What Makes a Managed Service Provider Different from Others?

Why Choose Fluid IT?

What Truly Makes a Managed Service Provider Different From the Others

• How is Fluid IT Services different?  
• What makes you different?  
• Why should I choose you over the others?  
• Why do you cost more than the others?
• How do I know you’ll do what you say?

I have heard these questions for years and each year they become more difficult to answer in easily understandable terms in short order without requiring hours of discussion.  It is also critically important to companies seeking IT services because they are preparing to spend thousands of dollars a month on ‘a promise’.  

Our business is very much ‘you get what you pay for’ and ‘cheap doesn’t mean better.’  I know many IT service companies or managed service providers (MSP) that may be technically talented but are losing money because they lack business acumen.  And how do I know this?  After twenty-plus years of doing it and thirty-plus years in the business, I know how much it costs to provide best-of-class service in the long term.  I also know it is possible to go floating on the edge for years, making just enough to stay afloat.

If I’m looking for services from a provider, I want them to make money.  I need them to be good at the business of their business.  I need them around five, ten, twenty years from now.  It’s in my best interest to have a long-term relationship where they learn the intricacies of Fluid IT Services because it translates into additional value.

So if I’m on the other side trying to find and procure IT services, how do I filter through all the noise to find the right fit?

Beyond the basics, all managed service providers boast the same things:

1. One provider to meet all your IT needs
2. Provide proactive IT services
3. Provide unlimited helpdesk
4. Provide all-inclusive predictable pricing
5. Provide highly skilled IT experts
6. Provide 24/7 support
7. Provide cybersecurity services
8. Provide cloud services
9. Provide and manage Microsoft 365
10. Provide management of devices and networks
11. Provide advisory services

When a C-suite business leader needs outsourced technology services, and all of them say and promote the same thing, how will they determine the right fit for their business?  The answer:  It’s neither easy nor enjoyable.

I often imagine myself as a business owner/leader when searching for technology services. It’s not an enviable position.

I’ve been in IT for over 30 years and have run a technology services company (Fluid IT Services) for over 20 years. Finding the right partner has never been more difficult for a company in need of technology services.

Twenty years ago, I could talk to people and make very clear how we were different, better, and stable. Prospective buyers had an easier time discerning the differences between providers and finding the one that best suited them.

Today, providers are all saying the same thing, which has created the perception that IT services and MSPs have been commoditized.  Although it isn’t true, we have all heard perception is reality.

The Dallas / Fort Worth market is unique compared to other large markets. Whereas in other large markets, there are typically a handful of established, proven, reputable providers and only a small number of small players, DFW is the opposite. In DFW, there are hundreds of technology service providers with one to five employees (I found thirty with one employee in my region alone) and only a few more established companies.

So how do we, as technology service providers, deal with the onslaught of new companies entering our market?  How do we differentiate in an understandable and meaningful way to the business buying community?

It’s a tough question to answer. Yes, we need a website that shows our brand and attempts to educate readers and potential buyers on what we do. Yes, our services cover all the bases I listed earlier. So, this begs the question—how are we truly different? How do we articulate that to the business buyer who is a savvy C-level executive?

What was once an easy five to ten-minute conversation is now the holy grail, exacting hours and hours of time spent pondering and addressing.  For me and our company, it comes down to a few things:

1. Focus on a very small number of objective, critical success metrics meaningful to any business
2. We know we are better than the rest, which means we do things the hard way, with ethics at the top, so state why
3. Determine which are the best relationships that have the most value for Fluid and our client and state why.

Managed Services KPIs & Success Factors

Regarding number one, we spent a long time internally discussing what mattered to Fluid and our clients regarding measurements, key performance indicators, and success factors. We found we could drown ourselves in data analytics.  However, when it comes to objective mutual value, we settled on two unsurprising metrics – user satisfaction and client retention.  Both seem logical, however obtaining and maintaining a consistent and ongoing stream of objective data is not as easy.  What is easy is to pick and choose from the reviews and clients and only focus on and publicize the ‘good’ ones.  That would be easy to do.  But as I said, we do things the hard way, the ethical way.

So a couple years ago we integrated our user surveys into the front page of our website in real time.  Actual surveys from actual users are being fed to our website, front and center, as they come in.  Good. Bad. Ugly.  Why is this important?

If end users are unhappy, they complain down, sideways, and up in the organization, but definitely up.  They will quickly tell their management they are not happy, not satisfied, and frustrated and demand change.  Management will only take so much of this before they must do something about it.  Ultimately, unhappy users/employees are less productive than happy ones, and IT is frustrating enough as it is before adding poor solutions and service.

