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Do you realise that warranties are should be just the foundation of a comprehensive Customer Service Plan?

Warranties cover all the costs associated with faulty components in your customers' systems.

Which is a start. But don't think and don't let your customers think this is the end of the story!

Build on the warranty, and add multiple additional layers of maintenance & services to create a steady stream of service work and cash flow - while giving your customers a comprehensive 'whole of business' service solution.

What do I mean? In this free NWS Reseller Report, I show you how to -

• Create a lot more additional work & cash flow
• Create planned proactive work instead of reactive work
• Create lots of work with a higher chargeable rate than PC service work & sales
• Educate your clients about sound business practices (and the costs involved)
• Help your clients create a much more robust & risk-free IT & business environment
• Build far greater customer loyalty and a far better customer relationship
• Show your clients that you & your business provides much more than just PCs & hardware & software
• Add additional valuable marketable skill sets, knowledge and experience to your business & staff.
• Demonstrate to your clients that you CARE about THEM and their business in a practical and helpful way.

So let's get started!

Start With A Name.

Start with a meaningful and powerful name for your complete service program. Below I have used as a generic example 'Customer Care Program'.

Names ARE very important. To convey meaning, purpose, power, image, branding.

Customer Care Program - Level 1

Three Year On-site Premium Warranty

Lay the foundation of your Customer Care Program with a 3 years x On-Site Same Day/Next Day Australia-wide Warranty with 'Instant Parts Replacement'

Customer Care Program - Level 2

System Maintenance Plan

Next, offer an additional System Maintenance Plan that covers other ad hoc (non-warranty) problems and housekeeping.

Sit down with client and point out that as a business they really need to plan for more maintenance and service that a component failure.

We always use analogy of car servicing. And how much more important is their network and data, and the cost of downtime.

Downtime Cost Calculation

Actually ask how much it would cost the customer in lost business, time, inconvenience, aggravation, wasted staff time for every hour a PC is down or their network is down?

Sit down with client and use a Downtime Calculator to demonstrate to your clients just how much downtime really costs. Seeing is believing. They will be amazed just how high the cost of downtime is.

Have a look at these sample downtime cost calculators ...

• See NTA-Monitor Cost Calculator here
• See Everonit Cost Calculator here
• See Dpair Cost Calculator here
• See Sudora Cost Calculator here
• See Teneros Email Cost Calculator here

Voucher System

I think you will find a Service Voucher system works the best for you and your clients.

Let your client pre-purchase your Service Vouchers which can be used at any time for any service work they want done.

Work out beforehand what each voucher is worth in service time (and what response time).

Maybe have different coloured vouchers for different service response times. Blue Plan, Orange Plan, Red Plan, etc.

And one good idea is that clients can 'buy' a faster response than the response they purchased with an additional voucher/s!

That is, an additional Blue voucher upgrades the response time to Orange, say.

Think about how best to incorporate different pricing for PCs and servers and network.

This can be worked into voucher system if your vouchers have a small enough 'value', eg 15 or 30 minute units, then you can just have a simple multiplier, 4 per hour for PC, 6 per hour for servers, plus a priority loading if requested of 2 vouchers or more, say.

Don't make the system TOO complicated though.

And I am not generally in favour of restrictive 'gotcha' expiry dates (given what one warranty company does if your warranties are 3 months old!), but maybe have the vouchers expiry after 12 months?

The voucher system is really great for you because -

• You get cash up front.
• You lock in the customer to use you for service, and not someone else.
• The work & time is more planned & proactive (especially if the customer has purchased a monthly or quarterly maintenance visit).
• You educate your customer to do regular maintenance.
• You & your client have a known response time that the customer has signed off on - with an agreed flexible arrangement for a (chargeable) faster response.
• You are far far more likely to get additional sales and services, whether during maintenance visits or between.

And the Voucher System is really great for your clients because -

• They get a reduced hourly rate for pre-purchasing.
• Their costs are known (and paid for).
• They are NOT paying up-front for something they may never use, as happens with older maintenance schemes, where they pay a fixed fee every month whether they needed any work or not.
• It gives then the assurance of a known response, plus the flexibility of upgrading as required.

