A bewildering choice of IT support companies
If you’re looking for small business IT support at the moment, you’ll find there’s a bewildering choice of companies out there who could help you.
The good news is that the large amount of options available to you do create an opportunity to find the best possible fit for your business, if you know what to look for.
The IT industry has been lucky enough to dodge some of the worst impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, so far at least, and IT companies are largely all operational.
There has never been more competition to deliver IT services
And certainly if the IT support side of our business is anything to go by, we’ve never been busier in making sure that our customers can continue to work despite the volatility in their marketplace and the switch from working mainly in the office to at least part time working from home.
So, what should you look out for, and how can you be sure you’ll get the support you need?
In looking for the best IT support companies, here are some of the factors that we think are the most important.
Location
The closer the IT company is to your business, the quicker they can typically respond to a request for a site visit
They can offer the best IT support in the world, but if their staff are all based geographically several hours away from your business, that doesn’t really help you when you need them on site to solve an urgent problem for you.
Trust
Do you trust that they can deliver what they say they can?
Personal recommendation is always great – do you know anyone that is getting great IT support at the moment? Or who can tell you who to avoid?!
If you are having to rely on your own judgement, then at least look for other satisfied customers
Independent reviews are best, Google in particular as it is completely impartial.
Does the company showcase their happy customers on their own website, either with testimonials or case studies? Before you commit, make sure to have a chat to one or two of these customers as well.
Experience
And indirectly related to experience, the price of the service being offered.
If the prices from some IT support companies seem very cheap, bear in mind that you do get what you pay for.
Cheap prices translate into low salaries – and a higher proportion of their staff having low experience.
And do you really want an apprentice with only a few months experience being let loose on your systems? Even if they do a good job of solving your problem in the end, you’ll often find that it could have been solved a lot quicker by someone who has the knowledge and experience to have come across similar issues before.
Find out who the technicians are that will be working on your business and how long they’ve been in the IT industry
If a significant proportion of their team are inexperienced, then they may not be the best IT company for you to choose.
The tiered support approach – and why it doesn’t always work
Many IT companies operate a tiered support approach – 1st line, 2nd line and 3rd line support typically, with your initial request likely going to someone who’s not very experienced.
The problem with a tiered approach is that difficult problems can take a lot longer to resolve as they get bumped around the team.
My view is that the more experienced the technician from the outset, the better the service we can provide, and the happier our customers will be. So, to this end, we don’t deploy apprentices or low level technicians into a directly customer facing role, it’s not fair on them or on our customer.
Size of team – not too big, not too small
Surely the bigger the better?
It may seem, initially at least, that the best support could be offered by a big company with a large number of technicians – but the reality is that an IT company that size will not be able to offer great continuity of service.
You’ll likely be speaking to a different person every time you pick up the phone, and they’ll be highly unlikely to know your business in any appreciable way – and that personal knowledge is critical to being able to deliver a high quality service.
OK, so how about a one person company?
Is dealing with the same person each time actually the best approach?
They’ll know your business inside out, will likely have installed a lot of the equipment and services themselves, and would be very well placed (you’d think) to deliver the best service.
The problem though is when they want to take a holiday, or when they’re on site at another job, or dealing with multiple other customers and are too swamped to be able to help you.
For this reason, any IT company that’s actually just a one-man-band, should also be avoided – sooner or later they will let you down, despite their best intentions.
As with many things, there is a balance here to be had
It’s best to choose a company that has a few technicians, that can cover each other.
Small enough that they get to know your business personally.
Big enough to have the depth of knowledge and experience to support you effectively, but not so big that they no longer know or care enough about your individual needs.
Customer care
How will they respond when things go wrong?
Things will inevitably go wrong from time to time, no service is infallible, regardless of how good you try and make it.
Ask the company how they handle complaints. If you’re not happy, who can you talk to?
All feedback is important
It’s always great to receive positive feedback, but in many ways learning from your mistakes is much more valuable.
For example, we have a clear process for handling any feedback – and if someone isn’t happy, we will always do our level best to try and find a way to fix the situation. Our client support manager is tasked specifically with handling complaints – we find that an independent person to mediate is a great approach to resolving conflicts of this kind.
How they’ve acted during the pandemic
Just a personal view this, and everyone has had their own unique set of circumstances to deal with in these extraordinary times. I’m certainly not judging anyone, however we are all in this together and, for me, in the things that I’m buying day to day, the people that are standing up and helping are the ones that I feel deserve my business.
The IT sector has been lucky so far – in many ways there’s more business for us at the moment, not less.
It doesn’t sit well with me for anyone to be profiteering right now, and I believe that IT has a duty to help support other businesses that aren’t doing so well
This translates into going the extra mile and trying to help as much as possible, without charging the earth for all the extra effort.
These are the things we’ve been doing, and it still doesn’t feel like enough frankly:
- A free online shop to any businesses that don’t have a way of selling online yet
- 3 months free managed IT support, for those businesses that are struggling to pay the bills right now
- Price freeze – no price increases this year and for the foreseeable future
- No charge to help any of our existing customers install and configure their equipment at home
If you’ve found an IT company that you like the look of, what have they been doing?
Need any help?
I hope this article on how to find the best IT support companies is useful. If you’d like to discuss any points raised, we’d love to hear – leave a comment below.
Or, if you’re struggling to find an IT support company that works the way you need it to, we’re happy to help with some free advice. Give us a call on 01992 466877 or contact us
