By Andrew Davis, Founder & Managing Director, Maple Technology
Good IT support should be responsive, or it’s not really support. There is little value in having a support service where calls are not picked up promptly, or clients don’t get a response to an email for hours.
Communication matters. Nobody likes raising requests and waiting in the dark, and a generic auto-response does not count as a response. Communication means receiving answers and timely updates from real people.
The support team should understand the client’s business and requirements. It’s no help starting from a blank canvas every time, with clients having to repeatedly explain their systems and how they work.
Support staff also need to know their stuff. The team working on Microsoft 365 should know what they are doing (as obvious as this sounds) and be certified Microsoft admins. It’s no use to clients contacting a level one support technician who is only qualified to reset a password and can help with little else.
Prevention is ideal. It’s impossible to prevent all problems from arising, but it helps if systems are well managed in the first place. Cloud services should be organised and secure, networks should provide sufficient capacity and a layer of security for Internet access and the use of core services such as files and email. Computer estates should be well managed and appropriate to each user’s requirements, and operating systems and software should be regularly patched in line with vendor recommendations and industry best practices.
Remote support is not always enough. Whilst most issues and changes can be handled remotely, there is still a physical element to IT and some things require qualified hands on site.
Clients need a key point of contact as well as the support team. This often takes the form of a client advocate, account manager or senior manager at the IT provider. The title doesn’t really matter, as long as at some level there is genuine accountability for delivering the promised level of service.
