You did it! You’ve closed yet another managed services client and you’re off to celebrate your big win! If you made it this far, you most likely did a great a job stirring up emotions and urgency in your presentation, which made it a no brainer for your new client to move forward.

The only problem is, those emotions don’t sit forever, and over time the client may look at their bill at the end of the month and think “Is this really worth what I’m paying?”

So how do you overcome this? Keeping your clients engaged!

Lucky for you, technology is a topic that a lot of people are naturally interested in it – which means creating high levels of engagement with your clients should be relatively easy, even for an MSP.  And what this means, is that every interaction with your clients doesn’t have to be centered on backups, servers, and the ‘Harry-Potter-like’ magic of cloud computing.

In fact, the more you expand your conversations to educate your clients on other important technology issues, concepts, trends, and practices, the more your clients will appreciate the relationship they have with your MSP.  Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Educational Email Push

It seems like we come across new forms of malware and cyber threats ever week now! From worldwide attacks like WannaCry to the reemergence of the infamous FacexWorm, cyber criminals find new and creative ways to make news headlines. And chances are, your clients are clueless to what’s going on.

Send out an email to inform your clients of these potential threats.  Keep it short, but let them know what it may look like, how it can affect them, and how to avoid it.  You can even phrase it as, “New threat on the horizon.  Here’s what you and your staff should know.”

This educational – but interesting – material will do four things:

Strengthen the relationship you have with your clients by letting them know you care

Reinforce your expertise by demonstrating your knowledge

Prevent threats from popping up in the future (although this one is a maybe, and a weak one at that)

Keep your clients engaged with your business and interested in what you have to say

Webinar or Lunch and Learn

Depending on where you live and what industries you serve, a webinar might interest your clients more than a lunch and learn (or vice versa).  But whatever method you choose to go with, the content can remain the same.

These client events will require a bit more energy than a simple email push, but the payoff is well worth it.  You’ll need to plan for a PowerPoint, a speaker or two, invites, and follow up material.  It’s important to stay away from tech speak during these presentations – and remember, just because it interests you, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily interesting to your clients – in fact, as a rule of thumb, whatever you find interesting, don’t do.  Throw holy water at it and run the other way.

Here are a few topics we recommend to our members:

Everyday Disasters – Speak about common ‘everyday’ disasters that can result in data loss. Explain what they are and how to avoid them.

Excel 101 – Odds are, there’s probably someone on your nerd squad who knows a thing or two about Excel. Use them.  You’ll be surprised by how popular something as simple as Excel 101 will be with your client base.  However, if your clients consist of nothing but accountants, you might want to think twice about this topic.

Social Media – Anything social media is interesting to the majority of business professionals, and as a plus, it’s incredibly easy to coast your way through a presentation on social media. Gather a few statistics and a couple of good tips, and you’re golden.  You’ll look like a certified Facebook expert ten times out of ten.

Whitepaper

If you think you’re up for the challenge, a whitepaper can be a great piece of material for your business – not just for current clients but for prospects, as well.  As a matter of fact, any of the suggestions noted above can be used for marketing purposes just as much as they can be used for client retention.

That being said, if there’s a topic you think your clients should know more about – AND IS INTERESTING – write about it.  For this one, you’ll need to go back to 10th grade and remember what it was like to write a thorough research paper.  This bad boy should have everything – an executive summary, an opening, a background, and a how to, why, and what for.  Three to five pages later, it should be a lengthy piece of content that your clients will want to print out and distribute to their staff members.

Here are a few topics to consider:

  • Passwords
  • Any prevalent security threats – ransomware, phishing, Malvertising…
  • Email etiquette
  • Ergonomics
  • New technologies
  • BYOD concerns

To wrap things up, if you’re going to take anything away from this blog, let it be this:

It’s much easier to keep a client than to acquire a new one, and it is your duty as a technology vendor to consistently provide value to justify the monthly price you’re charging. We mentioned several different strategies, but don’t feel overwhelmed! Take things one step at a time and know that doing something is a lot better than doing nothing at all.