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How Your MSP Business Can Overcome Common Customer Objections

Bill Hogan , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

MSP businessCustomer objections are a reality for MSP business, as well as just about every other business. Accept the fact that customers will complain, be proactive and your team will overcome these objections fairly seamlessly. Timely and thorough responses to legitimate complaints will go a long way in boosting customer retention. Let’s take a look at how to best handle customer objections:

Document Customer Objections

Put all customer objections “on paper” in a spreadsheet for easy sortability. This documentation of complaints will help uncover common themes. Documenting complaints down to the very last detail including customer names and addresses also makes it easier to keep track of which problems have been tended to and ultimately develop better ways to solve them.

How to Best Acknowledge Objections

The worst thing you can do is ignore objections. This is not to say you have to address every single objection. Rather, your team should take some time to determine which objections pop up at the highest frequency. These common complaints must be addressed as soon as possible. It is also important to slot complaints in terms of importance and difficulty. If the customer’s problem is especially challenging, it must be passed onto the appropriate party in a timely manner. So, don’t rush to respond to every single complaint in an effort to please customers. Recognize that some complaints are more important and tend to them without delay.

Common Examples of Objections

Plenty of customers are worried about new services or products that have the potential to backfire as there isn’t a proven track record of success. If you offer new services, do not clue the customer into potential weaknesses. Remain truthful yet confident as you explain the service’s merits.

Some prospective customers insist on referrals from current or former clients prior to paying for your MSP business services. Unfortunately, this is not always possible. Few clients are willing to be bothered with direct phone calls from those seeking business reviews. Let the client know you are unable to give another client’s direct contact information. Instead, send the prospective client a series of honest reviews from actual customers.

Clients also commonly object to paying the quoted price for services offered by another company at a lower rate. You can overcome this objection by touting the merits of your services. If the client believes your team is reliable, trustworthy and hard-working, he or she should be willing to pay slightly more for elite service.

Continue to Strive for Improvement

Your internal complaint list should be regularly updated to become a truly dynamic document, as opposed to one that remains static. Think of this document as an ever-evolving tool to improve your MSP business and improve the customer experience. Respond to customer objections in a timely and thorough manner, remain cordial, and you will dramatically increase the chances of clients remaining loyal across posterity.

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Bill Hogan

Bill Hogan is President of Partners Plus. A fast growing IT Support firm based in the Philadelphia area. Bill has been helping make life with business computers easier since 1981. His education as an Electrical Engineer at Penn State started a dual approach toward gaining expertise in both programming and computer networks. In 1991 he formed Partners Plus, Inc., to provide managed IT services to companies in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, based on being a business operations ally and understanding the need to speak to company leaders in plain English rather than ‘techno-babble’. And while others tend to focus their attention on the mechanical components of a computer system, Bill and his staff take a more global approach - how a network can be best used as an integral, reliable asset to the business owner’s goals. In 2007, after years of frustration with the sub-standard services he saw during network audits, Bill published “Hassle Free Computer Support” to educate business owners with the information they need to get superior technical support for their businesses A firm believer in keeping current with advances in technology and processes, Bill lead Partners Plus to become a Microsoft Certified Partner in 1998 and a Gold Certified Partner in 2008. And, Partners Plus Inc. has been selected by Microsoft as being in the top 1% of Partners serving the Small and Medium Business Market on the East Coast. Bill is internationally certified in Network Operations and is certified by Microsoft in project management and multiple Microsoft technologies. He also held the position of representative for the Mid-Atlantic region on Microsoft’s Advisory Board which manages all Microsoft Small Business certified partners. Partners Plus provides managed it services to clients in Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley and helps them choose, implement, and manage IT and cloud solutions that are cost effective and reliable. Partners Plus’ pro-active approach to IT support is ideally suited for companies in Wilmington, Delaware or Philadelphia who depend on reliable IT infrastructure, but don’t want to spend a lot of money to keep your IT services in Delaware that way. Partners Plus clients have come to appreciate the Partners Plus team focus on operations and the ability to get the core of problems quickly, and the knowledge of how to resolve issues as quickly as possible. With the institution of the Partners Plus Protection Program, the company can now monitor, identify and resolve many network issues in minutes without coming onsite.