Free Tech Support
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There seems to be a common trend appearing in the IT support industry. The trend is around either free IT support or free IT support trials.
There seems to be a common trend appearing in the IT support industry. The trend is around either free IT support or free IT support trials. Having been in and around the IT business for many years I really am struggling with this concept, not just for the obvious question of "how on earth are you going to make any money?" but just as importantly "what clients are you going to attract?"
If most business owners are honest, IT is a complete grudge purchase and something that they feel they need rather than would want. Cost is clearly a factor in any IT decision and ongoing support can chew through a substantial budget in fairly rapid time. With those factors in mind surely free IT support must be the magic bullet for a small business owner and a great way for a small IT operation to get some clients under there belt?
It is my opinion that free IT support is bad for the IT company and the small business owner and here is why:
The IT Company
Its a great hook, publicise the offer of free IT support or alternatively a "give us a go for a couple of weeks" and for sure I think you will have a well trodden path to your premises or website. Stop and think about the types of client you will be attracting. Clients that simply do not value IT in their business and want any issues resolved for no cost. These clients are in no way interested in building a relationship with you the IT supplier, you are never going to get the opportunity to add any value to their business or work closely with them and the mere whisper of any chargeable activity will send them running to the next "Free IT Shop" and you will be left with nothing.
The IT support Trial is even more risky. The fact that a small business is looking for alternative IT support generally means that they are having issues with their current supplier, yet they are to frightened to approach them about it for fear of losing data etc etc. They probably have a number of issues outstanding that are just not getting resolved, so you are the saviour when they stumble upon your offer of a "Free IT support - 2 Week Trial". They sign up and you happily send in your engineers to create and Impression in the vain hope that after two weeks they will sign up to a paid for support plan. In reality what happens is that your precious and expensive engineer resource fix up all the issues that the clients existing supplier cant be bothered to resolve. After two weeks when you have done a great job, the client will "Think about it" and the chances are you will never see or hear of them again. The likelihood is that the client will then approach their current supplier and claim that they needed to PAY another company to fix up these issues and negotiate a reduction in monthly support fees.
One final thought - Think of the message that your "Free IT" marketing message sends to you staff, you are basically telling the world that the skills and experience that they have probably worked hard to achieve is basically viewed by you as being worthless. Hardly the message to foster a positive and professional working environment.
The small business owner
So there you are sat looking at another large invoice for something that you don't understand, the words running through your head are "these bloody computers are costing me a fortune". You then hunt around the Internet and find a local IT company that is offering free, yes you read it twice and it definitely says free, IT support, at last your prayers are answered. You probably fail to notice the exceptions listed under the terms and conditions, the company will not offer any service level agreement and that they do not provide on-site assistance. You don't care you are just transfixed by the words free.
You will learn rapidly that those exceptions. service level agreements and on-site support really do matter when you have a problem, and without them you are going to be left high and dry.
Free IT may seem on the face of it to be a great way to reduce cost in your business, but 9 times out of ten it will end up costing you more money than if you actually took out a paid for support contract, at least when you are paying you have the ability to put the supplier under pressure if they are not delivering.
My advice to any small business owner who is struggling with their IT systems is to find a supplier that will take responsibility for their actions and deliver the service that you require. Remember, just because you may have a small IT setup does not mean that you do not deserve to have first class IT support and more importantly it does not need to cost a fortune.
So in summary, free IT support is my opinion a bad idea for both the IT supplier and the small business owner. Having said that I am keen to hear from anyone who has had good experiences of free IT support either as a client or supplier, so do feel free to leave comments.
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