“Our ideal customer is the one we hear from the least…”
We recently overheard this from a former executive in the MSP industry. At face value, this is true if the only thing you care about is the bottom line.
It makes financial sense that the less you “touch” a customer, the lower the cost to operate for that customer. However, it’s critical to understand the cause of this limited customer interaction. For example, are you not hearing from the customer because there is nothing to do for them? This could be the case. Or could it be that your service delivery is so strong, there is little to no need to hear from the customer due to automation and other established processes. This scenario would certainly be great! Or are you hearing from them less because they are unhappy with their current service and do not feel you can help them, so they do not bother to reach out? This seems like the most likely scenario in service-based industries!
For our customers, we rely on surveys and feedback as often as possible. When we issue Service Desk tickets, at the end our customers receive a quick survey where they can click on rating emojis – “happy, no emotion, and sad faces” – to rate their individual interactions with the Service Desk for that ticket, as well as bi-annual customer feedback surveys to dig deeper into our overall IT service quality and consistency. We rely on this feedback loop, whether we receive positive or negative feedback, to make small adjustments to the quality of our managed services.
Quick Feedback Emojis: "Good, Ok, and Poor"
We happen to know this former executive was referring to the ideal customer as the one who did not “bother” this MSP. And we can say confidently this is NEVER the way Pioneer Technology intends to do business. Our mantra is if we are not interacting with customers, figuring out additional needs and opportunities for improvement, and generally keeping our finger on the pulse of what’s going on in their industry and for their information technology needs, then quite simply we are failing as a managed services partner.
We have mentioned the Pioneer Technology “wagon wheel” as the visual representation of the services we offer our customers. It allows them to identify the services and solutions that create an “IT equilibrium” where each service is right-sized for their specific needs. This allows the “wheel” to roll along effectively. If we get to the point where we lose track of the value of performing this exercise while constantly keeping track of improvement opportunities, we are probably doing this work for the wrong reasons.
Pioneer Technology’s ideal customer is the one we hear from all the time, good, bad, and everything in between. It’s about the relationship, the partnership, and the mutual success!
Interested in your thoughts!
-EB