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CompTIA’s William Linard discuses how to make sure your business is constantly improving
Constant improvement is a mantra among IT channel companies, especially when it comes to the services they deliver and the clients that receive them. There’s no place for complacency in an industry as competitive as this, and owners have to keep their eyes, and business practices, focused properly on process upgrades and other enhancements to ensure their long-term success. Identifying the areas where a company needs improvement can be difficult, but making the changes that strengthen those services can be a more daunting task.
Good companies become great by tightening the screws on their processes, streamlining and automating each step involved in service delivery and support. They review their metrics and assess their performance based on industry benchmarks constantly, looking for new ways to improve their operations and their level of customer service. When everything is running optimally within the business, they can focus more time and attention on both current and prospective clients. The same principle applies to IT solution providers, vendors and distributors.
In order to reach the point of eternal service enlightenment, most successful companies continually perform internal operational assessments, seek client feedback; current, former and prospective and implement industry best practices.
Frequency is often the stumbling block for smaller organisations, especially in the harried world of an emerging solution provider. How do you find time to conduct all the necessary steps on a weekly, monthly or even quarterly basis?
It’s not easy, but companies in search of greatness make it a high priority – on par with their sales and operational responsibilities. After all, when an organisation offers top quality service, it can make many of the other business operations a lot easier. Life for the sales, marketing and customer retention teams is much simpler when they’re not putting out fires, allowing them to focus more time and energy on growing the business.
So how do good companies gain the service expertise and knowledge needed to be great?
A number of them seek the input of their peers and related industry experts, and engage in meaningful discussions with those who face similar challenges and opportunities.
The CompTIA UK Channel Community has provided that type of forum for nearly two years, bringing together a range of solution providers, vendors, distributors and industry professionals.
William Linard is CompTIA’s Membership Engagement Manager
WLinard@comptia.org
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