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Candidly Speaking: What do YOU the customers want? RE: Managed Services
| Posted by w2interactive, 11-19-2009, 06:01 AM |
| Hi
I'm new to the board. My company does creative and development staffing and support primarily. Over the last year or so, we've been doing systems and infrastructure management and for a few clients and have made the decision to publicly offer this service.
I've been doing research and it seems like there's always the same revolving issues with every company. It seems there's always a balance between quality and cost. This seems to be a constantly changing and give/take scenario.
So the below questions (in bold) are for the customers that use Outsourced & Managed Services:
Which of these two is most important to you (cost or quality)?
Since you can afford to use managed services that tells me that you presently operate atleast a semi-successful company and are at the very least decent at what you do. You probably understand that most of the low costs advertised are achievable through some method of overselling resources or establishing a complex customer -> staff ratio [a fancy way of explaining overselling labor].
Do you tend to avoid companies with costs too low?
(Out of fear that they're overwhelmed or operating at a dangerously high ratio)
Do you try these companies anyway because the pricing is so great that even if they didn't perform up to your expectations... there's no major loss?
Obviously If you wanted to pay $20,000 per month in staff then you'd hire staff directly, so there will need to be some degree of overselling.
What is a safe balance in your opinion?
If you were the provider, how would you do things differently that most of the companies you see on webhostingtalk?
I'm absolutely terrified of becoming another webhostingtalk horror story. However, I can see that happening easily. Not just with myself but with any company. Realistically, I think nearly every Managed Services company here has truly exceptional staff that are more than capable of handling any issue you could ever have. The problem is that those truly exceptional individuals will demonstrate their abilities and lead to massive growth for the company because of the great feedback, but in the end they can only do so much themselves.
Hiring more of these truly exceptional individuals will clearly raise the firm's cost... but a truly dedicated and service oriented company will definitely want to improve the level of service they offer.
This next question is for the providers (if you want to PM me the answer, feel free to).
How would you approach this situation without alienating your customers by raising their costs?
I apologize for speaking so candidly about this and asking alot of seemingly difficult questions in a open forum. But this is a discussion board and I really want to know how everyone feels about these points.
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| Posted by activelobby4u, 11-22-2009, 07:34 AM |
| The logic behind running such a service is pretty straight forward : The leadership.
You build a team comprising or exceptional to average engineers and have them guided by an exceptional manager , and have proper escalation systems in place, which worked for us.
My company is not the cheapest of the lot. To hire good to exceptional rated employees, you need to pay them good, which is where the cost comes from.
The cost of services depends on what the customers opt for. We are pretty transparent about the services we provide and there is nothing hidden in our services to the customers.
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| Posted by expo09, 11-23-2009, 08:00 AM |
| I don't think you can actually say which is most important out of cost and quality. It's not one or the other. You wouldn't choose the best quality no matter how much it prices, and you would choose the cheapest no matter how poor the qaulity.
It comes down to a balance between the two. I suppose if I had to choose I'd say quality is more important although cost is a factor.
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| Posted by activelobby4u, 11-23-2009, 08:09 AM |
| I agree with you. And thats one of the reasons why process outsourcing is so much popular .
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| Posted by w2interactive, 11-23-2009, 08:37 PM |
| Thank you so much for those who replied to this thread and also those who have contacted me directly. Your tips, advice and amazing insight have helped me tremendously.
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| Posted by caseymontero, 11-24-2009, 07:34 AM |
| Just need patience and be friendly.
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