First book in the “Small Biz Success Tips” series, vol. 2
4 Things You MUST Know About Tech Support
Small Biz Success Tips vol. 2, number 1
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4 Things You MUST Know About Tech Support
Small Biz Success Tips vol. 2, number 1
4 Things You MUST Know About Tech Support Cornell D. Green
Free Edition from communit.us/helpdesk  Copyright 2011 Cornell D. Green Published by the author.
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4 Things You MUST Know About Tech Support
Small Biz Success Tips vol. 2, number 1
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4 Things You MUST Know About Tech Support
Small Biz Success Tips vol. 2, number 1
4 Things You MUST Know about Tech Support
CommunIT's Small Biz Success Tips - volume 2, number 1 Welcome to the second volume of our “Small Biz Success Tips” series. In this first book of the new series, I share with you a few important points to consider when choosing a tech support professional. As with Volume One, we’ll cover four essential concepts related to this subject to help your Small Business thrive and prosper in this 21st Century economy. As always, we’re mindful of the fact that time is money. We keep it short and sweet, covering only the essentials and linking to additional information which you can review when you have more time. This book is the product of 18 years of providing professional computer support for Wall Street corporations, and private consulting firms, designed to help you use the technology you already own to grow Your Small Business.
Every business runs on computers, so keeping them running is critical to keeping your business running – here are 4 Things You MUST Know about Small Business tech support: 1. 2. 3. 4.
Beware of jargon and “techno-babble” Avoid the “invoice-hound” Repair is just the beginning Look for a partner 5 http://communit.us/helpdesk | cgreen@communit.us | 646-727-0212
4 Things You MUST Know About Tech Support
Small Biz Success Tips vol. 2, number 1
Beware of jargon and techno-babble: Computers are technical and complicated. Explaining the work required to repair and maintain them is not. Many amateurs, poseurs and pretenders to the throne will attempt to baffle you with gibberish and blather to cover up their inexperience and/or incompetence. Often, it’s little more than basic human insecurity. Many of the people who provide professional technical support were shy, bookish types in school, and fit the stereotype of the… socially awkward. More comfortable with programs and machines than conversing with strangers, they may fall back on jargon and terminology because that is their comfort zone. Sometimes, however, it isn’t that innocent. Some of the people who provide technical support for Small Businesses are amateurs and hobbyists. Possessing limited experience and expertise, they rely on overly-complicated language to cover up the fact that they may be out of their depth. The three words a true professional in any trade is not afraid to say are “I don’t know”. Noone knows everything, and what Small Business could afford the tech support pro who does? That sort of person would be working for a Fortune 500 corporation, and probably makes more in a year than your business does. You don’t need a genius – you need a professional. Someone who is good at what they do, knows what they know, admits to what they don’t know and, most importantly, knows how to find the answers to what they don’t know. Regardless of the work required to repair and maintain your Small Business computers and networks, a qualified tech support pro should be able to explain things in terms you can understand, just as your doctor, plumber, electrician or auto mechanic would. Look for someone who looks you in the eye and talks straight. A sense of humor, though not an absolute requirement, is an added benefit. You’ll usually be calling on this person when your system has crashed, your PC is infected with a virus or your Internet connection has died. Someone who can deal with the stress and lighten the tension is as valuable as a geek who knows all the latest buzzwords, but can’t communicate what they’re doing, or why it costs so much…
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4 Things You MUST Know About Tech Support
Small Biz Success Tips vol. 2, number 1
Avoid the “invoice-hound”: Unless you are very lucky, you’ve encountered this kind of… “professional” service provider already: the clock-watching, self-serving invoice-hound. The auto mechanic, plumber, electrician or general contractor who eyes the clock more than the progress of the job, insists on billing for every “hour or fraction thereof” and whose response to any shortcomings discovered after the work is done is “I can take a look at that; but I’ll have to charge you for it”… EVERY service provider gets paid for their time, of course. The “invoice-hound”, however, focuses primarily, if not exclusively, on “running up the clock”. A true service professional is primarily concerned with a job well done – an invoice-hound is mainly interested in how many “billable hours” they can accumulate. A quality computer support professional will break down a job by the tasks required to accomplish the desired result. An invoice-hound will almost exclusively focus on a time estimate, even before fully analyzing the job, or reviewing the situation – or in some cases, without even visiting the site or inspecting the hardware! Another sure sign that you’re dealing with an invoice-hound is that they charge for the time it take to provide an estimate – even if they determine they can’t do the work!! Invoicehounds also pay more attention to travel time and mileage charges than guaranteeing that the work will be completely in a timely manner, or to an agreed upon level of satisfaction. “Service Level Agreement”, in fact, is not in the invoice-hound vocabulary. “Each hour, or fraction thereof” is their key phrase. The only guarantee you’ll get from an invoicehound is that they will charge you as much as they can get away with… Expect to pay a tech support pro for the work they’ve done – but stay away from the invoicehound!
