That time that driving gave the answer

A few days ago, I was asked, "what's the most significant challenge for my business."

My immediate reply went straight to "my" business, meaning that it was specific to my industry and the current crazy-unsafe times we're living (cybersecurity-wise).

As sometimes happens with good questions, though, it stuck with me, and I found myself thinking about it over and over like my brain was still on file-explorer mode, looking for a more satisfying answer.

Equally often, excellent* answers come to me while I drive, and since this time I wanted to avoid the "And the world will never know" syndrome, I decided to put on paper what I realized in my Sunday morning drive.

*I'm joking.

The biggest challenge I experience in my business is the lack of communication.

And by "communication," I mean something that goes beyond the scope of work, the contract, or the goals that we share with our client base. Something that has less to do with marketing and more to do with Operations.

By "lack of communication," I mean that it's a one-way street in the communication between client and provider.

There is no reciprocity unless the client ignites the conversation and you participate as a solution provider

At one point, in our business lives as MSPs and It Providers, we might decide that we want to focus on our way of conducting business, our procedure, and processes; we often must fight more than anticipated to have our requests met.

When it comes to the team is "easy" to enforce a meeting policy so that even the more introverted team members have their chance to share successes and challenges with their colleagues.

As much as managers would love to cancel meetings altogether, I think they're still the most effective way to train ourselves on looking at our activities from a more general point of view.

There's a tendency to dig deep into tech details in our field, losing the broader picture. A good meeting can help you avoid that.

But when it comes to clients, it's a whole different point.

When you want to grow your company by implementing a new and more effective way to work and interact, long-standing clients have a more challenging time adjusting. Since day one, they have known you, and it's hard for them to keep up with your improvements.

It's like when at a family reunion, you try to convince your parents that you're a grown-up just like them 😊

I also noticed that a client's age and adjustment pace are related.

The "older" the client, the more difficult it is for you to have a seamless transition toward a more organized system.

But what's at stake for the client who doesn't want to accept that it is necessary to work differently?

You won't provide your services at the best level possible. It's as harmful and straightforward as that.

An example?

In my experience, "older" clients are more resistant to comply with a procedure-centered NOC.

They want to call. And they want to speak with a technician right away. Some of them correctly send an assistance request, AND they call you right after to speed up the process. And of course, they are experiencing friction with their IT system, but when you try to explain the difference between urgency and emergency, misunderstanding happens.

Is it because they like doing it? No! It's because they feel safer using the old ways, the ones you also allowed in your first years as an IT service provider, and that now is the client's comfort zone.

Maybe you spent hours presenting your new assistance policy, perhaps you have a presentation out of this world, but that doesn't assure you that they will follow it.

The struggle between your procedures and the client's requests is not just about the NOC process, but it can easily apply to new implementation projects.

Maybe your clients were used to your team jumping on their seats as soon as the PO got in; now you know it's essential to plan for an activity, distribute resources, and define a timeline.

The client isn't always happy to hear they'd have to wait two weeks for you to deliver, but you must do it either way.

This one-way street communication originates 90% of work-related stress.

I could go on with examples, and I'm sure that if you read this far, you also think we need to discuss this with our clients.

We're facing a surge that won't go away anytime soon in threats and dangers related to cybersecurity in our industry.

To promptly tackle those issues, we need to make sure that we have this cleared with all the parties involved.

IT Operations must go beyond our companies and actively involve our clients.

There's no new way of delivering our services if our clients do not accept and actively share this.

My advice: stick to your own rules and find the courage to have those tough conversations! It'll be difficult at first, and you might get a few angry calls, but eventually, your clients will realize that if they trust the process, then the process works FOR them.