IT Insights

The Consequences of Long Response Times from Your IT Provider

When you work with a Managed Services Provider (MSP) that’s responsive and easily within reach, you don’t immediately go into a panic when downtime occurs. But when a provider is unable to meet this requirement, business profitability is greatly diminished.

At Sabio, we understand how even just five minutes of downtime could mean total operational shutdown. In fact, one of the usual complaints we get from new clients is slow response time from their former IT provider. This is why we ensure our support response time is aligned with your needs and expectations. If you are not getting that from your current MSP, your business could face the following consequences.

Unhappy customers

Whenever you report downtime or any other issue, your MSP should be easy to contact by phone, email, or service portal. According to a survey, 72% of customers expect to have their complaints addressed within an hour, and companies that are unable to meet customer demands are likely to get negative feedback publicly.

Profit loss

The most serious consequence of slow response time from your IT provider is lost profits. If your IT provider is slow to respond to your issues, it’s not their business that suffers. It’s yours.

When you are unable to provide efficient service to your customers because your servers are down, they get frustrated. Failing to deliver fast and efficient service makes it easy for them to switch to your competitors, which leads to lost business and bad word-of-mouth.

Waste of IT spending

If your MSP can do some things right except IT support, you’re not getting your money’s worth for the technology you’ve invested in and the fees you’re paying your MSP.

The Sabio IT Support team in Miami is comprised of professional technical support staff who are ready to hear your technology troubles, day or night. Responding to your issues is not an add-on, but rather a primary service.

Intensified issues

When your systems slow down, you might not know right away whether you’re being hacked or if it’s just a network issue. If your IT provider is slow to respond, hackers get enough lead time to install malicious programs and launch a full-blown attack on your system before technicians can even begin to investigate. By the time they identify the problem, it might be too late.

Factors to consider in an MSP’s response time

If your current MSP’s responsiveness is unsatisfactory and you’re looking for a new provider, consider the following factors when assessing response time.

  • Response time commitment – Ask for specific instances of issues they had to solve and the amount of time it took them to fix it, or tell them about the issues your business usually encounters. Then ask them about their typical response time commitment and plan of action so you can set your expectations.
  • Ability to work remotely – Research shows that remote support is the preferred channel for getting IT support especially for issues that need swift resolution. A majority of IT emergencies can be resolved remotely, and it’s imperative that you work with an MSP that can guarantee assistance for future issues that might occur at odd hours.
  • Proactive IT support – Does your potential MSP offer a service level agreement with guaranteed uptime and response time? Are they proactive enough to ensure you never have to submit support tickets in the first place? These are questions you need to ask if you regularly have issues with your IT and are thinking of switching to a better IT provider.

Measurement of response time

Many MSPs claim they respond to service requests quickly. However, a provider that measures response time is far more effective because they can provide an overview of their overall response performance, which helps keep your company’s management informed of any delays and allows the MSP to measure and adjust as needed to deliver the best response time.

At Sabio, we use multiple dashboards that allows our team and management to view the open service requests, and can track progress and resolution efforts real time. We also incentivize our service engineers’ efforts to stay below and improve the response times, which motivates them to resolve issues faster and more efficiently.

Sabio Information Technologies understands that technology determines your business’s ability to satisfy customers by delivering goods and services without a hitch. The responsive staff in our Miami office can handle all your technology needs, which includes being on call around the clock whenever you need us. Get in touch with us for any IT concerns.

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