The Utility Company is taking a viral approach to its business and leveraging social networking to help its SMB franchisees generate new customer acquisition leads and boost revenue.

TUC's Connected Office managed services portfolio lets franchise partners deliver business services to customers across five areas: IT, including networking, desktops, security and storage; business applications; telecommunications, including hosted VOIP (voice over IP); copier/printer; and Web site/Internet, said Mark Scott, founder and president of TUC.

Click here to find out more about TUC's Connected Office portfolio and its Beyond Managed Services program. 
 

The new Utility Referral Program, according to Scott, is geared to individuals and businesses that are not currently bundling TUC's services with their own products or services, but may have access to a network of potential TUC customers through social, familial or business connections and are using social networking Web sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook.

"SMB success is all about networking, and referrals and recommendations over the Internet are truly allowing them to be even more successful—it's viral," Scott said. The Utility Referral Program leverages social networking to develop recommendations and referrals and then formalizes those connections to help SMBs generate revenue in a scalable and efficient way, he said.

Click here to read more about how VARs are using social networking sites to help their businesses.

Along with e-mail templates, sales and marketing collateral, and other partner resources, referral partners receive a personalized link they can use on social networking sites.  When potential customers use the link to access TUC, the lead is tracked back to the referring partner, Scott said. 

Referral partners receive 10 percent of first-year revenue if a referral results in a closed deal, Scott said, but that figure is just a starting point.  Partners who deliver high volumes of leads have the potential to earn a greater percentage of the deal amount, he said.

TUC also announced the launch of its new PBU (Powered by Utility) Managed Services reseller program, which lets franchise partners collaborate with service providers such as telecommunications firms to resell all aspects of The Utility Company's Connected Office Technology-as-a-Service portfolio as well as the 1-866-My-Utility Per Minute Live Helpdesk services, said Scott.

Read more about TUC's 1-866-My-Utility Per Minute Helpdesk here.

Scott said the PBU program is geared toward larger resellers, telecommunications providers and service providers that are currently delivering services to their customers. 

PBU partners can resell any of TUC's menu of services, including the 1-866-My-Utility Per Minute Helpdesk service and the entire Connected Office portfolio, he said.

The PBU offering lets TUC expand its market reach by using a more traditional reseller approach, whereby partners make TUC services available to other service providers, who then deliver services to end-user customers, according to Scott.  He said current utility service providers are able to partner with complementary services businesses in their regions in a "master MSP" model where existing TUC MSPs provide training and support to telecommunications companies and other partners whose customers receive the services.