Customer-Centric Strategies for MSP Growth with Chris Janssen

Unearth the secrets of prioritizing the end user to transform your business with Chris Janssen. In a power-packed discussion, we dissect his company's significant shift from 80% projects to 80% managed services within a decade. Pick up tips on what it takes to be a successful technician or consultant, as Chris emphasizes the importance of attitude, work ethic, and a willingness to do more for the customer. We also delve into the nuances of transitioning from technical environments to customer adoption programs.

In the second half, we explore the creation of fresh roles like partner success managers and customer success managers, and Chris’s decision to maintain on-site managed services for a personal touch with clients. Discover the key role of customer feedback in driving product development decisions and boosting customer satisfaction. Chris’s insights into customer-centric strategies for business growth are not to be missed. So tune in, and let’s navigate the journey of putting the customer first together.

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'Now that's it: Stories of MSP Success,' dives into the journeys of some of the trailblazers in our industry to find out how they used their passion for technology to help turn Managed Services into the thriving sector it is today.

Every episode is packed with the valuable insights, practical strategies, and inspiring anecdotes that lead our guests to the transformative moment when they knew….. Now, that's it.

This podcast provides educational information about issues that may be relevant to information technology service providers.

Nothing in the podcast should be construed as any recommendation or endorsement by N-able, or as legal or any other advice.

The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the podcast does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent.

Views and opinions expressed by N-able employees are those of the employees and do not necessarily reflect the view of N-able or its officers and directors.

The podcast may also contain forward-looking statements regarding future product plans, functionality, or development efforts that should not be interpreted as a commitment from N-able related to any deliverables or timeframe.

All content is based on information available at the time of recording, and N-able has no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:20

We are putting the end user in the middle.

Speaker 2: 0:22

Coming up on Now. That's It.

Speaker 1: 0:24

I mainly look at the person himself, what he as a person is, instead of how good he is in the technical skill.

Speaker 2: 0:31

Chris Janssen on the importance of building a business and a team around the customer.

Speaker 1: 0:35

Technical we can learn, but we need to have people that are willing to work for our customers, who are willing to go to our customers.

Speaker 2: 0:43

Welcome to Now That's It stories of MSP success, where we dive into the journeys of some of the trailblazers in our industry to find out how they use their passion for technology to help turn managed services into the thriving sector it is today.

Speaker 3: 0:59

Chris, thank you very much for being with us today. Why don't we start off a little bit? tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do at the company?

Speaker 1: 1:09

Well, my name is Chris. I'm working for five years for the company now. I started to be responsible for the whole of the operations but since we are growing very fast, in the last year as a service provider, we split the role and I'm now part of the managed service department, empowering the department to adjust all services to the growth. We are doing So, empowering tooling, empowering automation, and we have some new roles within the team as the consultants manage services. It's five persons and I'm leading that team And also I have two companies that I'm a consultant for at the moment.

Speaker 3: 1:48

Tell us a little bit about activity Like what's the company like, who does it service? And you said there's some rapid growth, so maybe share a little bit about that.

Speaker 1: 1:56

Well, the company is 25 years old. It started as an assistant integrator, mainly building projects for customers, and about 10 years ago we started with managed services And that made a big change to the organization, to the way we look at our customers. We want to provide services and that's taking the growth. I think from 80% projects in the past it's now about 80% managed services. So we try to empower our customers with their primary processes delivering services and, especially for us, we are putting the end user in the middle. So, yeah, we invented the user based computing, all turning around end users. So we have a user experience, customer experience, and that's our main growth at the moment. Great, fantastic.

Speaker 3: 2:48

So talk a little bit about your career at the company and maybe what's made, what are you successful at and what are some of the reasons why?

Speaker 1: 2:55

Well, it's mainly not about me. I'm trying to put the people I work with and the people I work with And they're strength, trying to be helpful and to be helping them as much as I can to be good in their jobs. So it's more about me as facilitating in a role as a manager instead of very directive in what they need to do. we start to grow people, make them be good in what they do and that they have a good time at their jobs.

