By Dominic Jones

The conventional IT support model is not transparent enough and misleads clients, which gets the industry a bad reputation. The most common accusation the customer levels at an IT support company is that it doesn’t deliver on its promises. And, although service level agreements are normally agreed at the beginning of the relationship, it is quite common that the promised response times are not met across the industry.

In fact, I recently spoke to a prospective client who complained that his IT provider took away one of the company’s machines several months ago and hasn’t been heard from since. The client has had to make numerous phone calls and appeals to the IT firm’s manager, only to be completely ignored.

Poor communication is another reputation spoiler. The two most common issues are not replying to the customer in a polite and helpful manner and forgetting to update them on the progress of a particular project.

Gizmos and jargon

IT consultants often believe they have the upper hand when discussing gadgets and gizmos and so many try to baffle the customer with jargon. They hope that this will make them appear to be all-knowing and help them sell additional products or services. I believe that the up sell is not a bad thing in itself – all good service providers recognise the importance of providing customers with options – but pushing for things that the client does not need or ask for is bad practice. Equally, not using clear, jargon free, language is normally indicative of poor customer service.

For instance, six months ago I have known about a recruitment consultancy which was paying a monthly support agreement fee but eventually ended up paying three times the amount stipulated in the agreement. When confronted, the IT provider said that from the outset they were aware that the client would require more time and money for the project than allocated. The manager of the support company admitted that his team made up lots of extra jobs every month in order to hide the extra budget needed in these new invoices. However, what the client wanted was no nonsense advice. If it was going to cost a great deal of money to get things right, he simply wanted to be told so he could budget for it. This anecdote is just an example of what happens in the industry.

In order to reduce such problems, I have recently launched a white paper containing some of the most frequently used IT terms. The paper is available for free. It aims to educate and inform on the range of product and services businesses can choose from, irrespective of their provider.

The guide touches upon hardware concepts, software and licensing, networking, backup, server applications and security issues. A series of commonly misused terms such as memory, and the difference between it and hard disk capacity, and RAM are clarified in the guide. This also helps potential customers understand the additional equipment and costs quoted in the process. In my view, the best thing a solutions provider can do in order to gain the trust of its customers: offer unbiased, objective information.

Watch out for the rogue traders

When you budget for IT consultancy and hardware provision it’s important to make sure you read the small print. Some IT companies seek to lock their clients into a deal that demands payment by the hour rather than using a pre-established monthly service agreement. When this happens, it is not unheard of for some rogue traders to actually charge for work that hasn’t been done.

For example, I have known of a client who was recently presented with a bill for four hours work, despite having received a service that amounted to nothing more than flicking a switch. The client was based in a serviced office and had no choice but to use the internet connection provided by the serviced office agreement. They commissioned some VoIP telephones but, in order to install them, a minor change on the firewall had to be auctionedre-written. Taking advantage of the situation, the serviced office IT manager charged four hours of work.

IT shouldn’t be a dark art

When choosing a consultant, you should ensure that you won’t fall victim to any of these issues. Choose a consultant that understands how upsetting and disruptive additional charges can be. Find someone who appreciates that downtime costs money and disrupts activity. The company you partner with should have a clear set of values, including good communications that are endorsed by all of its consultants. I think it goes without saying that your IT partner should be transparent and provide a detailed breakdown of the fees. You should know upfront what you are going to pay at every stage of the contract.

The bottom line is that IT is not a dark art and it shouldn’t be presented as such. However, when you see evidence that companies are bullied into unfair service agreements and charges, and persuaded to buy hardware they don’t need, it’s no wonder many SMEs develop a negative view of IT service providers.

The industry has developed a bad reputation because of the rogue trader consultants who are only interested in increasing their revenue without actually delivering the standard of service they charge for. I believe that the voice of the real experts in the industry should be heard more often, and to this end, I think a set of regulatory standards that IT consultants are required to comply with should be drawn up. If a consultant already behaves ethically and delivers value for money, they would have nothing to fear from such a move.

About the author

Dominic Jones is managing director of Barton Technology. Established in April 2000, Barton Technology is a privately owned company, specialised in providing IT support and business telephone services to customers in the construction, not for profit, retail, finance, legal and insurance SME sectors and who are located in London, Surrey and Kent.

Barton Technology’s has been nominated as Security Reseller of the Year at the 2011 Computing Security Awards. To celebrate, the team is offering to conduct a free initial consultancy visit and security audit, followed by security recommendations. Those who are interested in taking advantage of this service can contact Barton Technology directly on 0845 180 0000.