Customer Care Program - Level 3.

Power Protection Plan

So now you have a proactive plan in place that covers component failure, housekeeping & maintenance. So what next?

Power Protection.

So draft up a questionnaire & flyer (or add to the one you drafted for the above) for your business clients that asks them what they would do (and what the result would be!) -

• If there was a five second outage?
• If there was a five hour outage?

• Explain risk of equipment damage, loss of data, and lost time & productivity that can be caused by even a very short outage.
• Explain risk of equipment damage, loss of data, and lost time & productivity that can be caused by power surges & spikes.
• Explain risk of equipment damage, loss of data, and lost time & productivity that can be caused by brown-outs.
• Explain risk of equipment damage, loss of data, and lost time & productivity that can be caused by irregular voltage.

Use a Downtime Cost Calculator (see the examples above) to help you & the client calculate and understand what the costs are.

And then sit down with them and discuss the risks & what plans they need to have in place, and what steps they need to take now.

They (& you) need to understand that the optimal Power Protection Plan is about cost & risk analysis & management, and what is the most cost-effective solution.

Demonstrate the costs of not having a suitable Power Protection Plan and equipment in place.

Just as different businesses need different maintenance plans depending on the type and size of business, they need different back-up plans based on the type of business and type of data, even more so here.

So what are a few of the factors that affect the optimal Power Protection solution?

• Budget. There are costs for equipment so the plan has to be balanced against available $$$.
• Number of Systems.
• Number of Servers.
• Location of Systems. Whether systems are in clusters or isolated?
• Critical Points & Single Points of Failure. What systems' failure/outage would stop the entire business?
• Duplicated Systems. What business functions & apps can be/are run on multiple systems?
• Location of Critical Data. What systems have critical data?


• Probability & Cost of Data Loss.
• Probability & Cost of Equipment Damage.
• Probability & Cost of Staff Down-time.
• Probability & Cost of Business Down-time.

And the two related questions to always ask are -

• "If this happened, what would be the short-term & long-term consequences and costs to the business?
• "If we don't do this, what would be the short-term & long-term consequences and costs of not doing it?"

See the Downtime Cost Calculators above to help you & the client calculate and understand what the costs are.

Customer Care Program - Level 4.

Data Back-up Plan

So now you have a proactive plan in place that covers component failure, housekeeping & maintenance. So what next?

Data & System Backup Strategy & system

So draft up a questionnaire& flyer (or add to the one you drafted for the above) for your business clients that asks them what they would do (and what the result would be!) -

• If they had a fire.
• If they were flooded (and not necessarily by flood, but by, eg, a burst water pipe, rain egress after roof damage).
• If they had storm damage.
• If someone destroyed (or could destroy) all their company records and/or customer details or accounts payable.
• If someone stole or destroyed their server.

Use a Downtime Cost Calculator (see the examples above) to help you & the client calculate and understand what the costs are.

And then sit down with them and discuss the risks & what plans they need to have in place, and what steps they need to take now.

You need to understand that the optimal Data Back-up Plan is about risk minimization, and risk analysis and risk management.

A Back-up Plan is not a 'one size fits all' approach. Different horses for different courses.

And different back-up solutions for different businesses.

Just as different businesses need different maintenance plans depending on the type and size of business, they need different back-up plans based on the type of business and type of data, even more so here.

So what are a few of the factors that affect the optimal back-up solution?

• Budget. There are costs for equipment and media, and just time & convenience, in both setting up and carrying out a Back-up Plan, so the plan has to be balanced against available $$$.
• Type of Data. Is business data highly static or highly dynamic?
• Size of Data. Just how much data is there?
• How Critical Is Data. How important is data to business success & operation?
• Critical Data. How much critical data is there?
• Location of Data. Where is data stored? Centralised? Distributed? Remote? Variety?

And, again, the two related questions to always ask are -

• "If this happened, what would be the short-term & long-term consequences and costs to the business?
• "If we don't do this, what would be the short-term & long-term consequences and costs of not doing it?"

Customer Care Program - Level 5.

