In this modern age IT Support is mandatory for most businesses as a lot of most of their day to day operations hinge on working IT to function. All of this means that without adequate IT Support the satisfaction of your customers could be out of your control should your business suffer an IT outage of any kind. With all of this being said let’s take a look at some of the key things to look for in an IT Support Provider to make sure that they are up to par to ensure that the service your customers receive remains consistent.
Their communication skills are lacking
Some people consistently believe that because IT is about technical results, excellent customer service takes a backseat. This couldn’t be further from the truth; working with a personable, enthusiastic IT partner is crucial to ensuring that you get the most out of any new investments and to helping your team understand existing or impending advancements.
Your healthcare provider must be helpful, cordial, patient, and cooperative. They should conduct themselves with a sense of passion for what they do, and they should be willing to interact with you and your team to make sure you’re satisfied with the help you’re getting. They should act as a consulting presence for your business, always there to assist with both major and minor problems and happy to point you in the direction of the best products and services.
If your provider is noticeably silent, only communicates in confusing jargon, and never offers advice on their own, they are probably not the strategic IT partner your business needs as it navigates significant changes.
The service standard is determined by service level agreements
But wait, isn’t that a good thing? Don’t you want an IT business that keeps its word? Of course, a respectable IT vendor would aim to deliver much higher performance and would see a service level agreement as a minimum standard of excellence.
An effective SLA for IT support won’t list intangible elements. For instance, your provider ought to possess a plethora of technical knowledge and ought to be able to quantify the benefits of modifications and decisions by describing them. They should be aware of any budgetary or legal constraints and design solutions with these in mind. Also, a great IT provider would place a heavy emphasis on service elements like proactive network maintenance that may be less bound by contractual performance commitments.
Contractual requirements are crucial for outlining the parameters of service provision, but if all you get from your provider are those duties, you might wonder whether the relationship provides a reasonable price.
Your network is being crippled by recurring problems.
Remote supervision and maintenance are crucial components of IT support. Your IT supplier should take care of software/operating system upgrades, network health checks, and remotely installing security fixes in order to maintain the overall integrity of your environment. The objectives of all of this are to minimize downtime (a period of system unavailability) and ensure that your environment is secure from cyber threats.
If your business frequently encounters network failures or the same problems recur, your provider is definitely neglecting preventative maintenance. They might also be disregarding deeper, more complex issues in favor of band-aid fixes.
There is too much promised
In order to obtain a broad range of knowledge and experience that would be prohibitively expensive to build internally, businesses routinely outsource their IT. It’s obviously highly beneficial to have a provider with a wide range of skills and specializations, but it’s also a good idea to be skeptical of providers that claim to “do it all,” especially if they’re working with a very small team. In the vast, complex world of business technology, maintaining technical proficiency in every conceivable area is a challenging undertaking without a team of professionals. If your provider claims to be able to perform everything and anything, enquire about accreditations, vendor relationships, and even case study samples to determine whether the lofty claims are accurate.
Conversations are overly centered on products.
In the end, technology is there to help your business; it is not just there for it to consume. Knowing this, savvy IT service providers start a conversation with their clients to find out about the needs, constraints, and problems they are facing. In order to uncover or develop solutions that best address these issues, they then move backwards from these business considerations.
Regrettably, some providers choose for the wrong approach. They constantly start a conversation off by making a pitch for a product they are trying to sell, promoting absurd products and services that don’t meet the needs of their clients.
Even though they will never fully understand the inner workings of your business, your IT provider should have taken the time to learn about how you conduct business, any commercial or regulatory pressures you may be under, any logistical difficulties you may be experiencing, and the team’s working arrangements. If your provider has showed little interest in your business, they probably won’t be able to act as your strategic technology partner.
To determine if your provider can still serve as your company’s dependable tech partner moving ahead, it may be time to review their performance on a number of the aforementioned fronts. Discover the five crucial characteristics you should search for in an IT supplier by reading on.
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Operating from our two bases in Austin and Corpus Christi, we offer an extensive range of Managed IT, telephony and business connectivity services to SMEs across southern Texas. To find out how we could optimize and enhance your IT systems for maximum productivity, commercial success and cyber security excellence, why not schedule a free, no-obligation IT consultation today.