3 Key Elements to Build Consistent Communications at Your MSP
Maintaining Communication Consistency
What would it look like at your MSP if Techs behaved differently? In other words, knowing that the Customer is watching for updates and is partnering with the MSP by being patient until the Tech updates them, the Techs engage and disengage the same way each and everytime. Sound great? Well, that is the second benefit to Customer-Facing Communications Protocol with the Customer as part of the process.Note: This means that all Techs engage and disengage the same way every time, which provides the Customer with a consistent Customer Experience, no matter who is assigned the ticket. Who knows, with the Customer watching, the Techs may even lean towards Real-Time Time Entry and keeping the Customers’ documentation up to date – or is that too much to expect?This consistency of engaging and disengaging the same way each time not only provides a rhythm that the Customer can depend on, it makes the Service Delivery Team more efficient as they get better and better at executing a consistent process.
Every IT MSP Needs 3 Key Elements to Build Consistency
Those are: 1. Put the Status in New to Complete order. This makes it easy for the Techs and everyone on the Support Team to find the next status. Keeping the Ticket up to date is much simpler, and you keep everyone in the know.2. Automate the Customer-Facing notifications. This makes it not only easier to communicate, but with the communications happeningautomatically, the Tech will need to follow protocol - or explain why they did not. Remember the Customer is now watching…
This includes a Speed Code to populate the Summary note with What, What, Who, When, and if applicable, How.
3. Manage by Educating, Coaching, Monitoring, Measuring, and Rewarding.
Educate the Techs of the expected Communications Protocol.
Coach the Techs on the benefits or WIIFT.
Monitor things like Techs emailing from Outlook, Customers going directly to the Techs rather than the SPoC, and providing Rich, Concise, Complete information when communicating with the Customer.
Measure something so the Techs know you are watching - this is important. It is less about what you are measuring, and more about the fact that you are watching.
Reward Techs who are following the Protocol on a regular basis. This will give them specific examples of what you are looking for – and provide an Att-a-Boy experience.This is another way to show appreciation and recognition. P.S. a $15 T-Shirt goes a lot further than a $100 Amazon Gift Card. Just saying…
communication
A Bonus of Consistent Communications Protocol
Datto | KPIs
A by-product of the Service Delivery Team providing a consistent Customer-Facing Communications protocol is the building of Trust and Dependencywith the Customer. Once established, the Customer will be much more of a partner with their Service Provider. It is this partnership that drives additional Service Delivery efficiencies. We have had two Customers report that once implementing the Customer-Facing Communications Protocol, phone calls dropped by 80% and duplicate tickets dropped by 90%. This is a huge savings in Service Delivery Team time and drives the RHEM down.My own experience has been that about a month after implementing the Protocol, a customer emailed us saying they had turned in a service request about 20 minutes ago and did not receive the Automated Acknowledgement while waiting for the Reviewed and Assigned notification. Sure enough, we never received the request. We quickly responded to the Customer, thanking them for the heads up, and moved his request to the top of the queue – not really following SLA guidelines, but emotionally, this Customer got our best TLC whenever interacting with them. Guiding MSPs to Freedom from Service Delivery Issues to Grow the Company starts with a FREE No-Obligation PSA Self-Evaluation.
Enjoy the read,