Working with private/home customers vs. businesses

[Product Team]

Anyone got an opinion on which is a preferred customer, home or business?
(received from a RangerMSP user)

Post your comments..

[paulNZ]

Re: Working with private/home customers vs. businesses

MSP solution providers would most likely say ... target business customers and their marketing consultants would say 'become an expert' within a market segment and grow vertically.

We have just developed a MSP product (actually two) specifically targeted at the home user. Its early days yet so I won't say it will be the best thing since 'sliced bread' but the take up is good (from the first round of marketing) and the 'spin off hassles' often associated with the home user have not (yet at least) been seen, quite the opposite in fact.

I'll keep you all informed as we work through this project.

[lpopejoy]

Re: Working with private/home customers vs. businesses

Paul,

I would love to here more about what you guys are doing to serve your home clients. I've considered the idea of developing a program to serve Home/SOHO clients, but it is hard to find something that delivers tangible value for those clients and remains affordable.

If you care to share any more details, I would love to hear!

Thanks,

Luke

[FunctionOne]

Re: Working with private/home customers vs. businesses

I'd love to see how your project goes over time Paul. We've found home users to be terribly troublesome not because they don't pay - but because their issues are often time sinks that will tie up a tech for almost an entire day when we could be servicing our business customers whose recurring monthly contracts are our bread and butter.

We do assist users of our business clients with their home set-ups but typically only when it affects their ability to do their job - e.g. - they work from home often.

That said, we all have those times I'm sure when you're going to do whatever it takes to assist the owner of a company to ensure the relationship stays positive. You don't want them seeking help elsewhere :)

[natrat]

Re: Working with private/home customers vs. businesses

I chase business customers but don't say no to home customers. I employ a contractor to do my home clients, he just takes 50% of whatever he bills. this way I can say yes to all the home visits without it tying up my full time staff who are focussed on where the bigger long term money is.

[paulNZ]

Re: Working with private/home customers vs. businesses

Briefly our MSP Program for Home Users is:
- entry level product: monitoring and alerts (they get the email alert, not us) ; per incident charge to remote fix any problems at their request (paid via credit card or Pay Pal prior - most requests are generated from the alert from monitoring); free setup, configuration, installation of any hardware or software purchased from us; discounts on in workshop or onsite service rates.

- top level product: same as entry level except includes their AV/spyware licence plus 2 free incident charges to remote fix any problem per year.

The fee for each product is effectively 1.5 to 2 times our hard costs (depends on our bl....dy exchange rate, although it is good at the moment) and must be paid automatically monthly with the first payment made at sign up ... this may not sound a lot but remember the user pays for everything you do, albeit on a per incident rate so it is good profit.

As I said earlier, we have only just launched with a simple mail box drop which has generated about 10 sign ups (not at office to confirm).

We have had two remote fix requests and both paid without question before we resolved their problems.

We are about to employ a local telemarketer to call into the area in which we distributed our flyer.

[nicklloyd]

Re: Working with private/home customers vs. businesses

Sounds like an interesting offering Paul. If they pay before you fix, how do you know how much to charge, ie how long it will take? With the 2 free incidents, what if an incident takes multiple hours to fix?

When we first established we supported both home users and businesses, but never found an affordable MSP plan for home users. At the time we didn't do monitoring only and we now do, so I can see how that could work. We dropped home users almost a year ago and it was the best thing we ever did. As a single tech company it was just eating away our time, for very little profit and time that could be better spent serving our business customers.

Nick

[DavidFarrior]

Re: Working with private/home customers vs. businesses

My issue with home users is that they often want service outside of my normal business hours. They want to schedule me for when they get home from work etc or on the weekend.

I have a family so it's definitely not a good fit for me.

Plus, while I have never really had a business client balk at the bill for services, I have had several home users seem surprised at the total even when they know my hourly fee ahead of time.......not for me.