How IT Downtime Impacts Customer Service

Most business concerns around information technology are related to securing and backing up data. Yet, many companies fail to see the customer service angle in the need for quality IT support. IT downtime can lead to more than just frustrated employees, it can result in unhappy customers, which affects your bottomline.

Service and Support

According to Forbes, between 49 to 67 percent of people will switch to another business based on poor customer service. In fact, in 2016, that number translated to losses of $62 billion per year due to poor customer service. While some of the myriad factors that contribute to customer service are out of your control, you can ensure that you are maintaining quality IT services that don’t negatively affect consumer perception.

Keeping People Happy

When you run a business, a big portion of that is keeping people happy. And when it comes to selling a product or revise, it is imperative that your technology is functioning properly and that you have quality IT support. For example, let’s say that you are selling a product online and every time a customer tries to place an order they get an error message, or a malfunction occurs. Most likely, after a few tries, they will get frustrated and give up, taking their businesses elsewhere.

Now, even if they make an effort to contact your customer service department, they are already aggravated and difficult to appease and your team if left scrambling, trying to make this person happy due to an IT snafu. If you had quality, IT support in place from the beginning, beginning you could have avoided this service nightmare by knowing about issues before they cause serious setbacks.

Security and Perception

If your business suffers a security breach, your reputation can take a huge hit; even the most successful companies have a difficult time recovering from this type of IT disaster. When a breach does occur, your customer service department is on the front lines dealing with upset and concerned customers. A well-prepared, well-trained CS department can usually handle this with tack, but this type of setback can cripple a business if clients do not feel that enough is being done to keep their private information safe.

Handling security concerns and data breaches is about preparedness, so just your customer service department must be equipped, so too must your IT department. Having a plan in place is imperative when it comes to IT security as well as backup and recovery services. Customer perception is powerful and seeing that you are prepared with quality IT support in the event of an unexpected mishap can help put your client base at ease.