What SMBs Stand to Gain From 24/7 IT Support

Many SMBs that start with a single in-house IT professional or small IT team that is only available at certain times eventually outgrow the capacity of limited IT service. Increasing your coverage to having at least one IT support professional available 24/7 can have exponential results. If you are among the approximately 76 percent of business owners who do not feel that their IT needs are currently being met at a level that is consistent with their overall expectations for their business, increasing your IT support coverage by working with a managed service provider may be one of the most significant steps you can take in the right direction.

Here are some of the most important things to know about the difference shifting to 24/7 IT support can make when it comes to keeping every aspect of your business’s tech functioning at the highest level and providing the best possible experience for your customers!

Importance of Choosing 24/7 IT Support in an Increasingly Global Work Environment

Working with team members or customers in more than one city or time zone can make it even more challenging for a limited IT support team that is only available during standard business hours to adequately meet the needs of your business. Here are some of the most significant ways in which 24/7 IT support ensures your business’s overall productivity and service quality are the highest your team is capable of!

Better Ability to Meet the Needs of Remote Workers 

Remote work has played a major role in expanding businesses of every size. It has provided options for team members who are more productive in an environment other than a traditional office. However, having employees in multiple states or countries makes it challenging to solve IT or other problems within a limited time frame. With 24/7 IT support, your business can ensure that remote employees get the assistance they need when they need it. 

Increase Your SMB’s Ability to Meet Your Customers’ Expectations 

Small businesses that offer an online store or other digital services have customers scattered across the country or the globe. This means that assisting your customers when they encounter a problem requires expanding your IT support capacity. Customers who run into problems checking out, have trouble finding a miscategorized product, cannot log into an account, or experience other urgent tech support needs typically expect quick responses. They will usually not wait several days or longer to obtain a solution to a problem. 

Boost Employee Productivity 

Functional devices, software, and other tech essentials ensure that your employees can accomplish as much as possible. A lackluster IT team that isn’t large enough to meet your team’s needs or isn’t available as soon as problems arise can quickly halt the productivity of an individual team member or an entire department. A 24/7 IT support team ensures that someone can start working on issues as soon as an employee reports them. This can significantly reduce wasted time and create the best conditions for every team member to maximize daily productivity.

Support the Overall Operational Continuity of Your Business 

Problems linked to a lack of a strong tech support system can range from minor blips to significant downtime that takes one or more employees out of commission for several hours, days, or longer. These issues can throw a significant wrench into your SMB’s ability to accomplish everything on your to-do list. They can also eventually impact your ability to meet short-term and long-term goals. Taking proactive steps to ensure that your business has the resources to quickly manage tech support needs can go a long way toward keeping things moving forward and preventing the most significant ramifications that insufficient tech support can cause.

Benefits of Choosing 24/7 IT Support for Your SMB 

Certain startups, especially small businesses, may be able to function with limited IT support. However, many businesses eventually reach a point where they must add more coverage to stay operational and meet customer expectations. Here’s how 24/7 IT support ensures consistent protection for your SMB’s network, devices, and programs.

Continuous Monitoring of Your Business’s Devices and Programs and Immediate Responses to Alerts of Potential Problems 

Relying on a single IT professional or a small team that monitors your SMB’s network, devices, and programs for only eight hours a day, leaving them unattended for the remaining sixteen hours (or longer on weekends), can lead to missing malfunctioning software, early signs of a cyberattack, or other tech problems until they become far more significant than if identified and solved immediately. Having an IT professional available 24/7 to respond to minor issues before they escalate into larger concerns can be beneficial. 

Better Ability to Respond to Cybersecurity Incidents 

Keeping your business’s devices, programs, and network safe from cyberattacks and other potential security concerns requires knowing immediately if an attempted or successful security breach occurs. Time is of the essence when it comes to minimizing the damage of most types of cyberattacks. Minutes or even seconds can go a long way toward reducing potentially catastrophic losses. Businesses that ignore their systems outside of normal business hours may be setting themselves up for an exceptionally damaging cyberattack. 

Ability to Work When You Want To

Falling behind on managing service requests can impact your ability to keep your business running and your customers’ perceptions. A single IT professional or small team, available only during specific shifts, has limited time to manage tasks daily. This can cause the number of tasks that pile up at the end of each workday to increase exponentially.

Handling support tickets or other tasks several days or longer after they come in makes it significantly more difficult for a small IT team to keep your business functioning at the highest level and to provide the fast, personalized customer service your clients expect. 24/7 IT support can give your IT team significantly more time to catch up on backlogged tasks. This is even if the rest of your business operations remain within a more limited time frame.

Better Flexibility and Scalability Options 

Most SMBs find that their IT needs grow alongside their business. This often leads to a point where a single IT professional or small team’s intermittent availability becomes impractical. While one individual can often meet the limited needs of a startup or small business, you will likely find that ongoing coverage becomes a much better option once your business operations extend beyond the standard 9-5.

Having an IT professional available at all times can go a long way toward ensuring that someone from your team can respond to problems your team members that work other hours or customers that have 24-hour access to your online store or other platform without the added frustration of long wait times. A larger team can effectively handle more IT requests that come with expanded services and business growth.

Improved Work-Life Balance 

SMBs with a single IT professional cannot always create conditions that make it possible to maintain an ideal work-life balance. Many single IT professionals are accustomed to working relatively standard eight-hour shifts or similar schedules. However, being the sole responder for emergencies or urgent needs often requires these employees to be called into the office outside their regular work hours.

Being constantly on call can make it more difficult for them to prioritize work-life balance. This may harm their satisfaction with your business and increase their likelihood of finding another job. Switching to 24/7 IT support ensures someone is always available without relying on a single IT professional’s time.

Increased Peace of Mind 

The positive effects of these benefits work together to increase your team’s peace of mind. It creates more effective and comprehensive protection for every aspect of your SMB’s network, devices, software, and other tech tools. Most businesses rely much more heavily on functional technology than they did even a decade or two ago. However, the harm that malfunctioning devices, security issues, or other problems can bring significant stress for business owners. A team of IT professionals capable of providing 24/7 support can ensure that potential issues are located and solved immediately. This can significantly reduce the amount of inconvenience or damage that they are capable of causing. 

Choose NetTech Consultants for Reliable 24/7 IT Support for Your SMB

At NetTech Consultants, we recognize the importance of 24/7 IT support in meeting the needs of your employees and customers. Constant monitoring and quick responses to any problems that do come up can make a difference when reducing the severity of most types of tech support needs and boosting your team’s productivity and peace of mind. Contact us today to learn about the benefits of choosing us to keep your SMB running around the clock!