What’s the real difference between a break/fix provider and a valued business partner? You might think it has a lot to do with the services you offer. In reality, it’s about one thing: trust.

Yes, clients need IT services. But what they need even more than that is a partner who understands their business, anticipates their needs, and helps them grow.

That partner can be you.

Positioning your MSP as an indispensable business partner requires a shift in mindset and an investment in your client relationships. The most successful MSPs consistently excel in three areas:

• Customer success
• Customer support
• Transparent communication

In this article, we’ll show you how to level up in each of those areas to build strong client relationships.

Customer success - helping your clients maximize outcomes

A strong customer success team helps bridge the gap between what your clients buy and the value they actually get. It’s about ensuring your clients achieve their desired outcomes with the technology and services you provide, and creating a plan that addresses their key pain points.

What do customer success teams do?

• Proactively monitor client health and assign client health scores based on renewals, usage, and CSAT
• Run quarterly business reviews (QBRs) that connect IT strategy to business goals
• Identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities that align solutions with client growth plans
• Offer white-glove onboarding and adoption support so clients get the most from their investment

If this is a new function for your MSP, here’s how to get started:

• Hire one dedicated Customer Success Manager (CSM) to oversee various accounts and develop relationships with client contacts outside of just IT departments (like finance, operations, and leadership team members)
• Give your CSM the right tools to succeed, like a CRM system, a business intelligence dashboard, and standardized QBR templates
• Incentivize your CSM by tying rewards to client growth, satisfaction, and retention
• Eventually, layer in specialized roles like Customer Onboarding Specialist or Client Success Analyst to dive deeper and meet your growth demands

Clients can sense the difference between being invested in their success versus pursuing a contract renewal. Help your clients succeed and you’ll definitely be more than just a service provider.

Customer support - offering best-in-class service

Customer support is the backbone of an MSP’s credibility and world-class support is the baseline expectation. Day in and day out, you must consistently prove that your clients can rely on you.

Operationally mature MSPs do this by building structured, well-staffed support teams with clear roles and responsibilities.

Here are the key roles you should be hiring for:

• Tier 1 Support Technician - this will be your first line of defense for common issues, quick resolutions, and ticket triaging
• Tier 2/3 Specialists - these technical experts handle more complex escalations and niche systems. You may create a dedicated Professional Services role for advanced, complicated projects that require more resources
• Service Desk Manager - this role oversees support operations, ensures SLAs are consistently met, and oversees tech utilization to balance workloads
• Escalation Manager - this person handles recurring or critical issues, identifying root causes and preventing issues from escalating further
• Support Coordinator - a point of contact for clients who manages communications, sends updates, and ensures resolutions are shared in a timely manner

Automation, robust documentation, responsiveness, and KPI tracking are essential to an efficient service team and should be a shared responsibility across the board. Exceptional support builds confidence and secures trust.

Transparent and proactive communication - keeping clients in the loop

Clients don’t really want to think about their IT environment. They want a trusted partner who keeps them up and running, communicates regularly, and creates a seamless, reassuring experience. If you’re only communicating during outages or crises, you’re probably doing more damage than you think.

Mature MSPs stand out by being proactive and transparent all year long. Build trust through communication by:

• Setting expectations - define your SLAs and escalation paths, and use the onboarding process to tell clients what to expect of you; then, deliver on what’s promised
• Sharing data-backed insights - go beyond updating your clients, tell them how those updates impact their business and reduce risk (i.e., We patched your servers and saved 10 hours of downtime this quarter, resulting in $X in savings)
• Sending frequent reports - use QBRs, KPI dashboards, incident summaries, or monthly reports to reinforce your value and show your clients what they’re paying for
• Being proactive - you’re not a break/fix shop so don’t act like one; share trends, risks, and opportunities you’ve spotted before your client notices them
• Making it easy to get in touch - let clients know how to reach you and give them multiple channels to do so; communicating with you should not feel like an obstacle course

When clients see that you’re open, proactive, and aligned with their success, you move from being “just another vendor” to being an extension of their leadership team.

Nurturing your clients for the long-run

Approaching your client relationships from a place of empathy, respect, and honesty can go a long way in how they view you. When you align your client’s business goals, deliver reliable and consistent support, and communicate transparently, you become an indispensable trusted partner who can guide them to success.

Clients will have no problem investing in an MSP who invests in them. Refocus your energy into relationship-building strategies and poise your MSP for long-term profitability.

How do top MSPs reach operational maturity? We share best-in-class strategies and insight in our MSP Maturity Blueprint - check it out now.