This year back to school is still going to look like somewhat of a hybrid due to the pandemic. Some students will be going back to in-person learning full time, but others will have parents that opt for virtual learning.

Many college students that had their dreams of the “college experience” put on hold last year, will be looking forward to a more normal higher education environment, and closer to the one they were expecting.

After an enrollment drop of nearly 5% for undergraduates last semester, expectations are that the COVID vaccine rollout will drive an increase in enrollment in the fall and a big back-to-school season.

What does this mean for your average MSP or IT business owner? It means that you have an opportunity to market remote support services tailored to the needs of students.

One of the nice things about offering remote support services is that you’re not only limited to customers in your local service area. You could offer back-to-school remote support to students anywhere. 

Here are some creative ways you can capture some student remote support business. 

Technical Lifeline for the College Student

Technology is now a requirement for a successful college student. If something goes wrong with their computer, it can mean they miss an assignment or lose an entire paper they’ve been working on for days.

You can market that remote support provides an important technology lifeline for a college student. They have help when they need it to solve an issue or get a troublesome device back up and running.

By offering a student remote support plan, you could bundle antivirus and patch management services along with technical assistance, giving parents more peace of mind.

Some features that you can highlight of your remote support plan that may appeal to college students are:

• Unattended computer fixes (you can fix a problem while they’re sleeping late)
• Remote printing capability that can get them out of a jam with a stubborn printer
• You get SMS notification, so know instantly when they need help
• Get a note on the desktop with a summary of what was done

Make At-Home Learning Easier for You & Your Child

Many parents will be making the difficult choice this fall to keep an unvaccinated child at home for virtual school until they are able to get the vaccine.

Technology problems are one of the frustrations that many parents had during the last school year when nearly everyone was doing at-home learning. 

You can make life much easier for parents and students through a virtual learning remote support offering. You could offer both on-demand support and monthly plans that include PC optimization and security.

For this target audience, you want to highlight how you’re going to make their lives easier. For example, mention that remote support for at-home learning can:

• Provide expert help when a video connection goes wrong, so a child isn’t left out of the lesson.
• Save Mom or Dad from having to spend countless hours Googling a way out of a technology issue.
• Help students with tips on getting around PowerPoint, Word, Excel, and other programs they may be using for their schoolwork.
• Reduce the stress of at-home learning by taking technology problems out of the mix.

Keep Kids Safer from Cyberthreats

During the peak of the pandemic, phishing attacks rose 220%. But, that’s not the only example of how hackers have been having a heyday during the pandemic. Ransomware and firmware attacks are also up, along with a 630% increase in attacks on cloud accounts.

You can market your back-to-school remote support with a security focus and note that your services can help keep kids safer when they’re online. Mention the rise in cyberattacks and note that students are often online doing research for their schoolwork, which puts them more at risk of landing on a phishing site.

Put together a Student Cybersecurity Remote Support plan that includes things like:

• Managed Antivirus/anti-malware
• Managed patches/updates
• DNS filter to block malicious sites
• Remote support for technology help
• Remote support to review suspicious PC activity
• Monthly scan for any malware

Don’t forget to promote the security of your remote support platform. For example, you may mention that it uses encryption and incorporates multi-factor authentication to keep out any unauthorized users. By promoting the security features your firm offers, you build trust in your remote support services and confidence that you can keep someone’s child more secure.

As an add-on service, you might also offer a remote training session on how to spot phishing, using real examples so kids can see exactly what to watch out for.

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