Tell substandard cloud providers to fluff off

With customers getting frustrated by substandard cloud services, VARs need to ensure they are not guilty by association, argues ElasticHosts CEO Richard Davies

The channel survives and thrives on its ability to deliver a great service, add that personal touch, and provide trusted advice. Yet many are failing by default by offering below-par cloud services that do not meet their usual standard of customer care.

According to our recent survey of 200 CIOs, customers feel they have been forced to make do with limited access to help and support, leaving many frustrated. The channel needs to be careful they do not fall into the 'guilt by association' trap by working with such providers. Yet at the moment, they are staying rather quiet, happy to shift the blame to third parties. This needs to change. Those in the channel need to make their voices heard and act as customer advocates to challenge the industry to do better, or take their customers elsewhere. Failure to do so will not just put current cloud revenues at risk, it could damage relationships and resultantly future profits.

Can I get a little help please?

There is a huge market for cloud services, offering massive potential for the channel to share in a slice of the pie. In fact, according to Gartner, the infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud computing market alone is now estimated to be worth £10.5bn. The cloud is flexible and scalable, enabling innovation across all industries – in short, it has been a great thing for business, and I doubt anyone would disagree with that.

We are suffering from too many cloud providers buying into their own marketing hype and forgetting the reality of business life. Yes, cloud can reduce infrastructure management headaches, but it does not follow that using the cloud means you will never have a problem or a question. Whether you are trying to configure a server, understand why something is running slow, or query a bill; it is reasonable to expect that if you are paying for a service you can get help when needed. Yet this is where we are seeing things collapse and customers are the ones missing out and becoming frustrated.

Sacrificing service and support is not a long-term solution

We surveyed CIOs to get their thoughts on cloud service offering and the feedback was rather underwhelming. On the positive side, 93 per cent said they are now using the cloud in some shape or form. However, three quarters (75 per cent) felt that the move to cloud has forced them to sacrifice service and support. Most respondents (84 per cent) felt that cloud was not living up to its promise, saying that providers could do more to meet expectations on reducing the support and maintenance burden on in-house IT staff. When looking at their top gripes, customers highlighted:
1. Slow response time in dealing with problems (47 per cent)
2. Support staff lacking the depth of knowledge required to solve their problems (41 per cent)
3. Use of automated phone lines and not being able to "speak to a human" (33 per cent)
4. A lack of 24/7 availability (19 per cent)

Cloud providers and their partners have tried to plug this gap by offering premium services, but these have also failed to impress: 80 per cent of customers claim to feel ripped off by premium services, claiming they offer little more than what they would normally consider basic support. And I can see their point – since when is it a 'premium service' to be able to speak to someone who knows what they are talking about? Surely that's just a basic requirement?

Choose your friends wisely

So what does this mean for the channel? If you don't deliver the service, can you be blamed if it's not very good? Put simply, yes. Even if you are selling cloud services with support that leads to a third-party helpdesk, the first party people will blame for a bad experience will be the one they have a relationship with – their partner. Channel players live and die on their reputation and customer relationships – remember, a good customer is for life, not just the purchase of a server at Christmas. There is a wide range of technologies and services they may wish to buy in the future, so you need to ensure you protect repeat business.

Whether you are reselling, white-labelling, or delivering your own managed cloud to customers, support and service is a critical component to success. You need to be bullish about providing a quality check and ensuring your customers understand the ramifications of any move to cloud. My advice therefore is to be very careful who you partner with, and if you are providing support, make sure it really adds value beyond the norm.

Richard Davies is CEO of ElasticHosts