Thanks to those changes, Cisco was able to resolve 81 percent of its technical support issues online, Manning said, saving the company at least $750 million each year.

Employee satisfaction is a leader indicator of customer experience, so Manning urged MSPs to log onto Glassdoor and check out reviews of their company.

"If your employees are talking smack about you, your customer experience probably isn't as good as you want it to be," Manning said.

Mapping out the client's journey is one of the best ways to improve customer experience ratings, Manning said. MSPs can create a great customer experience by delineating what in the sales process is wholly visible to the client and what's taking place completely behind the scenes, Manning said.

Too often, Manning there are discrepancies between how those in the back office would assess the buying process versus how those who are directly interacting with customers would assess the buying process. The quality of the installation process is the single biggest factor in determining whether or not a customer will come back for repeat business, Manning said.  

Companies should get high-level directors engaged in each stage of the buyer's journey to ensure customer expectations are being met and correct any problems that might arise, Manning said.

Gennix hopes to begin doing journey mapping and pay closer attention to and better analyze what clients are saying to improve the company's performance, according to Director of Client Services Erik Edge.

Edge said Manning's remarks provided a practical take-home lesson for the Langley, British Columbia-based Autotask partner. He anticipates that Gennix will adopt some of Manning's suggested practices.

"Sometimes you might like to," Edge said, "but you can't ignore your clients."