Speaker 3: 3:23

In the role that you're sort of overseeing now, what are the qualities that you look for in a sort of a talented technician Or a talented consultant, and then what are maybe some areas that you try to coach them on if they're sort of new into the field? Well, the people.

Speaker 1: 3:40

we are hiring new and all the I don't know how to pronounce the English the solicitation interviews. I mainly look at the person himself, what he as a person is, instead of how good he is in the technical skill, because technical we can learn, but we need to have people that are willing to work for our company, our customers, who are willing to go to our customers and who are not just typing answers but are willing to take the phone or to drive to the customer to help them with their incidents or changes or problems. So we are looking to the skills they have as a person instead of the technical skills.

Speaker 3: 4:19

Great, So talk a little bit about you know what was the point in either your career or your career at the company that you realized that this is it, like I'm in the right place, i'm in the right company, you know, i've got the right team around me. What was that point And why was it? Why did you feel the way that you did?

Speaker 1: 4:38

Well, i've been in this kind of MSPs for quite a while with the different companies And I started with the activity five years ago and it was the feeling you had in the people we are working with. We all have the same drive to want to help the end user And one of the kinds, one of the services we deliver is adoption. And this was the first company, instead of just building technical environments for customers, who also helped the end user to work with that technology. So we have a very strong adoption program that while the technicians are building the projects and meanwhile we are training the end users to work with the new modern desktop or whatever, and that's what made this company feel very good to work with.

Speaker 3: 5:27

Great. So let's talk a little bit about, you know, maybe maybe share a little bit about things that haven't gone as planned or that you had hoped sort of in the rate of change that you wanted just in the last five years since you joined the company, And what were some of the opportunities that you saw to be able to resolve those types of things.

Speaker 1: 5:49

Yeah, one of the, as I said, we were a project company in the past And for some customers we are their first outsourcing MSP And I think we made a kind of a mistake that we can handle all the technique but we didn't handle the change for that company. So we needed to create new roles. Like Enable has partner success managers, we have customer success managers, the roles that, as I described, the team we have, the managed service consultants, are helping the customer and knowing their business, knowing their applications, see what roadmap they have for the next months. So those are new roles And also we have as an base for our managed services department. We created managed services on site Because if we outsource everything to our data centers and to our services, the customer loses its ICT face.

Speaker 1: 6:41

So that's what we had a little bit in the past misjudged the impact of TD being the outsourcing partner, and that's what we changed the last, the last years, very strong to keep those roles a bit our best.

Speaker 4: 7:10

Hi, i'm Brian, that senior product manager in charge of Apple Roadmap and Enable Question. they get asked all the time why use Enable for your Apple support needs? Well, first off, recognize that a Mac is just a computer. It's metal, it's plastic and human generated code. You already know how to do all that, so don't treat it as special. Fix it, maintain it, support it, secure it and do all that. the same dashboard as all your other computers. That reduces complexity. right? You're already familiar with the tools so you can leverage existing workflows from monitoring, remediation, maintenance, remote support And okay, maybe Apple devices are a little special And Enable can do all that special device management stuff for you too. And at Enable we don't stop it just remote management, we do layer security, like code. data protection works on Mac. integrated EDR powered by Sentinel one works great on Mac. So if you haven't looked at Enable for your Apple needs lately, why not give it a try right now?

Speaker 3: 8:22

I know the term managed services has come, has sort of come full circle and is a bit more mainstream now, and we sort of buy everything as a service. Now you can pay for your phone plan, you can pay for your music as a service. But talk a little bit about those customers that you're still, maybe for the first time, saying you know, instead of paying us every time something breaks, pay us on a monthly fee, like give us this amount of sort of security, you know this money for security, and then we'll keep you up and running. What's that been like, obviously, from your side, as you come into these customers that are maybe experiencing the managed service model for the first time, the outsourcing model for the first?

