.

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