Best Buy’s Magnolia made news recently with the addition of some premium support options to its Magnolia Care program. Magnolia Care is an aftercare plan that the company includes at no charge for a year on every custom project that goes through the its Budget Builder process.

According to its website, Magnolia Care offers clients “post-installation follow up, preventative maintenance and troubleshooting, done in a proactive and timely manner.”

The company’s recent announcement revolves around the unveiling of remote management and support features provided through a partnership with Domotz. In addition to an on-site monitoring appliance, Magnolia’s new offering comes with a custom-branded, client-facing app the company is calling Mag Care. The app will allow clients to monitor the health of its own system as well as perform reboots.

Although exact pricing is not publicly available, these new features are part of a premium support package that clients will have to opt-in to and pay for.

Magnolia’s entrance into the market for premium support and service is a significant move by a company with a national footprint. So what should integrators off all sizes take away from the Mag Care initiative?

1. Peace of Mind Is the Product

A first key takeaway from Magnolia’s new offering comes from the way it is being marketed on its site.

Reading through the support page, you’ll find no mention of hardware or apps. In fact, the messaging is short and sweet, getting right to what the client ultimately cares about — the experience.

According to Magnolia’s site, Mag Care will provide “an even greater level of support” which, when combined with the Magnolia Care, is designed to “cover your system like never before, for enhanced peace of mind.”

In short, peace of mind is not something that comes with the product, it is the product. And it’s being marketed and sold in a way that will surely resonate with the high-end buyers that our industry has done such a good job of capturing.

Integrators of all sizes should not shy away from packaging and selling premium support offerings using a similar approach.

At OneVision we encourage our partners to leverage this emotional angle not only in the sale of standalone service offerings, but also in the presentation and pricing of their overall projects. By centering their marketing message and sales approach around the peace of mind that comes with 24//7 Instant Remote Support, something or their competitors can match, our partners are able to easily able to command a premium on the overall price of the projects.

Taking this approach will allow you to easily engage in a conversation about the importance of service, highlighting in concrete terms from the beginning of the client relationship how you differentiate by providing an exceptional experience.

2. Proactive Service Will Soon Become Table Stakes

A second key lesson from Magnolia’s approach is the fact that a proactive approach to service will increasingly become the norm in our business. Far beyond the decades-old approach of reactive, break-fix service, Mag Care represents a new paradigm that we see taking root all over the country.

Forward-thinking integrators are increasingly recognizing that client service is becoming the last true differentiator in the smart home business, and are packaging and presenting their approach to service accordingly. 

The national rollout of Mag Care will serve to increase the consumer’s awareness of and demand for this approach to service, putting service-oriented integrators in a great position to thrive.

Much like countless electricians, HVAC contractors and plumbers who for years have touted maintenance plans and after-hours service lines prominently in their advertising, consumers will soon begin to expect the same from their integrators.

Those who get in position to meet this demand will find themselves winning new project opportunities over their less service-focused competitors.

Welcome News

The announcement of a Mag Care should be a welcome one as it raises consumer awareness across the country that service is an important consideration when shopping for home technology.

Service is quickly becoming the last true differentiator, solidifying your relationship with clients and protecting your business from the competition. Mag Care will help raise awareness of this important consideration in the eyes of consumers, validating the concept and driving service-oriented integrators to the fore in our increasingly competitive market. 

Learn More: Best Buy’s Magnolia Launches Mag Care Remote Network Support, Powered by Domotz

For more information about service and using it to create RMR, visit www.onevisionresources.com/blog.

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