7 Tips to Educate Your Customers About the Benefits of Cloud Services
What are some of the best ways for a cloud services provider (CSP) to highlight the benefits of its offerings to customers? Here are seven tips to help CSPs educate customers about the benefits of the cloud.
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What are some of the best ways for a cloud services provider (CSP) to highlight the benefits of its offerings to customers? Here are seven tips to help CSPs educate customers about the benefits of the cloud.
What are some of the best ways for a cloud services provider (CSP) to highlight the benefits of its offerings to customers? Here are seven tips to help CSPs educate customers about the benefits of the cloud.
Many businesses struggle to define cloud computing and the benefits it may deliver. So how can a CSP define the cloud properly? Remote monitoring and management (RMM) software provider Continuum recently offered the following definition of the cloud that outlines its key benefits: "The cloud is virtual and therefore does not require any hardware of your own to deliver a service. Cloud technology can deliver that service to you, without having to install anything or have it on a server at your business. This is something that you can access remotely, or via the Internet through your web browser. Offsite, secure third-party data centers manage all of your cloud data so that you can access it at your convenience."
The use of cloud services generated an estimated $15.5 billion in spending from small businesses alone in 2015, according to a study from app development firm Soliant Consulting. Clearly, the cloud offers substantial value, and a CSP that highlights the short- and long-term benefits of cloud services may be able to help businesses achieve their goals. And a CSP that evaluates cloud research can provide insights into the cloud, and ultimately, improve its chances of gaining a business' trust.
Why should a business select a CSP that requires a long, costly process to leverage cloud services? Instead, focus on providing reliable, effective cloud services that can customers save both time and money. By doing so, a CSP can illustrate the value of its cloud offerings and ensure a company won't have to worry about investing significant resources into adopting cloud services.
The average estimated cost for an hour of downtime for a small and medium-sized business (SMB) ranges from $8,220 to $25,600, and an unplanned event typically lasts up to 24 hours, according to a recent study from cloud backup and disaster recovery (BDR) solutions provider Carbonite (CARB). Emphasize the costs associated with IT downtime and recovery to customers. By doing so, a CSP can highlight the importance of the cloud to minimize the risk of downtime and data loss associated with disasters and work with a customer to ensure its BDR needs are met.
Assess a business' cloud needs. Conducting a comprehensive cloud audit ensures a CSP can better understand how a company can leverage a services provider's cloud offerings. And as a result, a CSP can educate a business about the benefits of the cloud based on this company's needs.
Cloud services often help level the playing field between both SMBs and enterprises. As such, a CSP that highlights how its cloud services can provide a business with a competitive advantage may be able to garner attention from a wide range of companies. In addition, having the ability to provide case studies that emphasize how a previous customer used these services to improve its operations can help a CSP illustrate its value proposition.
A CSP that collects customer testimonials can use these reviews to highlight the value of its cloud services to businesses. Customer testimonials offer valuable insights into how a CSP educates its customers and works with them to ensure they get the cloud support they need at all times. Therefore, providing these reviews to companies can help them better understand how a CSP can fulfill its requests, both now and in the future.
A CSP that collects customer testimonials can use these reviews to highlight the value of its cloud services to businesses. Customer testimonials offer valuable insights into how a CSP educates its customers and works with them to ensure they get the cloud support they need at all times. Therefore, providing these reviews to companies can help them better understand how a CSP can fulfill its requests, both now and in the future.
How do you educate your customers about the benefits of the cloud? Share your thoughts about this story in the Comments section below, via Twitter @dkobialka or email me at [email protected].
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