Rethinking Supplier Support – Effective Strategies for the Enterprise

Rethinking Supplier Support – Effective Strategies for the Enterprise

Tony Mangino: 
Hello today is Thursday, September 18, 2025, I’m Tony Mangino from TC2 and this is Staying Connected.

In a recent episode, Theresa Knutson and Brent Knight updated our listeners on the ongoing impact of Verizon’s outsourcing of post-sale enterprise support to HCL Technologies. The feedback from many of our enterprise clients has been clear: the transition has led to degraded service quality and resounding dissatisfaction.

Theresa and Brent are back with us today to discuss what customers can actually do to manage, escalate, and potentially fix these support issues.   This same advice can be used with any supplier where you are experiencing similar support issues. 

Theresa:
Thanks, Tony — good to be back. We’ve been hearing a lot from clients since our last episode.  The topic of disappointing support from network suppliers  is clearly resonating with enterprise customers, and the good news is — you’re not powerless. 

Brent:
Right. There are actions customers can take. Whether you’re on the supplier’s “included” support model or their “paid support” model, there are strategic and contractual levers you can pull to improve the situation — or at least hold your supplier more accountable.

Tony:
Let’s start with the most basic action: reviewing your existing contract. Theresa, what should customers be looking for?

Theresa:
Look for any commitments made related to support — especially in Statements of Work (SOWs), SLAs, or contract exhibits. If you’re operating in a paid support model, make sure you’re receiving what you’re paying for:

• Named resources or titles of support resources
• Geographic location commitments (e.g., U.S.-based vs offshore)
• Defined response/resolution times
• Escalation paths
• Term of the support

If these things were promised and are no longer being delivered, that’s non-compliance, and you’re well within your rights to raise a formal dispute or Performance Improvement Plan— just like one of our clients did.

Brent:
Too often, clients are frustrated but don’t escalate effectively. If you’re not getting the support you need:

1. Escalate through formal supplier channels. Your supplier’s sales team is still responsible for the overall relationship. 
2. Document everything — support tickets, delays, outages, missed SLAs.
3. Consider invoking formal governance mechanisms like monthly service reviews — and if they’re not being offered, demand them.

4. Maintain a direct line to your Supplier account executive and escalate major dissatisfaction or contract breaches to the senior supplier leadership. Persistent, coordinated pressure is more likely to get results than isolated complaints.

At the end of the day, both the customer and the supplier want the service to work and deliver the expected value.  I highly recommend trying to get things back on track before looking to terminate.  That being said, you may need to bring in legal or procurement teams to turn up the heat if things don’t improve.

Tony:
Let’s talk about that paid support model. Many customers are locked into multi-year commitments — is there a way out?

Theresa:
Yes, and it starts with leveraging performance failures. If you can document that the service quality has degraded since your original agreement — especially due to a swap of experienced resources with less experience resources — you may have grounds to terminate or renegotiate.

Some specific strategies include:

• Requiring transition plans if key resources are removed or replaced
• Introducing exit clauses tied to continued service level breaches
• Asking for service credits for missed SLAs
• Benchmarking paid support pricing and negotiating lower rates given the lower-cost delivery model

Tony:

The interesting reality here is that incumbent suppliers typically have an advantage in retaining their customers’ business.   Incumbents typically only lose if a competitor is willing to buy out the business; or if customers are so dissatisfied that they will change suppliers at any cost.   So, the credible threat of migration can be a powerful motivator for any supplier to meaningfully address service issues and improve customer experience.

Brent: 

If you’re up for renewal in the next 12–18 months, this is the time to run a competitive RFP.

And when you do, make support and service delivery models part of your evaluation. Don’t just look at network capabilities and pricing — dig into:

• Who delivers post-sale support?
• Where are they located?
• What’s the governance model?
• Can you retain named resources?
• Is there a cost for account management?

Many carriers are using more blended delivery models now — but not all are pushing support off a cliff like this.

Tony:
What else can customers do to put pressure on underperforming suppliers?

Theresa:
Use your voice! Suppliers care about customer satisfaction, particularly when it affects revenue. You can:

• Fill out any formal customer satisfaction surveys or ask for one
• Give feedback directly to the sales team
• Raise the issue during executive business reviews
• Connect with other enterprise customers facing the same challenges — there is power in shared escalation

We at TC2 can help elevate the issue and get your supplier’s attention at a higher level.  I know that we have focused on the disappointing support resulting from the Verzion/HCL relationship, but keep in mind that the advice we’ve provided today can be used with any supplier with which you are experiencing support issues as all carriers have thinned out account team support and push clients more and more to their portals for self-service. 

Tony:
So to recap — if you’re facing poor support –

1. Review your contract and hold your supplier accountable
2. Escalate with documentation
3. Renegotiate or exit if support quality has dropped
4. RFP the business — don’t assume Verizon (or whoever your incumbent is) is the default and best suited for your specific support needs
5. Be loud and visible with your feedback

Brent:
Exactly. Poor support doesn’t have to be the new normal — but doing nothing guarantees that it will be.  There aresolutions. Don’t settle.

Tony:
Thanks Theresa and Brent. 

To our listeners, if you would like to learn more about how to manage, escalate, and potentially fix support issues with your suppliers, or if you’d like to discuss other technology strategy, sourcing and cost reduction needs with Theresa, Brent me, or any of our TC2 and LB3 colleagues, please give us a call or shoot us an email. 

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