Of all the criteria businesses consider when making decisions, perhaps the largest consideration is that of cost. However, making decisions based solely on the cost factor can ultimately blow your budget.
It’s helpful to remember what you’ve been told all your life: you get what you pay for. Holding to an IT Support budget that’s too small can mean you don’t get the support you need, while overbuying could result in paying for services you’ll never use.
Small businesses vary greatly in their tech needs and issues, and because of this IT Support providers tend to pitch their services based on price. At the outset, this seems to be a simple, straightforward way for providers to market themselves. As a small business, however, you have to be certain that the price you agree to covers the tech issues the provider will be dealing with. Hardware and software issues, employee downtime, service call length, and technology that doesn’t fit your business’ needs are all factors that need to be considered.
How do you make this decision, then, if not based on cost?
Your best plan of action is to “interview” your potential IT Support provider. Meet with them and tour their offices to determine if they have the staff and resources to meet your needs. Ask if they offer “flat fee” service, as opposed to hourly service rates. A service provider that operates as a flat fee provider has greater incentive to limit the issues you will experience, while rates charged for hourly service can add up very quickly when problems arise. Along with your discussion of fees, ask if the provider offers any service guarantees. Can they guarantee network performance and response time when you have a problem?
The answers to these questions are more important than just the cost factor alone, and can actually help your business to spend less in the long run. At Lieberman Technologies, we welcome such questions and we don’t market our services based on price. We take the time to learn what your business’ needs are and tailor our fee structure accordingly. If you’d like to explore our IT Support offerings a bit more, call me, Jeff Brown, at 812.434.6648 or send me an email at Jeff.Brown@LTnow.com to start the discussion.
Lieberman Technologies provides IT Support to the Evansville, Newburgh, Henderson, and Tri-State area.
Article #3 in a Series