When we were an MSP, we spent a lot of time and effort and money to gain new customers. When we finally achieved that, we wanted to ensure that we retained those customers! Losing a customer isn’t just about losing revenue – it’s about losing a relationship. It can also hurt your reputation and make it harder to grow moving forward.

Let’s dive into our experience and share what worked for us when it comes to client retention!

Creating a Great Onboarding Experience

One of the first strategies we implemented at our MSP was creating a personal onboarding experience. Nailing the onboarding phase makes your clients much more likely to stick around long term than if you mess it up in the beginning!

 I remember clients who called us due to recurring issues that previous companies couldn’t solve. By focusing on addressing these pain points and delivering solutions right away, we built trust and strengthened those relationships a ton.

Clients remember when you resolve their problems, and it becomes a foundation for a lasting partnership!

Assigning Dedicated Account Managers

The biggest and best thing that had a positive impact on our client retention was always assigning a dedicated account manager to each one of our clients. That way, they each had one reliable point of contact!

If they had a problem, that account manager would make sure that they got connected to the right person to get that problem solved. The client builds a relationship with their account manager and requests are always sent to the right person: it’s a win-win!

Maintaining Regular Communication

Make sure that you have regular communication with all our clients: it seems so obvious, but there’s always something more we can be doing as MSPs!

Clients don’t want to just hear from you when something is wrong. We made it a point to have regular, non-technical check-ins with our clients. One of the most effective methods was conducting quarterly business reviews.

These QBRs provided an opportunity to meet with clients every 3 to 6 months, discuss their needs, and listen to their feedback.

Many people think it’s complicated presenting information about what you did over the last quarter, but it’s more about giving your clients a chance to talk and tell you what is going on with them!

Delivering Consistent and Reliable Service

Providing consistent and reliable service is another key point that you should focus on to retain your current client base!  Many MSPs struggle with this. Your clients need to feel confident that you’re always going to deliver on what it is you say you’re going to do for them: no unfulfilled promises!

We held our MSP accountable to deliver consistent and reliable service by creating SOPs, or standard operating procedures, for everything!

This reassured our clients that any technician could step in seamlessly, even if their regular technician was unavailable. It showed them that no matter the situation, they could expect the same level of service.

Going the Extra Mile

Who doesn’t love a personal touch? We got in the habit of sending gifts to our clients for no specific reason. We would partner with local vendors in our area and send them whatever that local vendor had, and we would send that to them just as a thank you for working with us!

Trust me, this goes a long way in making your clients feel good.

We provided a lot of educational information. We sent out a newsletter, ran educational seminars, and webinars. Whether discussing HIPAA compliance for healthcare clients or shop floor controls for manufacturing, we ensured our content was relevant to their industry needs.

Establishing Trust

Trust is the foundation of any strong client relationship. We built it in a few ways:

• We prioritized being punctual and transparent with our pricing.
• We provided a lot of educational information! We sent out a newsletter, ran educational seminars, and webinars.
  • Whether discussing HIPAA compliance for healthcare clients or shop floor controls for manufacturing, we ensured that any content sent to our clients was relevant to their needs.
• We always showed up on time for our appointments.
• We clearly communicated any changes to make sure our clients felt like they were our top priority.
• We trained our technicians to communicate in straightforward language to make sure our clients felt understood and valued!

If you implement even a handful of these strategies, you’re going to see a night and day difference in the satisfaction of your client base!

Ready to Never Lose a Client Again?

Our approach has allowed us to build long-term relationships with our clients, some lasting over 25 and 30 years. We hope this blog has helped you to start thinking about ways you can go above and beyond to make sure your clients have no reason to look elsewhere for their IT!

 Today I’m going to leave you with a quote from Steve Jobs: “If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.”

 Have a great week!