Where Should Integrators Start with their Services Offering?

“How do we grow our services business?”

Steve Riley is our resident support and service guru. Today, Steve talks with Brad about some best practices for integrators that want to build a service and support offering.

“Many customers ask me how to get started,” says Riley. “Most integrators already have already offer service and support, it’s just that they are very reactionary, which makes it very challenging to grow that side of the business.”

That’s where Navigate comes in and we can help.

“The first thing to do is to productize the offering,” Riley reports. “Many integrators don’t understand this, but they need to create some sort of product that is their services offering, along with a standard Service Level Agreement.”

Start with a basic Service Level Agreement

A Service Level Agreement, or SLA, essentially outlines the performance criteria for how the integrator is going to execute the support. This includes response times, onsite time, resolution time and things of that nature, where the integrators can define how time is being spent.

“I would recommend starting with a very basic services offering,” says Riley. “Where your product has a very basic SLA, so that you can easily achieve what is promised. And then if you have clients with higher demands or higher requirements, then you just add options to your basic services offering.”

“Every support agreement should have unlimited training and should include preventative maintenance visits. These are all pieces that add value. So, first off, you can sell it, but second, you can get the renewal.”

“And the client really wants to feel supported,” add Malone. “A lot of integrators don’t really understand this, because they only go out on service calls but not support.”