Take advantage of inside information to make sure your managed print services clients keep renewing their contracts.

There's a dirty little secret when it comes to maintaining managed print services contracts: Just because you persuaded a client to sign on the dotted line once, there's no guarantee that client will be a loyal customer forever.

"Churning" is dangerous in part because the competition is getting so steamy. New studies show that the market for managed print services will likely to remain on a fast track for at least the next four years. For example, the Photizo Group (a consulting and research firm that specializes in the imaging market) estimates that the combined North American and Western European markets for the services could triple to $26.7 billion by 2012, buoyed by 20 percent compounded annual growth levels.

But along with those opportunities comes competition from other solution providers trying to lock in your customers to lucrative three-year to five-year deals. This means that the trusted account you now have could suddenly become flighty when it's time to re-up the deal, as competitors dangle their own attractive offers.

How can you retain your managed print services customers beyond each contract cycle? Try to apply what business gurus in other industries advise: Build a moat around your customers, says Steven Power, president of Sales and Marketing Solutions International.

Inside Information

A new managed print services contract buys a solution provider time. For the life of the contract, the chances of having the customer raided by another service provider are relatively low. Use that protection to further cement your relationship - and your importance - with customers, Power says.

"The strongest tool you have for this purpose is remote-monitoring technology available from a variety of sources," he explains, referring to products from PrintFleet, Print Audit, Hewlett-Packard, Xerox and others (See related article this month: "Enhanced Remote-Monitoring Tech Improves Managed Services"). "Remote monitoring technology allows the VAR to have visibility into the account to proactively protect it and to be in the catbird seat for upgrades and refreshes," Power explains.

First, the technology gives solution providers a window into problem printers ready for repairs and replacements. Second, the software can flag devices in high-volume areas that may be overutilized and are thus prone to productivity and reliability problems. Similarly, the analyses done by the monitoring tools will spot underutilized hardware running perhaps 500 pages a month with engines rated for many times that capacity.

"[Solution providers] can then go out and redeploy these devices, and then go to the customer and say, 'Look, we found 10 devices that need to be redeployed for a more proper application in the environment,'" says Power. "This shows customers that you're taking care of them, and even fixing some problems without costing them any money."

An added bonus is that these monitoring tools provide what Power calls "a treasure of data" for ongoing management of the fleet's environment, the results of which can become key talking points during contract reviews. "Now," Power notes, "whoever is managing the account can go [to the client] every six months, sit down with IT and the finance [department], and point to all the areas that need constant attention."

It's a leg up that outsiders, no matter how low their price points may be, will find hard to beat.