Customer experience: what MSPs need to know in 2026

Customer experience has become a major focus for communications providers, as SMBs increasingly expect technology services to be simple, consistent and easy to manage.

In a recent feature for Comms Business, Sam Dennahy, Product Marketing Manager at Giacom, shared her views on how customer expectations are changing, the operational challenges MSPs face, and the role technology can play in improving CX.

Customer experience Q&A with Sam Dennahy

1. How have customers’ expectations and demands changed in the last year?

In recent years, we’ve seen that customer expectations, especially among SMBs, have shifted decisively toward simplicity, consistency, and control.

Many SMBs are looking for a single strategic partner to oversee their entire technology estate, favouring comprehensive, integrated solutions over juggling multiple suppliers and fragmented approaches. At the same time, expectations around autonomy have risen sharply. Customers want the tools to manage low complexity tasks independently.

In today’s competitive market, differentiation is everything, and success hinges not only on what you offer but also on how you deliver it. Happy customers stay longer and spend more. Moreover, they become advocates, fuelling sustainable growth through loyalty and referrals.

This creates a significant growth opportunity for MSPs. By becoming a trusted one-stop shop, MSPs can capitalise on this trend, broaden their portfolios, and establish themselves as indispensable partners for SMBs’ digital transformation journeys.

2. What are the main hurdles to delivering a winning CX?

For MSPs to provide the seamless, unified experience that their customers expect presents a huge operational challenge.

We believe that disconnected systems and inefficient processes are the biggest factors holding MSPs back. When MSPs operate across multiple systems, rely on manual processes, and work with siloed data, it becomes almost impossible to deliver the service their customers expect. Operational inefficiency drains time, creates errors, and generates friction for both customers and internal teams.

MSPs must give priority to getting the right tools, processes, and structure in place to achieve operational maturity. One of the most effective ways to improve operational maturity is through automation and system integration.

Creating a single source of truth is a critical enabler for MSPs to provide the best possible customer service. By ensuring all teams access a unified, consistent view of data, regardless of the system they use, customers enjoy seamless, high-quality service across every touchpoint.

3. What CX opportunities should partners be looking to leverage?

As more SMBs seek comprehensive solutions rather than juggling multiple suppliers, MSPs that can deliver simplicity, consistency, and control will stand out.

MSPs need to focus on reducing friction for their customers, making it as easy as possible to do business with them. Regardless of product, there should be a single process for placing orders, and one portal to manage all their services.

As customer self-service continues to evolve, it is evident that its adoption is not merely a trend but a necessity for MSPs wanting to meet customer demands and thrive in a competitive landscape. In a world where convenience is king, self-service platforms have become the key to customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

4. How can technology be used to enable a better CX?

We believe that a great billing system is the linchpin to excellent customer service. Billing is the heart of every business. It connects sales, service, finance, and operations. A billing system that can integrate with other key business tools drives immediate impact. System integration creates a single source of truth, automating workflows, freeing and empowering support teams to deliver value to end customers.

What’s more, billing provides lots of opportunities to enable self-service, and a self-service portal is a must. It has become a marker of professionalism and maturity. MSPs that offer it look proactive and easy to work with. Those that don’t often appear slower and less scalable by comparison. And, Self-service tools are a win-win for both end customers and MSPs. They improve customer satisfaction, reduce inbound queries, and allow the business to scale without expanding support headcount linearly.

5. What are going to be the key CX trends in 2026?

CX success will hinge on breaking down operational silos to provide unified, end-to-end customer journeys. MSPs will increasingly invest in integrated platforms that enable consistent processes and connected data.

MSPs will favour flexible, scalable platforms that allow them to add new services without reinventing processes. Agility will become a major competitive advantage.

Self service is becoming the standard, not the exception. MSPs without mature self service will be perceived as slower, harder to work with, and less scalable.

Supporting better customer experience

For MSPs, customer experience is increasingly shaped by the systems and processes behind the scenes. Integrated platforms, connected data, mature billing and self-service tools can all help providers reduce complexity, improve responsiveness and give customers more control.

Giacom supports partners with the tools, platforms and services needed to deliver technology more efficiently across cloud, comms, connectivity, mobile, security and software.