Crush Your Competition with “Customer Amazement”

RSPA Channel Leaders Report

By: Jim Roddy, President & CEO at the RSPA

Do you feel like your retail IT channel business is always playing defense? You’re constantly fending off highly funded competitors, fighting pressure to lower your prices, and holding on to your market share with two aching hands.

At RetailNOW 2024, held July 28-30 at the Paris Las Vegas, our community discussed our top two collective competitive advantages:

  • Our ability to try, test, measure, and adapt
  • Our ability to provide extreme personal customer service

Try, Test, Measure, and Adapt
The RSPA community deserves credit for its history of successfully trying, testing, measuring, and adapting. Ten years ago when I was named Board Chair, I challenged every segment of our community to embrace change.

I challenged resellers to add managed services, digital signage, remote monitoring, and mobility solutions to increase their recurring revenue. I challenged vendors and distributors to develop more channel programs to help VARs transition to the stable as-a-Service recurring revenue business model. And I challenged the RSPA to add new members in technologies adjacent to POS.

If those were items on a to-do list, I’d say we’re an impressive three-for-three. Congratulations … and now get back to work because that’s all in the rear-view mirror. Bureaucratic companies stink at try/test/measure/adapt because they get comfortable and turn their focus internal. We have to make a special effort to keep our adaptation muscles strong.

We’re a community of high-initiative, growth-oriented, entrepreneurial-minded SMBs. Let’s keep changing for the better.

Extreme Personal Customer Service
You might provide very good customer service but is it memorable? Do customers say to you and to others that you’re special?

Allow me to illustrate examples of extreme personal customer service from four RSPA members:

Example 1: A VAR in Vermont makes sure every inbound phone call is answered immediately by a staff member, not an automated attendant. He’s so confident in his service team that on sales calls he dares the prospect to call his company’s main line and guarantees a person will answer faster than their current VC-backed, 1-800-OUT-OF-TOWN point of sale provider.

Example 2: The owner of a 10-employee VAR in California ensures that every customer has his personal cell phone number. Sure he receives the occasional Sunday call or evening interruption. But his retention rate is near 100%, and his customer survey scores are pretty much perfect.

Example 3: When Tennessee was hit with a snow and ice storm, one reseller there (who is not an RSPA member) cancelled their on-site service calls for days. The local RSPA member VAR rented Jeeps to run service calls – and they kicked their competition’s frozen butts.

Example 4: A VAR/ISV hybrid in New Hampshire serves the niche vertical of thrift stores like Goodwill and Salvation Army. Their merchants’ top challenge was the manual and disjointed processing of donated goods. The RSPA member listened closely and then went to work developing a new inventory management software solution that integrated with each store’s POS system.

As COCARD’s Dan Brattland said during his RetailNOW breakout session, “Meeting expectations isn’t good enough. Exceeding expectations isn’t good enough anymore. Customer amazement is what we need to compete today.”

To better serve you, the RSPA has adapted to provide what many members tell us is amazing customer service. RSPA White Glove Service is provided by the Member Services Team of Peggy Fry, Nicole Greene, and Ashley Naggy. They personally engage with members every day to understand their goals and challenges, and then connect members with RSPA services or fellow members who can help.

RSPA offers an extensive range of member benefits, and with the White Glove Service provided by our Member Services Team, you’ll receive personalized guidance and warm introductions to fellow members.

For details about this premier service, contact Peggy, Nicole, and Ashley at Membership@GoRSPA.org or 804-678-8978. I guarantee they’ll respond faster than you think!

This column is a modified excerpt of the 2024 RSPA State of the Industry Report first delivered on the RetailNOW 2024 main stage July 29 in Las Vegas.

Jim Roddy is the President and CEO of the Retail Solutions Providers Association (RSPA). He has been active in the retail IT channel since 1998, including 11 years as the President of Business Solutions Magazine, six years as an RSPA board member, one term as RSPA Chairman of the Board, and several years as a business coach for VARs, ISVs, and MSPs. Jim has been recognized as one of the world’s Top Retail Influencers by RETHINK Retail, a Leading CannaTech Influencer by The CannaTech Group, and is regularly requested to speak at industry conferences on SMB best practices. He is author of two books – The Walk-On Method To Career & Business Success and Hire Like You Just Beat Cancer – and is host of the award-winning RSPA Trusted Advisor podcast. For more information, contact JRoddy@GoRSPA.org.