Many small businesses are turning to Managed Service Providers (MSPs) as Outsourced IT Departments. The day-to-day tech needs and strategic management tend to be too demanding for the average small business owner. Managed Service Providers are able to step in and take over, leaving time for small business owners to spend more time doing whatever it is they are best at.
With an increasingly crowded market, cut-rate MSPs are starting to pop up. Good tech can be costly, so these cut-rate providers offer a tantalizingly lower price. But what are you really getting for your money with a cut-rate provider?
Quality in MSPs is irreplaceable and come directly from their people. What does their employee retention look like? How happy are their clients? These are great indicators of quality.
Check their employee retention
At GadellNet, our employee retention is 97% because our hiring process is down to a science and we continue to nurture our employees through continual growth and training opportunities. Visit their webpage, their Glassdoor page, etc. to learn more about how they treat their employees.
Check their client retention rate
Our client retention rate is 99.8%. That speaks volume of any company. Also visit our feedback page to see a 3rd party review of our service support with our 30%+ response rate to help desk tickets.
Check their suite of services.
A good Managed Service Provider will be able to offer you all of the services you need to be successful, from 24/7 Help Desk Support and cloud storage to Managed Security, and Strategic Consulting. Without a comprehensive suite of services, you will not be able to achieve efficiency through technology.
How fast do they respond? And do they make it EASY?
At GadellNet, our average response time to a Help Desk Call is 17 seconds. Yes, 17 seconds and someone is helping you work through whatever issue you are encountering. Through strategic consulting, our clients grew an average of 9% YOY in 2016.
Cut-Rate MSPs will say “Fast”, “Rapid”, or “speedy” but give no data to back it up.
Are the account management interactions meaningful?
We also have a Quarterly Business Review Process to make sure our clients have the opportunity for improvement each quarter. This process includes an Account Manager sitting down with the small business decision makers and talking through everything from reports and ways to improve to communication. This person knows your operation before ever sitting down for your Quarterly Business Review and is ready to help you align your technology to your business goals, objectives, and processes.
Without quality in your MSP, you could end up spending more for your technology than you need to. This includes the cost of running out of date hardware and software, overpaying for replacement machines, and downtime associated with your legacy equipment. You will also miss out of opportunities for investment and improvement. Although the “price” for Help Desk or Security might be quoted at a lower price, without quality in these areas, you will be wasting time on the phone that you could be working. Without quality security measures you risk a cyber security incident, which can cost thousands.
Many cut-rate MSPs are reactive. You encounter a problem and they work to fix it. Sounds good enough. At GadellNet, however, we are proactive. We work to anticipate issues and resolve them before they create inefficiencies or larger incidents. Working with a proactive MSP means saved time and money.
There is a difference between price and value. Choose your MSP wisely.