The metric on our website is called CSAT, which is short for customer satisfaction.  We have a lofty goal of 99.8%.  Our actual number fluctuates between 99.1 and 99.6%.  We are constantly asking for more reviews because it is the best and fastest way for any employee in any of our client companies to tell us how we are doing.  If we get an average or unsatisfied review, we have a process whereby a client success coordinator contacts the user to find out what happened and how we can do better.  This constant feedback loop is critical to our goal of continual improvement.

Our second metric is client retention, which is determined by measuring how many clients have been added and the client's tenure.  Having more going out than coming in on an ongoing basis is a very bad sign.  However, it can happen in the short-term when significant events occur, such as the housing market collapse in 2008 and COVID in 2020.  Outside of important events, if Fluid is doing our job consistently, which includes much more than keeping the lights on, clients should want to stay.

I’ll be more clear.  We don’t want clients to stay out of fear because they fear changing providers and what may happen.  We want them to stay because it is like a resort, and they never want to leave.

Keeping and retaining clients takes a lot of work.  It goes beyond the happy end user and the 99.5% CSAT rating.  It requires a deep and meaningful understanding of each other.  It requires a commitment to a relationship and not a transaction.  For example, when COVID hit full force in 2020, we proactively provided clients with a temporary relief fund to ease their burden and have skin in the game together.  In some cases, this was over $20,000 in legitimate fees that we did not charge.

We didn’t have to do it, and indeed, our level of services did not change, but it was the right thing to do then. As a result of tangible efforts like this, we have maintained our target 99% client retention rate for over seven years.  

We conduct structured strategic planning sessions in December of every year for the upcoming year, and benchmarking is a key part of our planning. We measure client concentration, industry mix, geographical location, size, age, and tenure. Over 75% of our clients have been with us for over five years, and as we’ll learn later, many are in the 10+ and even 20+ year range. Now, that is important.

Okay, user satisfaction is 99+%, and client retention is 99%.  So what?  All our competitors are saying the same (whether it’s true or not, we’ll never know).  So what else makes us different?  This is where it gets into the headspace of experience.  As I have often said – you can’t wake up one day and say I’m going to do IT strategy or I’m going to be a virtual CIO.  It takes years of boots-on-the-ground experience with many bumps, bruises, and scars to show for it.

Unfortunately, most managed service providers advertise that they provide virtual CIO services and IT strategy services.  Interestingly, most small to mid-market companies do not have a Chief Information Officer (CIO) or don’t need one.  The CFO or COO often wears that hat if the company is large enough.  In smaller companies, there is no IT full-time employee.  So, unfortunately, no one knows what IT strategy is, what virtual CIO advisory is, or why it is important to every company, regardless of industry or size.

But this misunderstood layer is the secret sauce.  This differentiates in very real and measurable terms the value one IT service provider can provide versus another.

I was recently asked what I viewed as my favorite clients to work with and who were my favorite people (clients) to work with. Then came the ‘drop the mic’ question—why?

After a lot of thought and deliberation, I came to a few consistent factors.

Managed Services Differentiators

1. We were able to assist and support the client’s significant growth and scale, often rapidly
2. We were able to prove time and again that we know how to support and be a key part of company growth, growing clients from <10 to 1000+ employees.
3. We provide meaningful expertise in assisting with compliance and related activities (audits) that are becoming more arduous and serious (HIPAA, cyber insurance, etc.)
4. We provide cybersecurity solutions and expertise in a proactive manner as a thought leader to mitigate current and future risk.
5. We are considered (and play an ongoing role as) their trusted advisor beyond just client/vendor. We have a seat at the C-level table and often make it happen.

The highest level of value we can have is when our clients maximize the use of all our value, skills, talents, experience, knowledge, etc., while simultaneously getting the same from us. Both parties are fully committed and engaged from top management down for the long haul. That is when we see the most reward or ROI for the financially minded.

To achieve this level of value requires building high-level trust about big business decisions for small companies and, more importantly, for larger companies or companies trying to scale. These companies need advisory-level services beyond the basic IT technical blocking and tackling.

We have repeatedly proven we can and do achieve that level of relationship.  There is no better feeling in the world when you can look your best clients in the eyes and tell them why they are your favorite to work with, and they repeat the same. 

Meet the Leadership Team and learn more about Fluid IT Services.