How Your Faltering IT Customer Service May Be Costing You

You worked tirelessly last year improving productivity and ensuring your staff are happy. Still, January is notorious for employees researching new jobs—and many find them. Despite all your hard work, there’s something frustrating nearly everyone in the office, and you’ve finally found the common denominator: the IT department.

Don’t Jump the Gun

Before you step in and give your techies the what-for, consider how there might not be fault here. It could be these folks are working just as hard as you, but are perpetually stretched thin. They receive call after call, ticket after ticket, and regularly break their necks to get everything sorted. Not only is that tiresome for the IT staff, but it’s likely frustrating other employees waiting to have their computers fixed. So while your IT department scurries around trying to get yesterday’s issues resolved, you have employees growing increasingly frustrated at with today’s IT problem. And if you think some of that angst isn’t making its way to the customers, you’re sorely mistaken.

How the Poison Spreads

We’re all familiar with the domino fallacy. One seemingly insignificant event is suggested to lead to a more significant event, which leads to an even more significant event, (and so on…) until an ultimate, substantial event is reached, where the connection of each is not only unwarranted, but improbable. We mention this because you might say, “How can my internal IT frustrations ripple negativity outward to customers? Isn’t that a stretch?” In short, no—it’s not.

When a new company partners with Dynamic Quest, we often see just how much trouble IT deficiencies are causing the business. Because nearly every person’s job depends on the smooth functioning of their computer, any interruption of that not only affects productivity, but causes the aforementioned irritation. It’s not a stretch when we say that customers feel the effects of your IT issues, because they do. And once the poison is in the water supply, you can guarantee customers will be pushed away. It takes very little for a customer to walk away with a negative impression of your business, and several positive interactions to counter that singularity.

Identifying Faltering Customer Service

Poor customer service manifests itself in a variety of ways. Most of these we experience as customers ourselves, but forget them the moment we focus on our own business. One of the more common frustrations is automated service. The automated phone agent, combined with long wait times, is the trump card of bad customer service. We’ve all been on hold for too long, listening to Kenny G and being told how important our call is. It’s one of the most frustrating things one can experience, and it’s certainly not something you want within the confines of your company. The best way to identify in-house customer service issues is to act as a customer, and see an issue from start to finish. Recognize the hiccups along the way, and note each frustration you experience. Once these problems are identified, it’s time to start rectifying them.

Expanding Your IT Staff? That’s One Way to Do It

While first inclination may be to hire a new employee (or three), that won’t always resolve the issues. Odds are you don’t have the budget to pay another salary on a whim, and there’s no guarantee that productivity will jump across the board simply by hiring two more hands. What you truly need is a way to resolve tech issues quickly, and without causing hair loss in your own IT staff. There are regular maintenance and security issues they should be dealing with that may well get thrown on the backburner simply because Susan isn’t getting her emails. (It’s always something with her.)

Another Solution Is Being Discovered

Many companies, particularly those ahead of the curve, have partnered with an MSP, or Managed Service Provider. This gives them the expertise of not one new employee, but a slew of IT professionals who can help support your internal IT department both remotely and on-site. And while this does incur some expense, it’s twice as reasonable as getting AAA for a fleet of cars. After all, computer issues crop up constantly. It’s why this ripple of frustration is felt across the company in the first place. But address each of these issues as they arise and your staff may well have a whole new demeanor.

What Does an MSP Offer?

While we can’t speak to other IT providers’ methods, we can bring our own solutions to light. Having worked with a number of companies big and small, we’ve strategically broken down our offerings to three tiers, each to suit the needs of varying businesses. QuestCare MSP offers an all-inclusive IT solution, QuestCare Remote offers monitoring from our remote location, and QuestCare PPM is an economical solution that ensures downtime is avoided. (We have another blog on these things here.) The highlight of these offerings is our Help Desk, a support center whereby you can submit requests in standard, medium, and high priority levels to get the help you need with the immediacy it requires. From this request a ticket is created, then assigned to a Dynamic Quest technician well-suited to find an appropriate solution. When a ticket is worked on or updated, an email will be sent to the person requesting help. This allows the end users to see all of the activity occurring to resolve their issues or concerns.

Will an MSP Solve All My Problems?

There’s rarely a sweeping solution to solve deep rooted issues in a company, but if there is one to make a significant difference in today’s workplace, it’s partnering with an MSP. Because nearly all work is done on a screen these days, a band of IT professionals who solve issues like yours on an hourly basis is a major asset. As noted, this can support your IT team, ensure the lot of your employees remain free of tech-related frustration, and likely raise productivity, and improve attitudes company-wide which is sure to positively affect your customers as well. An MSP isn’t guaranteed to solve all your problems (that darn Susan will always have something going on), but it is likely to make for much smoother operations around the office, and your employees and customers will thank you.

If you have any questions about MSPs, or managed services in general, don’t be afraid to contact us here at Dynamic Quest. We’re not just here to help customers. We’re here to help people, and that means answering any and all IT questions you may have. So give us a call. We deal with Susans every day.

Curious to learn more? Contact your managed IT service provider today!