Why should you be measuring your Managed Service Provider (MSP) client satisfaction levels?
Well, if I asked you the question “How many of your MSP clients are happy, right now?” would you know the answer?
I like asking IT Solution Providers this question because you can probably tell me when your clients are unhappy, because they complain!
But when your MSP client is happy? I’d take a guess that you probably have no real idea!
The benefits of measuring MSP Client Satisfaction
It is worth putting in place ways to effectively measure your MSP client satisfaction (commonly known as CSAT) levels.
In many cases, we often make assumptions about whether clients are happy or not.
As a result, we can assume clients are happy even when, in reality, they are irritated!
In my experience, that irritation can soon fester and turn into anger if left unchecked.
Why CSAT needs to be measured
For instance, I once visited a client site to do a floorwalk.
So, I wandered here and there, asking folks if I could help them with anything.
“Well, the printer over there isn’t working,” one lady told me.
“Ok, how long has it been like that?” I enquired.
“Oh, about eight months,” she said.
When I asked her why she’d not reported the faulty printer before, she told me she “never got around to it”.
I suspect that she would have got around to reporting the printer issue, and rather vocally, the next time she urgently needed to print something and didn’t have a working printer to do so.
The lesson here is, if you want your MSP to retain clients, then regularly gather CSAT feedback.
How to measure CSAT
To avoid the type of issue I’ve highlighted from festering into something worse, you should be doing two things.
Firstly, making Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) something you invest in, rather than hoping for the best.
For example, I know several MSPs who use a platform such as SmileBack or SimpleSat for CSAT.
Both SmileBack and SimpleSat are custom-built tool for MSPs that are very simple to set up and use.
Secondly, commit to making gathering CSAT part of your MSP’s company culture.
Everyone in your business should be looking for opportunities to gather feedback from clients and take action upon it.
Can I Use My PSA Tool for CSAT?
When it comes to encouraging clients to give you feedback, most Professional Services Automation (PSA) tools have an in-built facility.
Typically, any PSA helpdesk tickets that you send to clients can include a feedback request.
The problem with these PSA-based CSAT requests is that clients rarely, if ever, respond to them.
For example, most MSPs that I speak to who use PSA-based CSAT tools, typically only see a response of 1%.
As a result, PSA CSAT feedback is too unreliable.
However, the custom tools I mentioned above often yield results of up to 49% response rates.
That’s impressive, and will give your MSP a better chance of measuring how your clients are feeling about you.
Tools Don’t Replace The Human Touch
It’s worth being aware, though, that no tool can replace the human touch!
As Derek Brown wrote in his guest blog post on The Pain of Acquiring Customer Feedback for MSPs, you need to be gathering feedback from many points — not just from surveys.
Therefore, I’d suggest that you maintain the human touch through regular MSP client satisfaction outreach.
For example, a routine telephone phone call to your client to ask them “Is there anything I can help you with?” is powerful.
Doing a regular floorwalk (COVID-safety permitting) of your client sites to see what is going on is also powerful.
As a result, human outreach is a simple but effective strategy.
Utilise Good CSAT
At the start of this article, I mentioned that most MSPs know how to deal with complaints.
But what do you do with good feedback?
In my experience, many MSPs don’t celebrate great feedback from clients.
As a result, that warm glow you get when hear a client gives you strong feedback, soon evaporates.
Therefore, what if you set up a process to capture any positive feedback you’re given, and take action on it?
Some examples of taking action on good MSP client satisfaction feedback might include:-
- Thanking the client through a gift (to reinforce the behaviour of giving good feedback)
- Asking the client if you can turn their positive feedback into a testimonial, to be used on your web-site (this type of “social proof” is powerful!)
- Requesting the client leave you a positive online review via Google MyBusiness (or a similar listing)
Good feedback is something that great MSPs embrace, and utilise to grow their business!
Conclusion
When it comes to measuring Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), most MSPs are missing a trick.
By implementing CSAT tools in your MSP business, you can start to build a culture of CSAT gathering.
When you start to gather CSAT from your MSP clients, you are keeping your finger on the pulse of your client relationships.
As a result, you can take action to head-off any issues before they fester.
Plus, you can celebrate good feedback, which will help you strengthen client relationships and grow your business.
Therefore, what are you going to start doing about collecting quality customer satisfaction feedback from your MSP clients?
Leave a comment below with your thoughts, or get in touch to let me know your ideas!
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Richard Tubb is one of the best-known experts within the global IT Managed Service Provider (MSP) community. He launched and sold his own MSP business before creating a leading MSP media and consultancy practice. Richard helps IT business owner’s take back control by freeing up their time and building a business that can run without them. He’s the author of the book “The IT Business Owner’s Survival Guide” and writer of the award-winning blog www.tubblog.co.uk
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