According to this report in Datto, standardization of services is the third biggest pain point in the MSP industry in 2018. Your PSA - Connectwise Manage and AutoTask is the backbone of your customer service, but it comes with limitations. You can provide a standard customer service by the industry norm, however with a customer experience platform you can elevate the experience to award winning.

Deploying a customer service platform requires time and money. The returns can be quite high, but is the investment worth it? Use our comparison guide to decide for yourself.

Dive into PSA life vs. PSA life with a Customer Experience Platform - which is the difference between 'Good customer service' to an 'award-winning customer service'.

More Support Options

Managed Service Providers (MSPs) typically offer two support options through their IT help-desk Ticketing System – email and phone. And even though these work well, your customers are still looking for other support channels . According Zendesk, by 2025, 75% of millennials will be in a management position who prefer communication using apps like WhatsApp, Slack, email and messenger. They are not used to picking up the phone and calling for support. You can leverage this to your advantage. Phone and email aren’t as timely either. Instant messaging empowers technicians to solve problems much faster. 

PSA:

Through the PSA, MSPs can only give email and phone support options – a standard practice in the MSP industry.

PSA + Customer Service Platform:

With the addition of a customer service portal to your PSA, your customers gain a designated space to ask for support. All customer information is kept in one place, and your users have access to their old and new tickets in one central location.

Eliminate Back-'n'-forth

Support emails and calls getting lost will be a thing of the past once you empower your help-desk team and customers with the right tool. An easy ticket can be hard if there isn’t enough ticket information. When your techs respond to support requests with questions that gets lost in your client’s inbox, you have unsolved tickets along with an unhappy customer.

PSA:

A support request comes through to your IT help-desk ticketing system via email with limited information. Except the basic details like contact name and company, you barely know anything. Your techs reply asking a series of questions via an email that will likely get lost in your client’s inbox. The end result? Your tech has an open ticket for ages and your customer is annoyed because the tech team didn’t get back to them. Client dissatisfaction grows, and some leave for greener pastures.

PSA + Customer Service Platform:

A customer service platform unclutters client inboxes by notifying them of ticket updates. It also captures all the ticket information you need through custom request types and forms. Your tech can immediately start working on a ticket without having to find more information. Customers can even attach images and screenshots to pinpoint issues. Your techs get through tickets faster and your customers are happy with the service. It is a win, win for both!

Effective Approval System

Putting an effective approval system in place is a huge hurdle. Your techs often don’t know which support requests require approval, and long approval processes delay issue resolution for clients. 

PSA:

Typically, when a support request comes through – your techs are unsure if a request requires approval. Once they find out, they send an email to the approver who might be on vacation, away, or distracted, and your techs must wait.

PSA + Customer Service Platform

With a customer service platform, your tech is aware that the ticket requires approval. Multiple approvers can be set up so that approvals come in faster. The approver gets an email and notification to notify them of the ticket. Approvers have the option to accept or deny the request. Your client is aware of the ticket progress, and your techs don’t have to follow up. 

Training and On-Boarding Customers

Every MSP wants to be seen as the ultimate technical adviser. If every touch point educates your customers further in your technical abilities, you begin to make the transition from technical provider to adviser in the eyes of your customers.

When you on-board new clients, you introduce them to the changes they would be facing. An email is not the most effective neither is an on-site visit. You can use a dedicated platform for your customers to make the on-boarding process seamless. This also gives them the option to refer to the document in case of confusion.

PSA:

The account manager from your office goes to the client’s office and spends a day to train them and on-board them. Often, this takes longer than a couple of hours, especially for new employees. 

PSA + Customer Service Platform:

From the start, you can encourage use of the portal and treat it as the best place to contact your support team. You can empower customers with self-service resources like automating on-boarding and educational content. Upload your marketing content, or even train customers in Microsoft Office with Bigger Brains. It can all be done through a service portal.

Service Customization at Scale

You are trying to give your customers a personalized experience, however, this is not viable at scale unless you have a tool to keep the experience consistent. A customer experience platform like DeskDirector can empower you all -stars to do what they do best without unnecessary distractions. 

 PSA:

You use emails and phone calls to get information, and you are trying to give customers a good experience, but these channels have their limitations. Delivering service exclusively through these channels often leads to tech burnout. Your IT help-desk ticketing system needs more support options.

PSA + Customer Service Platform:

Customize and personalize the intuitive customer service platform to suit your brand. Your techs can upload avatars. You will be able to mark your ‘VIP’ clients and work their tickets in priority – giving them great customer service. Your customers will be able to ‘fast-track’ important tickets. Clients will also be able to initiate chat sessions with technicians for a quick solution, thereby saving you a phone call.

Through the email template engine, you will be able to share branded, content-rich emails with your clients, instantly giving them a better user experience.

As a managed service provider (MSP), you want to make sure that your customer experience is on point. It’s often the only differentiating factor between you and the hundreds of MSPs you’re competing against. When you provide the same value, services, cost structure and SLAs, it’s tough to stand out. Most of you use ConnectWise or Autotask as their PSA and the support it provides is standardized. However, MSPs are always looking for ways to elevate the customer experience – make it better, easier, and more personalized at scale.

Having a customer service tool is handy for your customers, and a ticket-focused tool helps your techs stay on track. DeskDirector is one such tool that elevates your customer-service efforts to the next level. Sign up for a demo to learn more.