Remote Support Plans/Contract

[Poetik92]

Just got a phone call from a potential business client that would like to sit down with me tomorrow afternoon. Their current remote support person is moving in less than 30 Days and they are having me replace him. Currently my remote support offerings have been targeted at home users and I got the idea from the forums here (8$ a month for basic, $12 for advanced with unlimited virus removals).

That being said my current business pricing is sitting at about $25 a month (per machine of course for their 3 machines) and offers unlimited remote support. Just trying to get an idea if this is a good/bad idea, and what some of you guys are offering. I understand that pricing varies by location and i'm not sure if asking what their previous IT guy was charging is okay but this contract could be a source of very good recurring revenue so i'd like to make sure that i'm offering services that appeal to business clients while also staying profitable without screwing myself over (client somehow needs 10 hours of support and i'm basically charging $75 a month total)

Here's a link to our current offerings and i'd be happy to take advice on anything and everything seeing as i'm in the process of a bit of re-branding and will soon most likely be raising prices anyways.

 

[Poetik92]

I'm guessing maybe i'm asking too much here? How about "What are some msp services that you sell to small/medium businesses. I've come up with a few:

• Data Backup & System image
• Virus removals
• Remote support
• Leasing out a cheaper custom build desktop including maintenance for a monthly price
• New Computer setup

Just trying to get an idea of what services a small business might need/be interested in.

 

[cypress]

Well before I put my input I wanna say that when @YeOldeStonecat replies he will give you a really good run down. Lol. But here I go.

Business / Residential get different prices. You can do Unlimited Remote Support and charge for On Site or provide monitoring, backup, managed Anti-virus, patching etc with a certain amount of remote support time before you charge. It really all depends.

What I would include is:

• Fully Managed Anti-virus / Anti-Malware Protection
• Virus Removals (You can choose Unlimited)**Through Remote Support Only
• Ad Block Protection
• Hardware Monitoring
• Browser and Web Protection
• Windows Update and 3rd Party Patch Management* (Install updates, advanced troubleshooting for failed updates)
• DNS Safeguard – Block unwanted or inappropriate website access.
• Remote Support (Unlimited) or Block of Hours

Make the Monitoring of Backups a premium service. You said they need 10 Hours a month. Is this every month? If so that is $750 a month.

You have options such as setting a price of $25-50 a month to include what I mentioned above with remote support. You can then charge when going on site and just discount it a small percentage or given them an all you can eat plan at a higher price.

Once you set up the computers the right way and get them all patched up and working with your RMM you're going to be doing mostly monitoring. Unless they will need you on site more for training and such. That is something you will get a feel for when you sit down with them.

 

[Poetik92]

Thanks a bunch that's a pretty good breakdown of what exactly what i needed to know! Lets say they pay for 10 hours and use 5, do I roll them over or should offer a discount of some sort on the next month OR do some kind of service to make use of those hours?

 

[cypress]

No I would not do any rollovers if they are paying a fixed monthly rate. If you want to put them on retainer and have them buy a set block of hours then you can do a roll over if you wish.

If they want 10 hours out of you I would go with a block of hours and give them a small discount out of that. With those hours, you should be able to setup the computers how you need to do and after the hours are done go to a fixed monthly rate and adjust as needed.

That way you can sell it to them as giving them a budget to work with every month once their on your MSP Plan.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

Remove this: "30% off In Shop/On-Site Labor Rates". If you have to have a discount, cut it in half at the least. I know when you are trying to get started with MRR it's easy to throw in big discounts to get people to sign up, but that is just killing your profits and hard to change down the road, especially at 30% off. Where you can negotiate is your setup fee, which is typically one month's fees paid at signing. You can adjust that or wave it as needed depending on the deal. This way they can still feel like they get a great deal, but it's only a one-time loss for you instead of every onsite job. If they have a 30% for onsite work it would be basically impossible to get them on a plan that includes onsite support if you wanted to down the road.

