How To Build Trust With A Managed Services "Gateway Drug"

By Joshua Liberman, President, Net Sciences, ASCII Group Member Since 1996

Most of us want to be pure-play managed services providers, providing flat-rate services for every client as well as to be able to service the full spectrum of customers that find their way into our arms. Sometimes, however, clients are reluctant to embrace a full managed services solution. What we need is a “gateway drug” to get clients hooked on these proactive services and, based on our experience, we would recommend that every solution provider consider offering such an on ramp to their business.

Why A Gateway Drug is Needed

We usually encounter new clients primarily either as their first provider ever or after a bad experience with a previous provider. In the first case, we are taking on a client that really doesn’t get IT support, and in the second case, we are coming in and trying to provide that we are “not like the last guy.” Either way, we need to build some trust with them, and we found that we needed to offer a less costly entry point into the proactive world than fully managed services, especially when meeting with customers that have never had professional IT support in the past.

In our case, we developed a less costly entry point into the managed services world by creating a branded service that combines proactive monitoring, alerting, patching, and reporting with hourly support charges. 

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