If it Doesn’t Bring Value – Why Hold onto It?
Inspiration for ridding your business of things that hold it back.
We’re all closing in on the end of another year, and business may not have been as good as you planned, or hopefully it’s starting to get better. In this economy, it doesn’t make sense to hold onto processes, systems, or services that are not bringing good value. If you want to thrive, and not merely survive, you may have to rethink some of your strategies, but the easy, low-hanging fruit is to rethink the services you pay for that don’t seem to be serving your business well.
Let’s look at your IT service and support. If you’re paying an IT company to manage your IT services and cyber security, the biggest value is the confidence that your systems will be fully operational and secure – there’s little concern that something will go wrong, or customers will be left hanging. You have complete confidence that if something isn’t working, it will be fixed right away.
What I discovered, which is why I founded my own IT company, is that those assurances are often lacking. Businesses pay for the service, but get slow responses to requests, fixes that need fixing again, poor communication, and a general sense that their provider doesn’t care. Whether they’re paying a little or a lot for their service, they’re getting little value from it, and in some cases, the service is unreliable enough to become a detriment to business.
Small businesses especially tend to put up with lousy service, never calculating how much productivity it’s costing them, until something terrible happens – like a major system failure or a security breach. Why? Because it seems like a lot of trouble to switch providers.
It’s not. Switching service providers is a forward-thinking business move. The choice is to continue into next year with the known frustrations or start fresh with an IT company that does care, has a sense of urgency, takes your cyber security seriously, and will act as your technical advisor to help your business grow.
Reliable and caring customer service is something you should expect from your IT company and any service provider. I became so disgusted at the decline in customer service – especially in my own industry – that I wrote a book on it, The Extra Scoop – Rediscover the Art of Great Customer Service.
It’s not just service providers to rethink, as I mentioned in the beginning, but also your processes and systems. A lot of companies I work with put good systems and processes in place several years ago and have no idea that there is newer technology that improves both, often at a lower overall cost. There are some excellent collaboration and productivity systems, VOIP cloud-based phone systems, virtual desktop services, and other services that can dramatically cut costs and improve productivity.
Even though I’m in the tech industry, I work with my clients from a business standpoint, consulting on technology from the basis of what’s in my client’s best business interest.
If you’re wondering if your current IT services providers is up to industry standards, here’s a quick way to assess their level of service to see if you’re getting good value.
If you’re ready to rethink your options and enter the new year with services, systems and processes that bring much better value to your business, now is the time to do it. I’m always available for a free consultation.
Call 678-389-6200 or click to schedule a call. I look forward to helping your business.