 

[Poetik92]

Yea, i'm in the process of writing out the new offering for businesses that will replace the current pricing so ill definitely take down that 30% off. I like the idea of raising the setup fee and then discounting that as the deal for new signups.

I'm having trouble understanding what you mean by the fixed monthly rate? Are you saying you would do $25-$50 per computer after the first month's setup was complete and then charge hourly for on-site?

My current chargings were going to be $300 a month for 5 hours of service

• Onsite Support
• Remote support
• Unlimited remote virus removals
• Computer setups
• Computer Training

At that price I could include monitored backups and maybe go on-site once a week (if they haven't already needed me that week) to ensure everything is working, do backups, see how the business is going ect, which would help ensure that there are no leftover hours at the end of the month.

 

[cypress]

I would bill hourly for training or setups outside of the original scope of work. I would include remote support in there to monitor the workstation devices. But your RMM is going to do most of the work with you just checking things through the dashboard.

You have to say to yourself what are you doing 5 hours each month? If they want to pay you for that, then that is fine but eventually they will cut the hours if they don't need it. The very least you want to do is establish a price for a set of services. Even if you decide to charge $50 per device w/ Unlimited Remote Support that is $150 and then you can charge your normal or a slightly smaller amount for on site hourly.

 

[Poetik92]

Ah okay I see then, So maybe do a block of hours the first month to get everything up and running charged at the $300 price or less. do the monthly plan at about $50 a month per device with unlimited remote support and a small discount on hourly labor for on-site.
That gives me $150 a month in guaranteed revenue and then while making sure they aren't paying for service they aren't using and i'm not on site for tons of hours and receiving no pay. I like this idea.

 

[Your PCMD]

I do business at $19.95/mo basic and $24.95/mo premium. Residential at $7.95/mo for basic and $12.95/mo for premium. Setup fee is $39, however if they pay annually, the setup fee is waived, all this is per computer. 90% of the time it hooks them. There is only one other company in the city that provides RSP and they are about 50% higher than me. Of course, I started doing this only a couple months ago and have only 6 businesses and 10 residential so far. All the business ones moved from the other company to mine.

I see you use Backblaze. Curious, are you using the personal or business for your customers? I see $50/year per computer for business and if this is the case, that's like 2 months of loss. And the personal is $5/mo so that's $60/yr.

 

[Bamus]

What are the main differences for Business/Residential? Different support priorities? Or do you work with real SLA's?

As far as backup solutions go, I notice some clients want them in-house (off-site sometimes), some don't mind the cloud, some prefer I host them. I'm not offering the service yet, just talked to some of the companies using my services at the moment the get a feel for their needs.

It seems Backblaze does not offer local backup scenario's, but only to their cloud.

Crashplan Business allows al scenarios but $10/mo? That's quite steep. I could work with other tools for each scenario of course, but I like the idea of a all-in integrated backup solution.

 

[Your PCMD]

What are the main differences for Business/Residential? Different support priorities? Or do you work with real SLA's?

With me, the difference between them are premium gets the anytime remote servicing at 3/hrs/mo. Whereas basic is only 1hr/mo. Premium also gets a physical computer inspection once a month and cleaning, basic is once every 90 days. I want to offer backup with the premium and have it inhouse - I have 3 servers - but cannot so far find an affordable "cloud" solution that will allow this, plus I want the application to be brandable.

I know I can use something like CPanel and create accounts and have backup programs use FTP to the servers, but that to me seems cheesy.

 

[Poetik92]

I do business at $19.95/mo basic and $24.95/mo premium. Residential at $7.95/mo for basic and $12.95/mo for premium. Setup fee is $39, however if they pay annually, the setup fee is waived, all this is per computer. 90% of the time it hooks them. There is only one other company in the city that provides RSP and they are about 50% higher than me. Of course, I started doing this only a couple months ago and have only 6 businesses and 10 residential so far. All the business ones moved from the other company to mine.

