How to Build Successful IT Support Companies (Part 2)

The lifeblood of IT support companies is their computer technicians and other employees.

I spoke to Thomas Jeffs of Lucidicaluc about how he gets the right people for the roles he has within his business and keeps them engaged.

Editor's Note: If you missed the first part of this series, see How to Build Successful IT Support Companies (Part 1).

Personality Traits Needed for IT Support Companies

An IT support company is a customer-facing organization, so it’s vital that every person who works for Lucidica has good people and communication skills. This extends across the entire team, from the organization's top to the bottom.

Everyone who Lucidica employs has to enjoy working with people, so the hiring process concentrates on people skills first and then technical skills. Lucidica has a sister company called Responsible IT, which trains apprentices in the technical skills needed to work for IT support companies.

Making Sure Your Employees Are Engaged

The employees at Lucidica are primarily generalists. They are all trained to the same generalist standards on hardware and software technologies. However, their specialties and preferences are considered when sharing the workload to keep them engaged.

Their work varies enough so that lethargy does not set in, but they also carry out the tasks they have the most affinity with to keep them motivated.

Stretching and Developing Your Team

Team members have a personal development plan, which includes IT certification keeping them fully up-to-date across the various technologies. It’s a regime of continuous improvement that leads to more in-depth knowledge.

Account engineers are also stretched by their actual roles. They are responsible for developing, maintaining, and revising the technology roadmaps for their customers. This encourages each computer technician to be constantly in the mindset of a virtual CTO / CIO for the accounts they manage. This enriches their roles and provides extraordinary benefits to their customers.

If You Take Away One Thing, Let It Be This

The biggest takeaway from my conversation with Thomas was how vital it is to ensure that every member of your team has top-notch people and communication skills. Successful small IT service companies differentiate themselves by being social businesses embracing relationship management. 

Do you hire your computer technicians and approach their ongoing development in this way too? Share your ideas and experiences in the Comments section.   

And to follow through on the tips introduced in this short article, especially if you also support SaaS or IaaS, be sure to enroll now in our free 7-day eCourse: Go-to-Market Strategy 101 for B2B SaaS Startups and Scaleups.