IT Support. It’s something that anyone who has the most basic knowledge of computers thinks they can do, but very few businesses out there do well.
Maybe you’re a one-man show, trying to accomplish everything on your own. You’ve been using computers since you were a teenager – you know the basic ins and outs. You’re sure that you can handle the couple of technical issues that pop up every now and then. And if you don’t know the answer, hey – Google and Chat GPT are your friend. Only, then you spend more time Googling solutions that you don’t understand than you do actually working.
Perhaps you’re an SME – a small and medium enterprise – who has your own internal IT department. You know that you can’t handle IT issues on your own – either because you don’t have the expertise or the time for it – so you hired people to handle it for you internally, thinking that some of their time would be spent dealing with technical problems, and the rest would be spent on optimising your technologies so that they’re doing amazing things for your business. Only, no matter how many team members you hire, they’re somehow always putting out fires, and never have the time for optimisation.
Maybe you’ve already realised that having an internal IT department isn’t the answer, and are already getting remote IT support for small business owners from an external company whose sole focus is fixing your IT issues. That way all of your humans have a single point of contact that they can call whenever they run into technical problems. And man, do they run into them often! Often the same problems time and time again, meaning that you end up paying for hours of remote IT help without really seeing the return on investment.
Your hairline is receding because you keep pulling it out, and you’ve got a constant stress headache because no matter what you try, your IT support just doesn’t seem to be working for your business. You thought that technologies were supposed to help, not just be an unending problem that no one seems to be able to solve.
7 Signs That Your Existing Remote IT Support Isn’t Working For You
What you need isn’t just any other IT company. You need a Managed IT Services provider that is focused on providing exceptionally human remote IT support that is going to further your business and help you put technology to work to help you reach and exceed your goals. You need Solid Systems. And here are 7 signs that you do:
1. Your Staff Spend More Time On IT Than Their Work
Whether it’s hardware issues or software problems, your teams are spending so much time trying to deal with IT issues, that they’re finding it hard to stay productive. Every time they try to do work, something small will come up that distracts them.
Maybe it’s an update that needs to be done, taking them away from their work for half an hour at a time. Maybe it’s that their login credentials don’t seem to be working. Maybe it’s just that they can never seem to find the right version of the document that they’re supposed to be working on, so spend ages searching through their files, opening up spreadsheet after spreadsheet, until they find the one that they think is right, only to start working on it and discover that the data is outdated.
All you know is that time is money, and every second that takes them away from the work that they are supposed to be doing is money wasted. You want them to work more efficiently and manage their time more effectively, but that’s not really what your remote IT support company does. They’re just there to troubleshoot. They’re not finding lasting solutions that will really support your business.
2. You Are Always Firefighting Tech Problems
Speaking of troubleshooting – why is it that your IT team, whether it’s a remote IT support company or an internal team dedicated to managing your technology – is constantly putting out (figurative, we hope) fires?
A critical piece of hardware falls over, an attacker is detected, your software is all out of date, and you’re so busy reacting to all these issues that keep coming up that you can’t even think of new technology and how it could be helping you, never mind coming up with new ways to use existing solutions.
What you need is a remote IT support team who looks beyond what is happening right now to what could and will happen in the future. You need a team that proactively supports your business, because they have a deep understanding of the technologies you use, the challenges you face, and the goals that you’re hoping to achieve.
3. You Keep Experiencing The Same Issues Over And Over
One of your humans experiences a problem, so they phone your remote IT support company, or get in touch with your IT team. They look at the issue, find a fix, and put it in place. Only, that fix doesn’t work, so your team member phones back. They try another fix. It still doesn’t work.
Why does this keep happening? Well, the most common cause is a lack of understanding from your IT team. They just don’t get the issue or don’t have a clear vision of the systems and apps you’re using. And because they’re dealing with a million and one other IT issues (since there are always fires to put out) they don’t have the time to take one step further and make sure that their fix is effective.
This isn’t human support. Human remote IT support is all about making sure that you’re problem-solving rather than just troubleshooting, and that the solutions you find have meaningful impacts that actually help people, rather than just causing further frustration.