I see you use Backblaze. Curious, are you using the personal or business for your customers? I see $50/year per computer for business and if this is the case, that's like 2 months of loss. And the personal is $5/mo so that's $60/yr.

Actually that will be coming off, I added the business package quite some time ago but haven't used it so I haven't used backblaze at all yet. I'm looking into a few other options right now that i saw were recommended by other members here.

On another note, I spoke with the business yesterday and they are SMALL scale. It's a physical therapy clinic connected to their house basically (they have a nice heated pool house and a few massage rooms). That being said their previous IT guy was charging $45 a month for remote/in-home service. I'm still working on drawing out a plan that works for them with the benefits they are wanting but its at least going to be 75-100 a month with hourly on-site

 

[Your PCMD]

Actually that will be coming off, I added the business package quite some time ago but haven't used it so I haven't used backblaze at all yet. I'm looking into a few other options right now that i saw were recommended by other members here.

On another note, I spoke with the business yesterday and they are SMALL scale. It's a physical therapy clinic connected to their house basically (they have a nice heated pool house and a few massage rooms). That being said their previous IT guy was charging $45 a month for remote/in-home service. I'm still working on drawing out a plan that works for them with the benefits they are wanting but its at least going to be 75-100 a month with hourly on-site

That's something I do not do. I don't custom design a package for anyone. What you see is what you get. Remember, in this business, time is money. I cannot afford to spend hours designing specific packages for individual clients. I've only had 2 clients who wanted specific options and I lost those clients because I just don't have time to do that. But for those clients I lost, I gained 3 more.

You also have to think, and you said it yourself. They are a SMALL scale home based company. They were paying $45/mo and you will basically double their cost. It's good for you if you can land the account, but you don't want to price yourself outside their budget/comfort zone either. That's why I don't do custom packages.

 

[Poetik92]

Yea, I'd rather not get into the business of making custom packages for every client but If i can get them with the $100 package for the 3 computers that's worth it for me. I could downgrade them to the residential package and drop the unlimited remote support & priority support but those are two of the biggest things they want.

If $100 is too much for them then its most likely not going to be profitable for me anyways depending on how often they end up needing service.

 

[Your PCMD]

If $100 is too much for them then its most likely not going to be profitable for me anyways depending on how often they end up needing service.

• Unlimited Virus Removals (Covered Computer Only)
• Unlimited Remote Support every month – Priority Support UNLIMITED Value!

This is a loss in profit IMO. This basically tells them that its OK to be careless. That it doesn't matter what they do, you'll take of it for free. How much do you charge for just virus removal? Think about it. If you have a client that knows they get unlimited virus removal, and they like to surf for porn and get a virus, malware, etc. then they know it will be OK, because they will just call you and have you fix it for free, every... single... day, week and month. I give 1 free virus removal every quarter (3 months) then its regular price. After a while, they get trained to not do what ever it is they do to get a virus.

Same with remote support. I give 1 hour free a month for residential, 2 hrs for commercial, then its 50% my hourly rate after that. Same scenario as above. They will be asking for remote service non-stop. Your time is money. How much time do you want to give up not making money?

* Tri-County Computers holds the right to terminate your plan due to abuse of going to known virus websites or abuse.

I would not do that. Loss of revenue. I instead would say something like:

* Tri-County Computers holds the right to evaluate and adjust plan coverage - including cost - due to continued negligence, misuse or abuse of services.

If they are under a signed contract, then you got them. Have a clause that states they can cancel at anytime, no refunds and have a cancellation fee of at least 1 month. Its not your fault they abused services. I know, it may sound mean, but again (broken record time), your time is money.

 

[Poetik92]

• Unlimited Virus Removals (Covered Computer Only)
• Unlimited Remote Support every month – Priority Support UNLIMITED Value!

This is a loss in profit IMO. This basically tells them that its OK to be careless. That it doesn't matter what they do, you'll take of it for free. How much do you charge for just virus removal? Think about it. If you have a client that knows they get unlimited virus removal, and they like to surf for porn and get a virus, malware, etc. then they know it will be OK, because they will just call you and have you fix it for free, every... single... day, week and month. I give 1 free virus removal every quarter (3 months) then its regular price. After a while, they get trained to not do what ever it is they do to get a virus.

