Three Rules of Thumb in Evaluating If Your IT Support is Reliable

When looking for an IT support company, you need to remember that not all companies are cut from the same cloth. But all will offer the basics like support contracts, telephone assistance, and a dedicated IT support technician for each complaint. However, it’s worth spending a little time to do some detailed research on how reliable your IT support company really is, how to tell if the company is really trustworthy, and what 3 main questions to ask to make your evaluation complete. This may seem a bit time-consuming, but if you do this, it will save you fewer hours of headaches when you eventually do need to call for IT tech support.

What Support Packages Do You Offer?

Naturally, you need to ask what services and packages they offer in conjunction with these services. Do inquire in detail what support packages the company offers and can they cater for the needs of your business today and any demands you may have tomorrow? Most companies will offer one or more of the following:

Pay-as- you-go support – You only pay an hourly rate for the time you need, or a fixed price fee for the call out. You should ask how they really charge because a fixed price might be beneficial for problems that take a long time to fix, but an hourly rate will be more cost effective in the long run.

Break-fix support – If something breaks, then the company will fix it. They won’t, however, show you how to improve your computer’s performance or how to fix a similar problem in the future.

Managed service support – This is where your IT support company actively monitors and manages your systems to reduce the chance of things going awry. With other companies, they call this a subscription support service wherein the company may or may not monitor your computers but repairs are done automatically once you make a call because the customer is paying a fixed monthly fee.

In addition, do inquire if all quoted prices are inclusive of everything or will there be hidden charges and fees.

How Qualified Are You?

Look out for a team of qualified technicians and engineers. What accreditations have they earned? What training do they have? On top of this, it’s always good to ask about what kind of training they are currently taking or are planning to in the near-future. This is because the best IT support companies will keep their staff trained to the highest levels possible. Also, aside from having college degrees in IT and computer engineering, ask the company what licenses the technicians and engineers hold.

What is and isn’t supported?

Although they may offer Windows and Microsoft Office support, you should find out if they can help with other things like Wi-Fi routers, printers, and even mobile devices. If they can, it means you only have to talk to one person when dealing with any IT headaches. This can make life much easier.