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