No contracts, what’s the catch?

As I type this, we are working with a new prospective client that’s locked in a contract that auto renewed with another MSP. They approached us last year and, when they notified their current MSP of their intent to switch, that MSP “sweetened the deal” and then locked them into another one year term agreement that had an auto renew clause (that the client didn’t realize was in there). The MSP never followed through on the sweeter deal and the client is ready to switch. The MSP is relying on the automatically renewed contract to attempt to force the client to stay and, unfortunately, this isn’t an isolated incident.

Contracts have become a normal part of the IT Support / MSP business and one question that we get a lot is “why no contracts“. Prospective clients often think that it’s a gimmick and there’s a hidden contract somewhere and other IT Support companies and MSPs think that it’s a horrible way to run a business and basically business suicide. The reality though is that there is no gimmick and, after more than 20 years in business, it seems to be working. Our retention rate for customers is over 97% and, in an industry with an average customer turnover of three to five years, most of our customers have been customers for at least five years and we have a number of MyIT Clients that have been with us for 5, 10 or 15+ years, all with no contract.

Our approach is simple. Our objective is happy customers. We do what we say, when we say we’ll do it and if we make a mistake (it’s going to happen), we own it and learn from it. I believe that if we provide value to our customers, they will find a way to keep us around without the need for a contract locking them in.

If you’re a small to medium sized business and you don’t have an IT Support company or you have one that you’re unhappy with, I’d love a chance to talk with you and maybe earn your business.