The novel coronavirus has rocked the business world, creating new challenges and enormous uncertainty as businesses try to navigate the new normal and pivot operations.  For MSPs, there’s an added level of risk: an MSP’s success depends on the success of the industries and clients they serve.

Uncertain times create a new opportunity for MSPs to strengthen their relationships and prove their value to clients.  Putting in the extra effort to establish a trusted, reasonable business advisor relationship during these times can contribute to collaborative success and long-term growth.

George Anderson, director of product marketing for Webroot, suggests the following ways MSPs can help clients weather the storm right now by focusing on helping customers navigate change management – not just technical implementation:

  1. Set-up a virtual meeting to discuss with clients what their situation really is. This should be a (perhaps painfully) honest conversation about the state of the business and what obstacles stand on the way of then getting back to “business as usual.”
  2. Devise an agenda based on the services you provide today and the associated costs. Based on the client’s challenges (or lack thereof) what is affordable? What can maybe be minimized? Has the business direction changed at all? How is their overall cyber resilience during this times? Many SMBs may be looking to pivot considering COVID-19.
  3. Aim to be flexible (while remaining profitable) and willing to accommodate the period between their business restarting and establishing a new normal. Ask yourself if taking a slight hit in monthly income or margins is an acceptable sacrifice to make in order to help keep a potentially long-term client afloat.
  4. Work with a client to draw up a joint “Recovery Plan” with a timeline for scaling back up work and how you can specifically assist with recovery. This may involve stressing the costliness of a data breach, downtime, and other ways your services help the clients bottom line.
  5. Schedule regular client account reviews to monitor technology-related pain points and assist with addressing them as reasonably as possible.

For more info, please visit www.webroot.com

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