Proactive IT Support Can Give You The Edge

Too often IT support is a reactive function. A user has a problem with their computer and they contact IT support. IT support then reacts by endeavouring to find a solution to the problem as described by that user. But at Surrey PC Support we believe that a little proactive thought can result in a better level of computer support for an organisations employees by predicting what might go wrong and coming up with practical solutions to resolve those problems ahead of time. Planning for common events such as the need for computer repair will reduce their impact when they happen.

To explain what we mean think about a common situation. You phone your bank or a utility company to pay a bill or set up a direct debit. The customer service representative apologises to you that their computer system is down and they can?t carry out your request and you will need to call back. This is most unsatisfactory for you because you are busy and had already held for ten minutes before you were told that.

How could the organisation have provided better service to the customer through proactive management? Presumably their Management and IT support department knew their was a possibility this computer system could fail.

With a little fore thought solutions, workaround and procedures could have been put in place to reduce disruption in service to customers. They could have put a backup computer system in place so that if one fails a secondary system takes over. They could have a manual system in place to do the work the computer system does. They could even have added a message to the start of their automated telephone system telling customers of the problem before they go through all the choices and hold for ten minutes. All of these options would have resulted in better service to the customer.

With this example in mind it is easy to see how an organisation that is proactive when attempting to reduce disruption in customer service following computer systems failure will gain a competitive advantage over it?s rivals.