Business Continuity Plan

So now you have a proactive plan in place that covers component failure, housekeeping, maintenance, & data back-up. So what next?

Disaster Recovery (or what is now called Business Continuity).

Again, this is something a business should have in place. But do they? Do you?

So draft up a questionnaire& flyer (or add to the one you drafted for the above) for your business clients that asks them what they would do (and what the result would be!) -

• If they had a fire.
• If they had a burglary.
• If they were flooded (and not necessarily by flood, but by, eg, a burst water pipe, rain egress after roof damage).
• If they had storm damage.

Plus things like ...

• If power was lost for an hour.
• If power was lost for a day.
• If someone stole (or could steal) all their company records and/or customer details.
• If someone destroyed (or could destroy) all their company records and/or customer details or accounts payable.
• If someone stole or destroyed their server.

Use a Downtime Cost Calculator (see the examples above) to help you & the client calculate and understand what the costs are.

And then sit down with them and discuss the risks & what plans they need to have in place, and what steps they need to take now.

You need to understand that Business Continuity (& its sub-set Disaster Recovery) is about risk minimization, but more importantly, risk analysis and risk management.

Business continuity is not a 'one size fits all' approach. Different horses for different courses.

And different solutions for different businesses.

Just as different businesses need different maintenance plans depending on the type and size of business, and need different back-up plans based on the type of business and type of data, even more so here.

So what are a few of the factors that affect the optimal solution?

• Budget. There are costs involved just in developing a Business Continuity Plan, and additional costs in taking some of the actions needed, so the plan has to be balanced against available $$$.
• Type of business. Are they are retail 'store front' operation, a home based business, an Internet business, a manufacturing business, a food business, etc?
• Size of Business. 1 person, 200 persons? One location, 10 locations?

And, again, the two related questions to always ask are -

• "If this happened, what would be the short-term & long-term consequences and costs to the business?
• "If we don't do this, what would be the short-term & long-term consequences and costs of not doing it?"

Have a look at these links for additional information about Business Continuity planning

• The Disaster Recovery Guide
• Tech Republic: Disaster Recovery: Best Practices White Paper
• Disaster Recovery Planning Process (Part 1)
• Tech Republic: Practical Disaster Recovery Planning: A Step-by-Step Guide
• Tech Republic: IT Disaster Recovery Planning Guide
• Sample Disaster Recovery Plan

Summary

So what is the purpose & benefit of all this?

• You create a lot more additional work and cash flow
• You create planned proactive work instead of reactive work
• You create chargeable 'high level' work instead of 'low level' PC service work & sales
• You educate your clients about sound business practices (and the costs involved)
• You help your clients create a much more robust, reduced risk IT & business environment - for which one day they may be very thankful
• You build far greater customer loyalty and a far better customer relationship
• You demonstrate that you & your business is much more than just selling PCs & hardware & software
• You add additional valuable chargeable & marketable skill sets, knowledge and experience to your business & staff.
• And, most importantly, you demonstrate to your clients that you CARE about THEM and their business in a practical and helpful way.

And it is really great for your clients because -

• They learn about the risks & costs of being reactive, of inaction.
• They learn about hidden costs of computer downtime.
• They learn about risk management & take steps to manage and minimise business risk.
• They take steps to minimize their system down-time & associated costs.
• It gives them the confidence and security that, with you as their IT partner, that they have done what was necessary to minimize business costs, and minimise the risk to their business.

All the above is actually all about sensible risk management. Note that none of the above gives rise to a 'one size fits all' solution. In each of the above layers of protection & service, it depends very much on the nature, size, and even location, of the business involved.

© 2008 NWS

I hope you found this helpful, and that you use it to build and propel your business to a whole new level of comprehensive expertise and service that will help you build a highly successful & highly regarded IT business.

Kind regards

Don Card
General Manager

National Warranty Services
... not ordinary warranties, extraordinary warranties!

Reseller Enquiries: 07 3117 9465
resellers@nationalwarranties.com.au

Reseller Support
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resellers@nationalwarranties.com.au

General Manager: 07 3880 3297
don@nationalwarranties.com.au

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