They answer the phone during emergencies. 

If you have an emergency, you don’t have time to wait on hold or leave a message and hope for a call back; you need help NOW! Reliable IT providers know that time matters and will answer their calls live or respond in 30 minutes or less. 

They are consistently easy to reach and highly responsive when needed for non-emergencies. 

Are they readily available, even for small tech-support issues? One way to check is to ask around your office. Does your staff enjoy working with them, or are they tired of repeatedly dealing with the same issues, unhappy customer support, or waiting forever for solutions? If the answer is no, that’s a red flag.

Do they offer after-hours support? 

At a minimum, any IT company worth its weight will answer its phones LIVE (not voice mail or phone trees) and respond from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. every weekday. But many CEOs and executives work outside normal “9 to 5” hours and need IT support both nights and weekends. High-quality IT companies can be reached after hours any time, any day, and will still provide a fast response time.

They proactively monitor your network. 

You shouldn’t alert your IT company to an issue! Their team of technicians should be monitoring your systems for downtime, breaches, inefficiencies, and more and coming to you with proposed solutions and updates. 

They have a customer-centric system that is easy for YOU to use. 

Can you easily “open a ticket” in their IT management portal so they can properly assign, track, prioritize, document, and resolve your issues quickly? Their ticketing system should be set up to make it easy for customers to submit requests. If they don’t have a system, we can practically guarantee your requests will sometimes get overlooked, skipped, or forgotten. If this is the case, it’s time to question whether their customers are their true focus.

Have they prepared, proposed, and implemented a cybersecurity plan for your organization, including protection against ransomware and data loss? 

Cybersecurity is a huge issue! If your IT team hasn’t come up with a plan to protect your business, they might not be qualified to provide you with the level of support and protection you need, which is undoubtedly putting you at risk.

You want to work with an IT provider that takes cybersecurity seriously and regularly proposes new solutions to keep you secure from hackers’ latest advances. 

Do they provide detailed invoices explaining what you are paying for? 

Do you know exactly what you’re getting for your money? This problem shows up in one of a few ways. The most common thing we see is a client being charged a flat fee, but they have no idea what that service includes. Can they get help with their printer? How about sourcing new computers? What’s extra? You deserve to know.

Another issue is overcharging for a level of support that doesn’t reflect the price tag. Important: expensive support does not necessarily mean the service is better! 

A common problem is when businesses hire an IT company because they offer a very low price and then end up ‘nickel and diming’ their clients for every small request to make up for the bottom-feeder price they’re charging. 

When considering an IT provider, it's crucial to ensure they prioritize transparency in their billing. At Paradise Computer Services, we are committed to providing detailed invoices that clearly explain what you are paying for. We believe you should always know where your money is going and what you're getting in return. 

They insist on periodic test restores of backups to ensure the data is not corrupt and can be restored during a disaster. 

If your IT provider isn’t regularly backing up your data and ensuring it’s backed up, you could lose EVERYTHING if you need a restore. We have seen this happen. Make sure your IT company is treating your data as if it’s as valuable as their own. 

They get projects done on time and budget. 

If your IT provider constantly adds fees or delays projects, it’s time to switch. Great IT providers accurately estimate project timelines and work hard to adhere as closely to the schedule and budget as possible. Things can and will go wrong occasionally, but they should be quickly communicated with proposed solutions. 

Take the time to explain what they do.

Before and after a project or a job is completed, take the time to explain what happened or how the new tool works so you can get the most out of your investment.

It’s time to stop settling for flat-out poor IT service. Tech nightmares should be a thing of the past. If you want to know what trustworthy, reliable IT support is, we’ll perform a FREE, no-obligation Network Assessment so you can see how our team of experts will work together to handle your network stress-free. We’ll provide optimization ideas, share if and where you could be vulnerable to a cybersecurity issue and leave you with a list of ways to improve the technology in your business.

To get started, click here to book your FREE Network Assessment now or call our office at 941-493-5126.