Backups are an essential part of your clients’ infrastructure. Offering reliable backup services is a must for building trust with them.
In this article, you will learn:
Relationships between MSPs and clients come down to one thing: trust. Without trust, the whole relationship can slow down or break completely.
Building strong connections is reliant on high quality service. With one of the most important services being data backups.
Yet somehow backups can get overlooked. They’re often considered out of sight, out of mind — even though they’re critical for recovery. Because they’re so vital, one bad experience is all it takes for companies to look for a new MSP.
By making backup service a priority, and by properly monitoring backups for clients, MSPs can build trust with clients and make contract renewals more likely.
According to MSPs in the US, UK, and EU, backup service has played a key factor in growth. Backups have been the reason behind: b
In ScalePad’s 2022 Business Growth Report, MSPs across the industry reported that backup service was driving growth for their business.
Let’s dive into how MSPs in the US, UK, and EU are improving their client relationships thanks to better backup monitoring.
When a client needs to recover a backup, their old data suddenly becomes a high value resource.
Not being able to restore a backup can be devastating for the operation of a client’s business. It can slow them down, or even damage their own business relationships.
For River Run, prioritizing backup monitoring was a benefit to their business. They found their solution after a missed backup caused them to lose a client.
The backup was missed because their old notification system did not flag an error. That backup never ran, and the team was unaware that there was a problem until they needed to restore data.
River Run reevaluated their process and put into place an automated backup monitoring system. Now they make sure that a client is never left without backups.
Now River Run tells clients how they proactively address issues before they become problems.
Better standards for backups are in place at River Run. This has allowed the team to strengthen their business relationships and preserve revenue.
Building a stronger client relationship can prevent losing business, but makes your MSP more reliable.
Clients will see your MSP as a partner and will be more likely to renew contracts to continue their success.
“We preserve revenue with Backup Radar in the respect that we are aware of those backup issues before they become problems and a pain point for the client,” Matthew Moog, Senior Systems Engineer, said. “Preserving in the respect that we do not lose clients because backups were not working.”
As an MSP, you want to make your clients’ daily workflow as smooth as possible. When they have confidence in your service, they won’t worry about their data and can focus on their business.
The Netherlands-based MSP Gflex uses backup monitoring tools to save hours each week checking backups. Patrick Verkerk, assessment administrator, said they now spend more time working directly with clients.
“My colleague doesn’t need to spend four hours per day to check the backups. He’s now maybe at 13 minutes or one hour. So that saves three hours, and in that case, time is money because he spend three hours helping a customer or doing a project.”
Gflex also has their own experience with a missed backup close call. Their backup monitoring platform found one of their servers had not been functioning for more than a week.
According to Verkerk, catching errors like that saved them from losing business.
If a client can’t restore a backup, their reputation could be damaged — and so can the MSP’s.This makes it harder to get new clients in the future.
With reliable support, Gflex’s clients can focus on their business. And they can do that without worrying about tech. This leads clients to develop greater confidence in the service they provide.
Always keep your clients informed. Monitor backups faster and easier than ever with Backup Radar.
When talking to prospective clients, MSPs hear about bad experiences with previous providers.
For Ratcliff IT, prioritized backup monitoring helps create strong relationships from day one.
James Ratcliff, President of Ratcliff IT, said backup management is a big reason why clients leave MSPs.
“When we are talking to prospects, there’s a compelling event that has happened for them to say ‘That’s the straw that’s broken the camel’s back,’” Ratcliff said.
Doing audits of new clients has shown backups that haven’t been running for a long time, he said. A recent survey of small businesses reported an average of $8,600 of lost revenue per hour from unplanned downtime. 30% reported not using any backup recovery solution.
By addressing backup reliability, Ratcliff built strong relationships with those new clients.
“Everybody has signed a new client because somebody’s got to that point. And not having the backups when you need them [on] that one day, that will be one of those compelling events. So probability versus impact. Standard risk assessment. Probability might be low, but the impact will be extremely high when it happens.”
When time and data are so vital, it’s not worth the risk of a low probability of loss. Clients expect zero data loss, and next-to-zero downtime. Start off on the right foot by including a backup audit in your onboarding.
Backup monitoring is critical for clients and MSPs. The consequences for MSPs when backups don’t work can be devastating. Losing revenue, damaged reputation, and legal action are all risks.
Avoid damage to your MSP and wasting hours of staff time. Develop a more efficient and effective backup management method.
How do River Run, Gflex, and Ratcliff IT do it? They use Backup Radar.
Backup Radar automates backup monitoring with:
Taking backup monitoring seriously will lead to a better client experience and improve your business performance.
By proactively managing backups, both your clients and your MSP will be safe and secure.
