IT/Consulters look here, ver. service contracts

M

marley1

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jul 18, 2000
Messages
5,447
Hey all you guys in the field. I am trying to put together a service contract for some clients and was wondering what you all did, or tips. If anyone has a service contract and wouldn't mind posting it, that would also be great. Wouldn't mind seeing what you all do.

I was thinking of course a lower wage and a set number of hours each month, both regular maintaining systems and checking on servers, backups, and such for proactive means.

Thanks!
 
Service Contracts are nice, but there can be problems with them. The way those are usually structured is that you provide 5 hours, 10 hours, or whatever time a month in services for their usual needs and "Maintenance". The problem arises when you have fixed their problems, you've done the maintenance, and then they are paying for time that is not needed. Then the customer starts to resent having signed the contract and resentment is not good for customer relationships.

We prefer to offer the customer pre-paid blocks of time at a discounted rate. That way they are not paying for time that is not used and you (your biz) gets a nice chunk of up-front cash.

We have had some customers insist on a service contract even after we explain the benefits of pre-paid time. We certainly accommodate them on those wishes when that happens. More often than not though, the customer says something like "We never thought of it that way." and they are very grateful for the pre-paid time option. Things like that build customer loyalty, and that is huge in this business.

Most of our customers are on a time & materials agreement, no contracts or pre-paid time.
 
yeah right now we are just hourly a few clients have wanted service contracts, we felt the same way bout the wasted time if we didn't use it all up. we were thinking like rollover time but then what happens at the end of the year.

the block of time at a cheaper rate is a good idea. i will pass it on.

anything else
 
I like the prepaid blocks. Prior to me starting at the company I work for, the former system admin had purchased like a 20 hour block of prepaid hours. He used 7 of these somehow. In the last 2 years, I have used 3 of the hours on Barracuda training. It's nice to know that I still have 10 hours I can use at any time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top