Speaker 1: 9:03

time? Yeah, it's especially because they don't have a feeling about the amount of money they pay. How do they get for it? And if we do our work very good, they only get continuity instead of a lot of hours we spend for them. So a lot of the work we do is in the background Keeping them up and running, keeping them secure, keeping them safe from cyber threats or whatever And I think the trick is to talk a lot with them over the services you provide in reports, dashboards and talks So you have to convince them that the money they pay is really worth it.

Speaker 3: 9:43

It's really good. I remember from my past life that same sort of situation When you were on the phone and the help desk, the service desk, was resolving problems every day for them. It was obviously a lot more focused. They were focused that, hey, i have somebody to call, they're addressing my issues. But to your point, the better you get, the more automation you put in place, the more proactive that you are, the less problems that pop up for them. then they start to say why am I paying these guys.

Speaker 3: 10:15

And it doesn't matter what reports you put in front of them and say, look at this, look at how many issues we resolved, it's like, yeah, but we don't need you anymore. So I think that's really important, that having that sort of customer success, that body, that person that is built that relationship and is constantly updating the customer on these are the things that we addressed and we've resolved for you And all by the way, we're still that phone number that you can always call in.

Speaker 1: 10:41

We try to be very transparent, very open also about the things that don't go good. So that's why we have several roles close to the customer knowing their business, knowing what's their primary process, because that's not ICT. They are good. We have a strong footprint in local government and in healthcare, so people want to be busy with their primary processes instead of ICT, and that's what we try to do as good as we can. Great.

Speaker 3: 11:12

So let's talk a little bit about the future. I know you're moving into a new role and you're overseeing these group of consultants. What's the future look like, obviously, for you and the company? What are the next two to four years do you expect the company is going to look like?

Speaker 1: 11:28

I think we will grow more in the managed services customers because it's also some stability and recurring business for us. But we have to move on on security and automation, As I think in a lot of countries finding the right people is a big issue, Also in the Netherlands. So we have to do more with less people, So we have to automate, We have to set in the right tools And that's, I think, for the next few years the big thing to stay ahead with automation and also about the security. A lot of customers are not fully aware yet of what security or not being secure can mean for them, And some of our customers have been hacked by some ransom techs And then after such an attack it becomes aware for them what the impact is If their business stands still for two, three, four, five days. Then all of a sudden everything can update new products. New First has to. Something has to happen.

Speaker 3: 12:29

It's unfortunate that it works like that, isn't it That you can get in front of a customer well in advance and say it's not a matter of if it will happen, it's going to happen, you're going to be breached and we can protect you with this. But then, when they don't necessarily act on that, and then after the fact, yep, we should have listened to you and help us now, please, right?

Speaker 1: 12:53

First, something has to happen. Yeah, so that's why we try for the next years and also now, develop new services and improve our products. I make it visible again what it can do, whether there's customers they say, well, patching our environment, well, this month, it's not that a good idea, we will skip it one month. Yeah, it's actually not done, but It happens.

Speaker 3: 13:15

Chris, it was really a pleasure to have you here. Thank you so much for being with us, and I loved hearing more about you and the company, and I wish you the best of luck in the future.

Speaker 1: 13:24

Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 2: 13:28

Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on YouTube or your preferred podcast platform and follow Enable on LinkedIn. We appreciate your support and encourage you to leave a rating or review, as it helps us reach more listeners who can benefit from the wealth of knowledge shared on this show. Remember, success is not a destination, it's a journey. By immersing yourself in the stories of those who have walked a path before you, you'll gain the tools, inspiration and confidence to achieve your own triumph. Stay tuned for more exciting episodes of Now That's It. Stories of MSP Success.

Speaker 2: 14:08

This podcast provides educational information about issues that may be relevant to information technology service providers. Nothing in the podcast should be construed as any recommendation or endorsement by Enable or as legal or any other advice. The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the podcast does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Views and opinions expressed by Enable employees are those of the employees and do not necessarily reflect the view of Enable or its officers and directors. This podcast may also contain forward-looking statements regarding future product plans, functionality or developmental efforts that should not be interpreted as a commitment from Enable related to any deliverables or time frame. All content is based on information available at the time of recording, and Enable has no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.