Your clients’ problems don’t sleep, so neither can your support services. These days clients are looking for round-the-clock support. When you run an managed service provider (MSP) business, you can’t just shut things down at 5 p.m. anymore. If one of your clients has a network failure it doesn’t matter what time it is, the problem needs to be resolved immediately or you’re likely to lose that customer to a competitor with more flexible hours.
Being able to offer 24/7/365 support to clients is a game-changer. The security and peace of mind you receive from knowing that your customers have access to services from an outsourced helpdesk and NOC system is priceless. This in turn frees up time and energy for you to focus on other critical tasks.
With clients like small business owners working late into the night, healthcare companies working overnight and employees of all stripes working on critical tasks at all hours of the day, there’s a growing need for MSPs to offer coverage outside of business hours.
Picture these two scenarios:
Scenario 1: You get an alert on your phone at 11 p.m., just before you go to bed. One of your largest clients is experiencing network connectivity issues. They have several employees working late on a mission-critical task, and they’re forced to stop until the connection comes back. Now you need to get ahold of your team, possibly waking them up and disrupting their night. Not an ideal situation for you or your employees.
Scenario 2: You get the same alert on your phone at 11 p.m. Only minutes later, you get another notification that the issue has been resolved by your after-hours NOC team. Your client is relieved, they develop more trust in your relationship, and you get to go back to sleep knowing that the issue has been quickly resolved.
You can see the major difference between these situations and the benefits that after-hours helpdesk and NOC support can provide to MSP owners and clients. When you’re scaling your business and looking to foster strong relationships with your clients, after-hours support is a key factor to successful growth and customer retention for MSPs. Keep on reading to learn how outsourced support could help your MSP grow to the next level.
What you need to know about helpdesk services and outsourced support
Helpdesk is a point of contact (whether single or multiple) for an enterprise that handles support tickets from within the company, ensuring they are handled quickly and effectively. A helpdesk support team receives and resolves inbound incidents related to internet connectivity, hardware and software issues. These incidents are tracked and analyzed to identify trends and prevent future issues.
Helpdesk outsourcing refers to a company that hires an external team designated to handle their clients’ inbound requests. It’s a turnkey solution that integrates completely with the company’s current IT support team and infrastructure. This outsourced helpdesk solution is typically white label, which means that even though the service is provided by another company, it’s rebranded for the organization hiring the outsourced helpdesk company. That could mean, for example, picking up the phone and greeting the client with “helpdesk” rather than the name of the outsourced company.
Helpdesk services can be offered 24/7/365, during business hours only, or even customizable so that they’re only active after hours when the main team has gone home. This can be an advantage for companies that already have an internal team during business hours but could use extra support outside of regular hours. Customers have instant access to support provided by a team of certified experts, with all requests handled immediately and escalated as necessary.
Outsourced helpdesk can be a convenient and effective way to reduce client frustrations, save money, improve response times and allow a business to focus on its core competencies.
What is NOC and why is it important?
A Network Operations Centre (NOC) is one centralized location or many locations where a team can provide continuous monitoring of a company’s network, servers, devices and data. Here’s a list of common activities involved with monitoring a network:
- Monitoring the firewall
- Fixing network connectivity problems
- Catching suspicious activity
- Managing software patches
- Installations and upgrades
- Server optimization
- Reporting and escalating incidents
By doing all this and more, an NOC can prevent delays, avoid security breaches, optimize the performance of a network and flag any issues before they become a real concern.
What are the types of NOC?
There are two types of NOC utilized by most companies. The first is an internal NOC, managed by the respective company by their staff. This is typically located on-premises. The second type of NOC is when it is outsourced to another company, one that specializes in monitoring networks and managing their performance.
Some benefits of leveraging outsourced NOC include:
- Assurance that your network will be optimized for functionality, speed and performance. A strong NOC will catch problems before they begin and resolve issues quickly.
- More time for other business tasks, ones that are critical for your success and continued growth. Delegation of activities is essential and a good NOC allows you to focus on the areas that make an impact on your business.
- The backup of your data. No need to worry about losing data in the case of a network outage or other unforeseen event. An NOC ensures that your data is saved and can be restored quickly so you can get back to work without missing a step.
- Added emphasis on prevention and productivity. The proactive nature of an NOC means it will catch issues before they affect your clients. A good NOC means that support tickets rarely need to be created since the monitoring of the network resolved problems before they were even noticed by a user. This in turn frees up time for your clients who no longer have to spend time creating and tracking support tickets for little errors throughout the day.
What are the benefits of an outsourced helpdesk?
The peace of mind that comes from knowing you have a certified team of helpdesk experts dedicated to supporting inbound requests. No more worrying about whether your internal staff is dedicating too much time to handling client issues. At all times of the day, you can be sure that support issues are being handled quickly and effectively for all your clients.
Cost-savings. You can hire an outsourced helpdesk team for a fraction of the cost of hiring inside personnel. The time and money required to hire, train and pay for internal support staff can add up for an MSP. Outsourced helpdesk teams cost less than internal hires and do not require the same amount of support or resources.
Ability to free up time to focus on your core competencies and scale your business. Devoting too many resources to handling Level 1 and 2 helpdesk tasks, or spending time on certain difficult issues can distract you from your main mission. Unless your main business is helpdesk, you can offload those activities and focus on scaling your business by focusing and expanding on your team’s existing strengths.
Flexible coverage and costs. When you hire internal support staff, you’re usually forced to pay them by the hour or through a salary. With an outsourced helpdesk, you have the option of after-hours support per device or user. This allows you to tailor your support and coverage for exactly what your business requires.
Quick response times. No more leaving clients waiting due to backlogged Level 1 tasks. An outsourced helpdesk team rapidly responds to issues at all times of the day and ensures your clients are up and running right away.
Tracking and analysis of helpdesk trends. Effective helpdesk companies track every chat, analyze them and create reports to track trends and understand what problems are occurring most often. This then allows them to provide solutions like upgrades or training to prevent future occurrences and improve client efficiency.
Unlock true scalability in your IT practice
Sherweb’s Helpdesk Services can help you manage your customers issues through 24/7 device monitoring, phone, chat, email and PSA integration driven support. Click here to learn more about our 24/7 MSP outsourcing program works. You can also get in touch with our team to explore exactly how we can integrate with your business!
