ConnectWise Acquires SmileBack To Help MSPs Gain Customer Feedback

‘SmileBack is allowing partners to get feedback from their customers on what is going well and where any challenges are. We will provide our partners with more insights to help them increase their customer retention,’ April Taylor, ConnectWise vice president of product management, tells CRN.

ConnectWise has acquired SmileBack, a provider of technology for measuring the customer experience, as a way to help its MSP partners better work with their customers.

SmileBack is the industry’s premier customer feedback system for MSPs, said Chris Timms, executive vice president of growth for Tampa, Fla.-based ConnectWise.

SmileBack uses Net Promoter Score and Customer Satisfaction Score to help MSPs increase their customer retention, Timms told CRN.

[Related: ConnectWise CEO Jason Magee: ‘Those Rumors, Not True’]

ConnectWise declined to discuss the cost of the acquisition.

The acquisition comes just 10 months after ConnectWise acquired Service Leadership, a developer of technology for benchmarking partner data and operational maturity information to provide feedback to MSPs, Timms said.

“Both acquisitions are part of a broader move to help partners and their businesses,” he said. “But the two acquisitions are not tied together.”

April Taylor, ConnectWise vice president of product management, told CRN that ConnectWise plans to use its SmileBack acquisition to help MSPs be more aware of customer feedback.

“SmileBack is allowing partners to get feedback from their customers on what is going well and where any challenges are,” Taylor said. “We will provide our partners with more insights to help them increase their customer retention.”

Timms said that ConnectWise will have access to data provided by SmileBack to its MSPs but said that is aimed at helping them.

“We will help partners look at the data and see how they can increase profitability,” he said. “We believe feedback is important to helping MSPs drive profitability. Ultimately, it’s the partner that oversees the tool. We won’t monitor and manage it. But we will teach MSPs about customer retention.”

ConnectWise has had a long relationship with SmileBack, which Timms said is the No. 1 rated app on the ConnectWise marketplace.

“We have a long, rich history together,” he said.

SmileBack also has integrations with competing MSP platform providers and that will not change going forward, Timms said.

“ConnectWise has an open ecosystem,” he said. “We have products that integrate with other platforms. So we intend to keep its current integrations.”