Same with remote support. I give 1 hour free a month for residential, 2 hrs for commercial, then its 50% my hourly rate after that. Same scenario as above. They will be asking for remote service non-stop. Your time is money. How much time do you want to give up not making money?

* Tri-County Computers holds the right to terminate your plan due to abuse of going to known virus websites or abuse.

I would not do that. Loss of revenue. I instead would say something like:

* Tri-County Computers holds the right to access and adjust plan coverage - including cost - due to continued negligence, misuse or abuse of services.

If they are under a signed contract, then you got them. Have a clause that states they can cancel at anytime, no refunds and have a cancellation fee of at least 1 month. Its not your fault they abused services. I know, it may sound mean, but again (broken record time), your time is money.

I'm really going to have to sit down and go back over my plans becuase you are correct. Most of my clients rarely need help, but there have been a few over the past month that called a ton (one opened about 10 tickets through repairshopr because of a forgotten password that she tried to blame on me installing the maintenance package) How do these kind of changes normally affect those who are already paying for a package or have paid for time in advance?

 

[Your PCMD]

How do these kind of changes normally affect those who are already paying for a package or have paid for time in advance?

You need a ToS or ToC. In mine it states the following:

The above rates are current as of January 01, 2016, but are subject to change without notice. We will do our best to keep the rates advertised up to date. It is the clients responsibility to visit these terms & conditions often to keep up with changes.

Simple things like that. My ToS is long, and your more than welcome to read it and use any part of it. I am in the process of building a new site, but the majority of the contents will be the same. Just remember, what ever the clause is on your website needs to be in your contract.

 

[cypress]

@Poetik92

You said the client was paying their previous IT Guy $45 a month per device or total? Start out with a block of hours if they have work that needs to be done outside the scope of maintaining them on a daily basis. Basically your setup fee would go here.

If they want premium support which is On Site AND Remote then I wouldn't go less than $45 per device and that is pushing it. You can handle most issues onsite. If you want to stop by the office and do a physical inspection once a month that is fine as well. You just have to factor in time and gas into this.

Remote Support - for that I would do 1 Hour Max if you wanted to do something like a $25 plan. Think about it, a lot of the issues will probably be addressed when they get a block of hours for your on site consulting work.

Evaluate the needs of the client and you have Terms and Conditions to stand by. I disagree about not having Unlimited Virus Removals, as long as you make them aware this can be taken off if it is abused there won't be an issue. Properly setting them up and showing them safe habits on how to browse help to mitigate this issues. Explain to them this their business and having malware issues only slows down productivity.

I have two businesses on this and haven't had a virus issue in 3 years with it and even then it was some simple malware junk files. The rest of the work is patch management, back up monitoring, hardware monitoring and the everyday stuff. I stop by once a month and do physical inspection and blow the dust out some of the desktops that can collect a good amount.When they need upgrades or they are setting up a new machine that is all billable.

The majority of the work will come in the beginning in setting up the foundation and getting things working properly so that YOU can support it. The remaining will be taking the proactive approach and showing them the benefits of how your maintenance plan works.

 

[cypress]

Yea, I'd rather not get into the business of making custom packages for every client but If i can get them with the $100 package for the 3 computers that's worth it for me. I could downgrade them to the residential package and drop the unlimited remote support & priority support but those are two of the biggest things they want.

If $100 is too much for them then its most likely not going to be profitable for me anyways depending on how often they end up needing service.

Their a business. I wouldn't even think about trying to drop them down to a residential package. Remote support should and will be the main selling point. If they want you on site as well then that is a premium service. Because you can't service any other client or do anything but focus on them during the time. Your time is valuable.

Have you sat down with them a made a list of the things they would like? I would do the consultation so you can really get a good grasp of what exactly they need.