As the owner of a Managed Service Provider or MSP, you must know that great quality of service, quick turnaround time and low costs are factors that will differentiate you from your competition. Your services will be valuable to your clients and potential customers only when your processes can help protect and support their data and business. Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) allow for MSP’s to create a smooth operational as well as technical workflow. When MSP’s invest in creating standard operating procedures (SOP), they are able to ensure quality services to their customers time and again.
Why Should MSPs (regardless of their size) embrace SOPs?
Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) are documented processes that best-in-class MSP’s have in place to ensure consistent and timely delivery of services and products. It is an effective tool that every MSP should leverage to save time and money while ensuring excellent, standardized and repeatable service. Some businesses might assume that since they are small or have processes perfectly committed to memory, they don’t really require documented standardized procedures. The following are five of the many benefits SOP’s offer to MSP’s:
Benefits of Standard Operating Procedures
Quality and Consistency of Service A standardized procedure helps your employees find out what procedures to follow to handle repetitive tasks. SOP’s lead to fewer mistakes and missteps. When employees diligently follow Standard Operating Procedures, they tend to be more productive and provide more consistent service.
Superior Client Experience As an MSP, the quality of the services you provide are the true driving factors for your business. With SOP’s in place, you can provide your clients with quality, error-free service every single time. Great customer experience and a speedy turnaround time help not only your client's business but yours too.
Reduces Training Costs While SOP’s can’t completely substitute for training, they can significantly reduce the training time. New hires have available to them documented procedures to refer to, which helps them work independently without having to depend upon their supervisors heavily.
Protects Your Business From Knowledge Loss When your employees are the only ones aware of certain business processes without any documentation, your business is vulnerable to knowledge loss due to employee attrition. While it is definitely hard to replace hard-working and skilled employees, comprehensive well documented SOP’s help retain your valuable business processes.
Simpler Employee Performance Management When your employees follow the same processes, it is easy to measure their performance based on the same standards. Performance appraisal is easy and it allows MSP’s to recognize and reward their high performing employees.
Standard Operating Procedures provide you, your employees and clients with a better understanding of the business processes. If you’re looking to scale your business, SOP’s are your friend. With the procedures already in place, it becomes easier to replicate the process with new employees and clients too.
Since industry standards are constantly evolving, your SOP’s should be frequently reviewed and changed accordingly. Therefore, your SOP’s should ideally be in the electronic format so that it is easier to collaborate and edit the document.
If you think your business would benefit from having a clear and effective set of MSP-specific SOP’s in place, visit www.mspwerks.com. We provide customized SaaS solutions tailored to best suit the needs of Managed Service Providers.
SOPwerks
Ready to create SOP's for your MSP business? We can help! Our mission at MSPwerks is to develop MSP tools targeted to help MSP's run their business, reduce employee stress, increase overall productivity, and generate healthy revenue. Our MSP tool, SOPwerks, is an easy-to-use, online platform that makes creating quality SOP's simple and fast. Create your own SOP from scratch or use one of our MSP SOP templates filled with checklists designed by MSP industry experts. Learn more here: MSPwerks.com