Response-abilities…
Probably one of the most critical elements to having an IT support provider is how quickly they can respond when you have a problem, a query or an emergency.
Most providers will categorise these into three different types of response. Critical, High Priority and Normal Priority:
- Critical: Meaning anything that is affecting the business from operating.
- High Priority: Encompasses problems that aren’t affecting the business from operating, but are affecting multiple users and could become critical in a short space of time.
- Normal Priority: These problems are ones that are affecting a small number of users or where the problem can be worked with for a period of time without it impacting the operation of the business.
Typically, the quicker the response time that you require – the more the IT provider will charge.
You should weigh up the hidden cost of being affected by a problem and how much that indirectly costs your business compared to the increased investment of having a faster response time.
In most cases, simple problems can also be given a guaranteed fix time, which can alleviate knowing that an engineer may spend an indefinite amount of time working on your problem due to poor training or customer care.
General response times you should consider are 15 minutes for a critical level, 30 minutes for a high level and up to an hour for a normal level.
If your provider cannot guarantee this level of support, it is probably not worth considering them.
‘Response-abilities’ is one of the twenty points covered in our free guide ‘Choosing The Perfect IT Support Provider’.
If you’d like access to the full guide, click on the link below:
Choosing The Perfect IT Support Provider (pdf) – Click here
