5 IT Service Agreement Tips that Ensure Your Clients Renew

Long-term IT service agreements provide bread and butter income for many an IT business.

If you work on agreements like this with your clients, making sure they continue to renew them should be one of your top priorities.

Here are five ways to ensure your clients renew every year:

1. Provide Great Service: Obvious though it is that all clients want great service as part of their IT service agreements, many providers fail to deliver. Make a point of regularly examining results and service levels from the client’s perspective, and constantly strive to improve.

2. Seek Feedback: Don’t guess how well your IT service agreement is working with each client – ask. Follow up on service calls a few days later to ensure problems are properly fixed. This will make you stand out as an IT consultant who cares – and clients will be keen to hang on to you.

3. Be Proactive: Alert your clients to potential problems before they happen, and make suggestions as to cost savings and system improvements. Clients quickly tire of IT consultants who they only see when the server goes down.

4. Be Part of the Team: Go out of your way to understand the business each client is in and how their office is run. Find out which systems are most mission-critical and make sure they don’t go down. Find out which staff members are under the most job pressure and make sure their laptops always work. When the CEO asks how good the IT service is, these people will be your biggest raving fans.

5. Organize a Review: Towards the renewal time of your IT service agreements, request a meeting with the key players and have an open dialog on current issues and future plans. This is another way of showing you are proactive and thinking ahead about your clients’ needs.

Do you have a good record of success in terms of clients renewing their IT service agreements? Have you lost a contract due to complacency? Share your experiences in the COMMENTS box below.

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