6 tips for customer presence from the home office

This is how you create customer proximity without direct contact

It is not only a means of overcoming the CoV19 crisis, but also and above all a way of working and living in the future: Home Office is on the rise. Our customers increasingly value location-independent communication, with or without a curfew. This is a time that we can use to get fit, to remove barriers and obstacles and, incidentally, to optimize the efficiency of our customer contacts.

6 tips for customer presence from the home office

#1 – Customer Success Management, first: Software Maintenance up to date?

Those who proactively take care of customer success not only maintain their own customer relationship, but also that of their customer. Call it Customer Success Management, that’s a good description: You ensure that your customer uses the latest software version. In this way you not only guarantee its security, but also a positive user experience with its guests and thus also its success.

With IACBOX this is very easy:

Enter the my.iacbox Partner Portal, call up the license manager and check the runtime of the Software Maintenance. In the line with the relevant license you will find an indicator in traffic light colours. When you move the mouse pointer over it, the exact end of the Software Maintenance period appears. If it has expired, make your customers aware of it. Software Maintenance is not only important to be able to use the latest features at all times, but also a question of security.

#2 – Customer Success Management, second: IACBOX version up to date?

Your customer can pull updates with the latest software maintenance (traffic light indicator yellow or green), but it is not certain that he is doing it, he may have deactivated auto-update. Therefore, you should also check the version 1 and patch level 2 number. If there is a need for updates, inform the customer. In the changelog, also in the partner portal, you will find details of all versions and patch levels that will help you to explain with concrete examples why the customer should update and / or update Software Maintenance.

#3 – Customer Success Management, third: Cloud-based Monitoring

Do you already know Central Services Connect? With this tool – you can actually get it as well retrospectively, for every license with valid Software Maintenance – you have cloud-based access to the WebAdmin interface of the IACBOX from the my.iacbox partner portal. If it is active, you can see a monitor icon 3 in the Services column of the row of the respective license in your license manager. Click on it and have a look at the Monitoring Dashboard. You can check ongoing activities and user numbers on the box  and find out whether the license is reaching capacity limits. If you find that, suggest an upgrade to the customer.

#4 – Project Management: Drive projects forward!

We all know the project marathon dilemma: After the sprint to the start of the project, energy levels will soon decrease, the slack comes, then the tough struggle for a pace every player is able to keep up with … and some projects do never reach the goal, but left to rot in the back of a drawer. Now is the time to pull out shelved projects and revitalize them with a new initiative. Just ask: “What happened to …?” Summarize what has been done so far: “Last we spoke of a solution for …” If you are lucky, the project will get the decisive kick forward and get going, and even if you learn that it has been negatively approved, this is still a kind of success. It gives you a chance check it off and ask instead: “And now, what’s new on the program?”

And what if the answer is: “I would like to continue there, but my customer is constantly postponing”? Then browse through our 6 tips for transforming stagnating sales processes, and ask at sales@iacbox.com for our project checklist. This also asks the right questions and you can forward them directly to your customer if necessary.

#5 – Competence Management, first: Book a webinar!

Lifelong learning has become a mandatory exercise and runs across industries. Especially in the IT industry, and even more in everything relating to networks, you can never stop learning. Many manufacturers offer online tutorials or webinars for resellers so that the product can be used with the best possible benefit for the end customer. There are often free basic tutorials, such as here in our training calendar, but also more in-depth paid programs. At IACBOX you can, for example, book webinars with your desired content exclusively for your company.

Tips and tricks for marketing and sales training can often be found free of charge, just have a look around. When it comes to IACBOX, you will find a number of articles in our blog under the keyword sales.

#6 – Competence Management, second: Test with your trial or NFR license!

So you requested a trial license a while ago, but never had a moment to spare? Now time has come. You can find out step by step how to install and configure it in our online manuals. If it has already expired (standard validity 30 days) send us an email with the registration number and ask for reactivation: sales@iacbox.com.

Do you have an NFR license for your office or tech lab? Update to the latest version and practice: set up a new landing page, create new ticket templates, change the login method. You can also find instructions and ideas in our online manuals.