Is your relationship with your tech support provider as dysfunctional as an episode of The Bachelor? Maybe the relationship started out slow, or maybe you’ve been together forever. If you and your tech support provider sound more like an unhappily married couple than a professional business partners, it might be a sign that you’ve outgrown their services.
Here are seven signs you’ve outgrown your tech support:
- Slow response times. Your tech support “team” is really just one person who can only help you when they’re not working with other customers. Or they take several days to research and resolve issues. If it frequently takes more than a day or two to resolve problems, it’s a sign of problems. Maybe your provider doesn’t have the expertise needed to deal with your issues, or perhaps they’re understaffed. Either way, you’re not getting the service you need to keep your business moving forward.
- Your IT isn’t keeping up with your growth. A growing business needs a tech support provider that can keep pace. Unfortunately, your provider can no longer deliver the infrastructure and networking support your business needs. They may lack the skills and expertise to handle a business of your size. Or perhaps it’s simply that they’re still small, and you’ve grown apart.
- Lack of emergency response. You need urgent help with a problem, but no one even returns your calls until the next day, or sometimes even longer. If you’re not able to get responses to issues in a timely manner, it might be time to start looking for new tech support.
- Multiple requests, same issue. You keep asking for help with a problem and it never gets resolved no matter how many times you ask. This may be a sign that your tech support provider simply doesn’t have the skills to resolve your issues.
- Your tech support person is moonlighting. You find out there’s a reason that your tech support person isn’t able to get back to you in a timely way: they’re moonlighting at another job on the side to make ends meet. When this happens, it’s a sign that you’re working with an amateur, not a professional IT provider.
- If your tech support provider isn’t staying current. The IT industry is one where rapid change is the norm. If your provider isn’t current with new technologies such as cloud and mobile solutions, or if the solutions they’re offering are not up to date, it could mean they’re not able to help you keep up.
- Your tech support provider always comes onsite to solve issues. If your provider has to come onsite and disrupt your business to resolve simple issues rather than being able to handle a majority of your issues remotely, this too could be a sign that it’s time to look for a new tech support provider.
The bottom line is if your company is growing and your tech support isn’t able to keep pace, it might be time to look at other IT support options. Maybe your company is ready to hire a full time IT support staff. Perhaps it’s time to go beyond a “break/fix” approach and look for a tech support provider that can manage your technology to prevent problems, not just fix issues when things stop working as they should.
Have you experienced any of these signs? Contact us – we can help you determine the right tech support solution to meet your needs.