4. You Don’t Understand Half Of What Your Current IT Team Says
I just mentioned how much of a problem it is when your IT team doesn’t understand your issues, but it’s just as much of a problem when you don’t understand their solutions.
There is so much jargon attached to technology, and you need a remote IT support team who aren’t just going to talk over your head. Because when you put out solutions in place that you don’t understand, I can guarantee that they aren’t going to add measurable value to your business. You won’t be adopting them in the right way so that they can add value. You’ll just put them in place and hope they fix your issues.
But when you work with an IT company that offers human remote IT support, jargon becomes a thing of the past, because every solution is explained in a way that you can fully understand the importance of, and can embrace in the right way.
5. Your Backup And Recovery Plan Are A Complete Mystery
When everything is running smoothly, you have no issue with your current IT company. But what happens when things aren’t running smoothly? Do you know what to do when disaster strikes? Does your team?
Your data backups and your disaster recovery plan should never be a mystery to you or your humans. With cyber threats becoming ever more sophisticated, you want to have your finger on the pulse of your security strategy, and you want to work with a remote IT support company that is going to help you do just that. Because human support for your business is about more than just dealing with immediate threats. It’s about taking steps to keep your company secure, and keep your operations running even when disaster strikes.
6. You Keep Putting Money Into Tech Without Getting Money Out
You keep hearing about all these amazing advances in technology, and success stories from other companies out there about how much these awesome technologies helped them to make more money. So you ask your remote IT support team to put them in place. Only, you’re not really seeing the results from them. In fact, you’re spending all this money on IT – whether it’s implementing new solutions, or maintaining existing ones – and you’re never really seeing any money come out of them. What are you doing wrong?
Part of the problem may be that you’re investing in the wrong technologies for your business without fully understanding them. If you are the ones telling your IT company to put new technology in place for your business, that could be a big part of the issue in and of itself. Because you really want the IT provider that you’re working with the understand your needs and be recommending the best technologies that are going to help you meet them, and achieve your goals.
But the other part of the problem may be that you are implementing the right technologies, but aren’t using them as effectively as you could. Because adoption can be a huge problem for businesses. Even if you are investing in the right solutions, if your teams don’t understand them and don’t see the value in them, then they’re not going to use them. Because they don’t see how that tech will solve their problems or make their lives easier.
When you work with a human remote IT support company, they will not only have a better understanding of your business, your goals and your objectives, but they will be happy to go the extra mile in onboarding your new humans, making sure that they have access to the right technologies that are going to help them work more productively, and when you do adopt new IT solutions, your human support team will be there to help your people understand and embrace the solutions, ensuring that you get the most out of them, rather than just taking a spray and pray approach to technology implementation.
7. You Have Little Idea Of What The Future Holds For Your Business
You spend so much time looking backwards, trying to fix problems, trying to deal with the repercussions of what has past and the issues that are your present, that you don’t really have time to look ahead and see which technologies might be helping your business in 2, 5 or 10 years’ time. You have these big goals, but you’re losing sight of them because of the minutiae of just keeping your business operating.
We understand how this happens. Which is we offer human remote IT support to be look at your existing technology solutions, and help you to do more with it, to keep you moving forward and advancing your business. Because we know that implementing the right tech is about enhancing your business, not impeding it. We want to see you maximising IT solutions to boost your growth, not just using it to plug holes in your systems until the next fire breaks out.
Are You Seeing These Signs?
If all of this is sounding far too familiar, then we’re willing to bet that you’re not using the right remote IT support company for your business. The chances are that they are doing a great job of troubleshooting, but aren’t helping you to move forward, or helping your teams to work as productively as possible. They’re seeing remote IT help as the be-all and end-all of their role for your company.
Solid Systems isn’t like that. We see exceptionally human remote IT support as being so much more than just troubleshooting and firefighting. We see it as an integral part of Managed IT Services that support your company, from your users, to your technologies, to your goals and aspirations. Because IT support is a key part of keeping your business operating, but human IT support can do so much more than that. The humans behind our business have a deep understanding of technology – and have the qualifications and experience to prove it – and cannot wait to be putting those IT solutions to use for your business, and see you stepping into the future with confidence.
Are you ready to experience exceptionally human remote IT support for yourself? Book a consult with us today to learn about how Solid Systems can boost your business.
