As we prepare for the second annual MSP Day on 23rd May 2019, we can’t help but look back at some of the findings from last year’s inaugural celebrations.
When last we brought the IT community together under this banner – in a bid to drive collaboration, communication, and confirmation around managed services – one thing stuck out to us. It has remained at the forefront of our minds (as well as the mind of leading channel publication CRN, in the form of their MSP Trends Report) ever since.
Last year we discovered that, despite the increasing use of managed services, adoption still leaves a lot to be desired – with lack of trust in providers being the biggest obstacle in the way. Of those that didn’t use managed services, 83 percent attributed their reluctance to a lack of trust of the third-parties that would be handling their sensitive data.
We created MSP Day to unite us as a community and provide a platform for sharing thoughts and concerns, whilst striving for that all-important transparency between providers and end users alike.
As part of our second outing, we’ve compiled the core building blocks MSPs need to build trust with their end users.
Don’t beat around the bush
As MSPs, we may get a kick out of acronyms, synonyms, and all the ‘as-a-service’s you can shake a stick at, but we’d be amiss to believe that everyone has our love for such niche technicalities, especially our end users.
They’re not concerned with the technical features, bundle options, and marketing jargon. They don’t need or want to understand this perceived voodoo magic. More importantly, they don’t care.
All a customer wants, is for your solution to solve their problem, ideally in an easy, accessible, and honest way. Provide this, and the trust won’t be far behind.
Do exactly what it says on your tin
It’s all well and good promising the world, but can you actually deliver it? Jumping through hoops and taking a ‘say yes and worry later’ approach may win over customers in the first instance, but whatever trust that creates will quickly disappear if you fail to deliver.
If you want customers to trust you, you must first trust yourself to provide the best service you possibly can; nothing less, nothing more. With this open and honest approach, expectations are set, trust is created, and any work from yourself that goes above and beyond will only sweeten your customer relationship.
Let your values do the talking
Thanks to social media, today’s consumers are increasingly conscientious of the brands they engage with, and your B2B customers are no different. While you may offer the most impenetrable firewall the world has ever seen, if your business doesn’t wear its core values on its sleeve, I guarantee you’ll lose customers to a business that does.
Businesses that are winning the hearts of their customers aren’t doing so through their offering alone. They’re letting their core values shine with everything they do and engaging with their customers on an emotional level in the process. It’s no wonder that 71 percent of those who feel emotionally connected to a brand will recommend them, compared to those who lack the emotional connection (45 percent).
Regardless of your product offering, team size, or competition, trust is one basic human element we can all leverage. This MSP Day, make sure to inject that much needed humanity and transparency into your customer relationships. Take care of your clients and the sales will take care of themselves.
Photo: Nicoleta Raftu / Shutterstock
