Client Focus - Residential or Business

[PSG-Samuel]

Hello,

So I am looking forward to 2015 and wondering if I should focus on a particular customer group (we currently do both right now). Do you think its better to focus on one group over the other and have you taken the steps to focus on one group only, how did that work out?

Thanks
Sam

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

I recently got the Managed Services in a Month audiobook and will be focusing on the MSP (business support). Break/Fix (Residential) is just too up and down for us. MSP is a much more stable recurring revenue area. We will continue to do residential work, but focus on SMB support this year.

 

[cypress]

I currently focus on Residential and Small Home Business. Mostly are break/fix and I got 2clients on a MSP type deal.

The money is with Businesses, since most residental ia break/fix. For those residental clients you have you may want to look into maybe putting some through MSP.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

The money is with Businesses, since most residental ia break/fix. For those residental clients you have you may want to look into maybe putting some through MSP.

Forgot to mention I try to convert as many of my residential clients to my residential MSP plan. So far it has been working well.

 

[mraikes]

Forgot to mention I try to convert as many of my residential clients to my residential MSP plan. So far it has been working well.

What's your residential MSP plan?

 

[HCHTech]

I focus mainly on residential and am very picky about the small business customers I take on. I have a couple of "medium" business customers that are great, but I don't really want more of them. I enjoy residential customers more, and it's more about that for me than the money. I'd rather make 20% less but love my job and not have the stress that bigger business customers bring.

As as residential tech, you need a LOT of customers to stay busy. My son and I are the only two techs, and we've got somewhere around 2200 customers - which keeps us mostly busy. There are days when the phone doesn't ring, though, but that's ok as long as you're careful.

I've got about 125 computers on my monitoring-only plan now, but I only started to push that last spring. I'd like to get 500, I think that would be a reasonable amount. It's been really hard to convert anyone to true managed service. Residential folks are a really hard sell, at least for me (I suck at being a salesman). The basic monitoring-only plan is much easier to sell, especially as part of a cleanup. I got a new one today as part of the mop-up after a cryptolocker infection (no backup, and they'd been living with the infection since November! - They lost their data). That also made it easy to resell online backup.

In the end, I figure someone has to service the residential folks and save them from the GS - it might as well be me!

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

What's your residential MSP plan?

http://www.skmonline.net/complete-internet-security/
$149.95/Year

 

[PSG-Samuel]

http://www.skmonline.net/complete-internet-security/
$149.95/Year

Hello,

That's quite comprehensive for price. I assume that's per computer? And you've automated most of it?

Thanks
Sam

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

Hello,

That's quite comprehensive for price. I assume that's per computer? And you've automated most of it?

Thanks
Sam

Correct, per computer and very much automated. Basically a set it and forget. I get alerts for any issues and just have to keep up with patches.

 

[PSG-Samuel]

Correct, per computer and very much automated. Basically a set it and forget. I get alerts for any issues and just have to keep up with patches.

Hello,

What you using? GFI?

Sam

 

[PSG-Samuel]

Hello,

I think I am going to stick with supporting both, I guess there is no harm in the end.

-Sam

 

[callthatgirl]

I joined Technibble on Jan 6, 2010. Since I have been here, I have watched many break/fix companies move to Business support and/or MSP (I'm there too, just not doing onsite or server management). I think it's how businesses grow. You start small, grow, learn, fail, learn, grow and then figure out what you want to really do "when you grow up"

I swore I would never do managed anything. I'm now liking it and think I can obtain goals that are manageable for me. Finally.

 

[PSG-Samuel]

I joined Technibble on Jan 6, 2010. Since I have been here, I have watched many break/fix companies move to Business support and/or MSP (I'm there too, just not doing onsite or server management). I think it's how businesses grow. You start small, grow, learn, fail, learn, grow and then figure out what you want to really do "when you grow up"

I swore I would never do managed anything. I'm now liking it and think I can obtain goals that are manageable for me. Finally.

Hello,

Thanks for the input. I think to keep my options open it won't hurt to service both markets for a while and see how things pan out.

Thanks
Sam

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

Hello,

What you using? GFI?

Sam

Yes, along with Cryptoprevent/Unchecky and D7II (initial cleanup).

 

[Ed_Zipper]

Correct, per computer and very much automated. Basically a set it and forget. I get alerts for any issues and just have to keep up with patches.

Are you updating Java and Adobes?

Btw, I am in the Quad Cities.

 

[JustInspired]

Yes, along with Cryptoprevent/Unchecky and D7II (initial cleanup).

Same here with both residential and very small businesses.
Also using Ninite Pro on a daily scheduled task to update all the third party stuff with the silent and no shortcuts switches on.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

Are you updating Java and Adobes?

Btw, I am in the Quad Cities.

Yes, I am updating both. You are about 2 hours East of me. I am in the Cedar Rapids area. We took the family to the Niabi zoo a couple months ago.

 

[Ed_Zipper]

I know Cedar Rapids. I used to perform at Penguin's Comedy Club downtown before it flooded out.

 

[Dave1320]

http://www.skmonline.net/complete-internet-security/
$149.95/Year

I hate to be nosey, but how's that been working out for you in terms of labor? Do you feel like you're undercharging or do you believe that price point is spot on for residential? I've been brainstorming this for a few months now. Sorry to threadjack and hope this information is relevant for your answer.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

I hate to be nosey, but how's that been working out for you in terms of labor? Do you feel like you're undercharging or do you believe that price point is spot on for residential? I've been brainstorming this for a few months now. Sorry to threadjack and hope this information is relevant for your answer.

Hey Dave,
No problem, this seems relevant to me, hope the OP feels the same. I actually started this sometime last year at $99/year and felt that was to low, so just raised it to $149.95 and I feel it's a good price for the labor. We typically get customers to sign up when their machine comes in for a virus removal as we offer free virus removals when you are on the plan. Once I get the machine cleaned up and get GFI agent/MAV/Unchecky/CryptoPrevent on the machine I rarely have to touch the machines again. It's a win/win. I get recurring revenue and the clients have a computer that just works. The only thing I really have to do manually is approve patches, but that's basically an approval process that works as an approve for all machines at once. Sometimes patches fail, but I just remote to the machine and manually update whatever needs updated. I believe I have about 25 residential clients on this plan at the moment.