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4 Things You MUST Know About Tech Support
Small Biz Success Tips vol. 2, number 1
Repair is just the beginning: Fixing what has broken, or repairing what has malfunctioned is, or course, of primary concern when selecting a tech support professional. But tech support is more than computer repair – that’s why it’s a different phrase. Is the problem just fixed a unique occurrence, or likely to occur again in the future. Why did the problem occur? Are there any steps you can take to prevent recurrence? A quality tech support professional is not only willing to answer these and similar other questions, they’re likely to raise these issues without being asked. Technology is complicated: that’s why you’re considering hiring someone to deal with the maintenance and repair of your critical hardware and software. But a quality tech support pro is one who realizes that there is no need to keep secrets from you. Amateurs depend on the “job security” of returning to fix the same problem repeatedly – professionals understand that: • • • • • •
Other problems will occur Fixing the “low-hanging fruit” is basically busy work, and doesn’t demonstrate their truly valuable skills Once the simple things are fixed, more complicated issues will inevitably arise Stable systems work better, are more productive and easier to maintain A customer satisfied with properly maintained systems is more likely to engage in an ongoing support contract When clients are freed from constantly fixing minor things, they are free to plan more extensive, project-level activity
One of the things that distinguishes the tech support professional from the computer maintenance amateur is depth of understanding. The amateur has a limited understanding of the problems and issues they have dealt with in the past – when confronted with a new situation, they are out of their comfort zone, and are usually of limited value to Your Small Business. A true tech support professional understands the core principles of technology. They know operating systems, not just Windows or Mac OS exclusively (or even worse, only XP or Mac OS 9). They aren’t limited to just the hardware platform they have hands-on experience with, because there are basic similiarities regardless of brand or model. Everyone specializes, of course, but a quality tech support pro should be familiar enough with the fundamentals to deal with new situations, and honest enough to admit when they can’t fix a problem immediately… or at all. 8 http://communit.us/helpdesk | cgreen@communit.us | 646-727-0212
4 Things You MUST Know About Tech Support
Small Biz Success Tips vol. 2, number 1
Look for a partner: Fixing things when they break, and maintaining your parts and programs is where good tech support begins – but the critical part of tech support is not the tech, but support. Every business depends on technology these days, and your use of technology will no doubt only increase as time goes by. Beyond simply dealing with the problems and malfunctions, are you getting the maximum return on your technology spend? Computers, the Internet and the many free and low-cost programs available can help Your Small Business function as efficiently and competitively as a company many times the size… if you know how. All tech support professionals are not the same, and many are satisfied (and indeed, only qualify) simply to perform the occasional repair and maintenance tasks which arise. If you are lucky (and mindful, after reading this eBook), you may encounter that special computer service pro who will do much more than fix the next thing that breaks or malfunctions. There is a reason most companies past a certain size have full-time IT employees – technology is a critical part of modern business, regardless of product or trade. If you have managed to avoid the “invoice-hound”, and have found a tech pro that goes beyond repairs, you may have found a strategic business partner, one who can help Your Small Business: • • • • •
Keep things from breaking in the first place, saving you time and money. Document your basic technology-related procedures, helping you avoid repetition and familiarize new staff with how you do things. Create templates for standard documents and forms, providing consistency and enhancing the impressionYour Small Business has on clients, partners & vendors. Help you plan and schedule software and hardware upgrades that are time- and cost-effective, and are managed with the least interruption to your workflow. Recommend programs and procedures that increase your competitive ability, workflow efficiency and provide strategic advantages over your competition. Small Business technology is more than just email and word processing. 21st Century CommunIT Solutions specializes in helping Small Businesses like yours use the computers, and programs they already own to thrive and prosper in the 21st century economy. .Let us partner with your firm for Small Business success! Call us today at 646-727-0212 for a free telephone consultation. Or click here to visit our website
and use our contact form. Start Success TODAY! 9 http://communit.us/helpdesk | cgreen@communit.us | 646-727-0212