Key Points
- Humanizing MSP service focuses on highlighting your MSP as a partner and delivering service that considers the “human factor”.
- 4 ways to humanize MSP services:
- Ensure reporting issues is easy
- Empower self-service
- Have quick response times
- Consider your customers’ productivity
- Improving communication with your customers is also a crucial part of humanizing MSP services.
There’s an actual person on the other end of that helpdesk ticket. We all know this, but that fact often gets lost over time. And it shouldn’t.
Humanizing MSP services means veering away from a focus on tools and technology, but framing yourself as a partner with the same goal.
To accomplish this, you need to focus on providing your services in a way that specifically considers the “human factor.”
In this article, we explore four factors that highlight the human factor in servicing your customers.
How to humanize MSP services
You can certainly create a streamlined business process that is the most efficient, productive, and profitable. But does it consider the interaction between your customer’s employees and your helpdesk and techs? Do your methods of problem resolution consider the user’s productivity? If they don’t, your customers may seek assistance with a competitor.
Remember that the goal for each and every opened helpdesk ticket isn’t just to fix it and close the ticket. It should be about the employee having a pleasant experience throughout what I’m going to call the “problem lifecycle”.
Consider the following factors to make your customer experience more pleasant:
Ease of reporting problems
Always remember that you should make it easy for customers to report problems.
The employee having an issue doesn’t want to tie up their day by opening a helpdesk ticket. You need the ticket; they just need the problem solved. Having a way for tickets to be submitted very easily that includes the needed problem detail.
The only standard of calling a helpdesk and opening a ticket is over; there are lots of ways integrated into RMM solutions that can automate this process directly from the employee’s machine.
Not sure how to integrate RMM into your operations? Check out our RMM FAQs to learn more about its benefits.
Empowerment of self-service
Empowering self-service means pointing your customers in the right direction. We’re working in the generation after Shadow IT. That means you have some very tech-savvy users who may not necessarily need your techs to address an issue, but do need some help pointing them in the right direction to solve it themselves quickly.
Having a knowledge base, or easy-to-execute, ready-made scripts ready for users may be a great way to speed up the resolution process while actually lowering the cost of supporting that user. Everyone wins.
Response time
A key rule is to respond to customer issues quickly. Assuming you have the ability to be made aware of a problem almost in real-time, you need to be able to address the problem, in context, within as short a period as possible.
Using integrated solutions (such as your RMM, PSA, and ticketing) means your team is not only made aware of the problem but also has supporting details and a direct means to remotely connect to and support the user’s machine.
With the technology available today, your goal is to be notified and begin connecting to the user’s machine within double-digit seconds. This doesn’t mean your business has (or needs) a sub-one-minute SLA; just that you want the technology in place that facilitates this level of responsiveness should you need it.
Impact on your customer’s productivity
One of the chief drawbacks of remote screen-share sessions is that a user becomes unproductive. Sure, in some cases, it’s absolutely necessary to take complete control and work within the context of the user having the problem. But, in many cases, issues can be addressed via alternate RDP sessions or even completely in the background.
This is where another key point of humanizing MSP service comes into play: allowing your customers to keep working. Remember, your goal is to allow the customer to keep working. Using other means, like remote command line, remote process management, etc., as part of your resolution process allows the customer to remain more productive than letting them sit and watch your tech fix a problem.
Other best practices to consider for exceptional MSP customer service
Shifting the way you deliver user-facing services requires a change in process and, for some of you, a change in the technology used. However, the crux of human interaction lies in communication. That’s why MSPs should always strive to improve IT communication.
Other communication practices you might want to consider include:
Personifying your business
While emails and tickets are the norm for quick updates and client communication, humanizing MSP services also means building trust. This boils down to how you present your services and your technicians. This can look like:
- A clear onboarding experience
- A quick call with a customer in crisis mode
- Personalized communication with your customer
At its core, personifying your business is about building trust and maintaining transparency with your customers.
Communicating your value
The difference between a successful and a very successful MSP lies not in the technology they use but in how they communicate with their clients and showcase what they bring.
Communicating your value as an MSP involves streamlining your operations to ensure customer success and satisfaction, and ensuring that you and your customer are on the same page. Of course, having a tool like NinjaOne in your arsenal also helps.
Highlighting what you bring as an MSP can look like:
- Having excellent customer support service
- Personalizing your services for a customer
- Understanding and meeting your customers’ expectations
- Growing your team’s skills
MSP customer service: Include “human” with your service
Humanizing MSP services starts with improving your processes, but it also involves building trust.
At a minimum, start with the processes. Consider whether your current standardized means of support are best for the user. Talk to your customers and inquire whether they are happy with the service.
Take a fresh look at the technology you use, through the lens of user productivity. Are there uninstalled or unused options that empower user self-service? Simplified ticket creation? Remote management rather than screen share? And, if your current tech simply doesn’t have user-centric features, it may be time to look for something new to elevate your user IT support business.
User expectation has become a driving force dictating what applications and services internal IT teams need to provide and support. This same expectation has made its way to outsourced IT, with users wanting easier ways to interact with their technology partners. Users want their problems solved in a way that meets their needs. So, this need to add the human factor into your services isn’t just a good idea; it’s a necessary part of service delivery that you’re going to want to get in front of.
