You know technology is vital for the optimal running of your business, and receiving proper help from tech experts will honor this importance and boost your business immeasurably. While remote support is always an option, it’s best to hire a company in the same location as your business so you can get the most of it.
They will be able to come in person for meetings, get a key face-to-face understanding of your needs, and can drop by when ongoing support is required. For example, a London-based IT support company is the best choice for those located in the London area. But beyond location, there are a few other things to consider or expect from your IT provider.
Don’t know what you should look for when hiring?
Here’s what amazing support from an IT company should look like.
Amazing Security Protocols
Cybersecurity has never been so important, and sensitive customer or personal data being held as your business’ responsibility. Average costs of data breaches for businesses are in the millions. Further, revenue is bound to drastically decrease after consumers lose faith in the trustworthiness of your company. Lawsuits are tricky to handle and can significantly distract from conducting business as usual.
The right IT provider will put security at the top of their list of priorities, being all-too-familiar with the risks involved from outside threats. They will first-and-foremost cater to preventing cybercrime from ever affecting your business by checking your current set-up thoroughly. For example, they will check your network and your firewall, passwords and security systems, and present staff training when it comes to safety measures like encryption.
They will perform regular security health checks to make sure you’re in the clear. Ask your potential IT providers what they can do for your business to mitigate risk and what their action plans may be should something go wrong. Find out how seriously they take it.
On-call Help Ready
When your staff are having tech issues, it can significantly interrupt their workflow. Fortunately, having on-call support means they don’t have to be interrupted too badly. With minor issues, your support team can get them back on track in no time. And with bigger issues, you’ll be glad to have their assistance on your side. What is more, they will be able to foresee how a problem may escalate and prevent it from doing so.
Whereas a non-tech employee may not have the experience and knowledge to catch similar problems. For every-day, easy-to-fix issues, they should offer remote support.
Educators for Your Staff
The best IT providers don’t only offer constant help to your staff members; they give them the tools to help themselves where they can. Not only will this save the IT company time, but it will save your employees time as well. Instead of having to call to solve easy-to-fix issues, they may be able to figure them out on their own with the knowledge given to them by your IT team.
They may also be able to catch future issues more readily since they’ll know what to look out for. When it comes to security, an employee should know to create hard-to-crack passwords, how to encrypt, and how to recognize red flags when it comes to hacking threats. Even if your staff already have basic knowledge of all these things, a great IT company will keep them ahead with the latest security trends. For example, they may prompt you to get a password manager to keep you more organized, but also keep your data safer.
More Than Just IT Repair: Consultancy on Call
A fantastic IT support company isn’t merely a group of technical experts at a helpdesk. Rather, they use their wide experience and apply it in order to give you advice on how to run technological aspects of your business.
When they first onboard you as their client, they should receive an in-depth look at how your company operates, and its future goals and plans. Because they work with different companies and understand what works and what doesn’t for certain industries, they should be in the perfect position to advise you.
Proven Improvement
Ultimately, you hire an IT support company to improve the overall quality of your business. While it may take some time as the company gets to know you to make appropriate adjustments – and for those adjustments to take effect – but at a certain point, you should be able to measurably recognize the positive impact of their assistance.
To start, you should ask your staff directly how they’ve felt since onboarding the IT team; if their jobs have become easier or if they are able to accomplish more, your IT team is pulling its weight. Additionally, you should check in with customer experience and make appropriate comparisons between before you had IT support and afterwards. User experience and proper tech support for consumers is just as important as the sales themselves.
In fact, you should see an increase in sales due to a better interaction with the users, and to your employees being able to better facilitate these communications.
Worth the Investment
Investing in the services of an IT provider will pay off in the long-run and help boost your business to the next level. When it all goes as best as it should, you will protect your company from the threats of cyberthieves, empower your staff to take care of business at an optimal level, get business advice as it pertains to technology, and get the ongoing support you deserve. On top of it all, you will get increased sales, happier customers, and a happier team that you invested in.