Vacation coverage

[BO Terry]

I don't think I would ever want to be responsible or deal with the stress of handling other clients on a basis like this.

There is too much to go wrong.

When I used to work retail, our company had an after hours call company that was put in place to provide support for corporate clients after hours and weekends. They were supposedly trained and had proper contact info as to who to contact, but they often would simply transfer that call to our location, and we would be stuck trying to interpret what they wanted, or worse still, the average customer who does know or care about call forward or agents, says you have to help them because you are part of X company. It was a nightmare.

I guess my point is, you both have two seperate ways of supporting and dealing with your clients. What happens when something critical happens? What if the customer blames you for something? Will your insurance or his cover it?

My experience in retail has taught me that idiots rule the world and there is a short line between chaos and the world we know and hate/love. So, I always expect the worst, plan for the worst because I've been in situations that I swore I'd never get pigeon holed into again because someone thought it would be easy or hey, this is a great idea.

It's not that I don't think folks should do vacation, but I think we have enough stuff to worry about never mind suddenly dealing with someone else's clients. Unless you are intimately familiar with that business and how it's run, you could be in for a surprise.

The more I think about it, the more I don't think I'm going to pursue this particular scenario. We did have a good conversation so if he comes back with the possibility of being some overflow backup for him on a regular basis, I'm open to that.

 

[cypress]

I am mostly break-fix but have a couple of MSP clients. About 4 years ago I went to Europe and needed someone on call to take care of my MSP clients incase anything came up. I made an agreement with an out of state MSP guy who I built a relatonship with and if they contacted me I would just forward the response to him.

Thankfully the clients understood that it was only to be used if emergencies were needed and it couldn't wait. In the end nothing had to be done, but it was good to have that backup plan.