Top 11 Reasons Your Business Needs After-Hours IT Support
Staying up to date with technology is a challenge in the modern business world. Many companies rely on internal IT support, but what happens when your regular IT personnel go home for the night?
After-hours IT support provided by an MSP can provide many benefits for businesses that require it — without breaking the bank. Let’s discover some top reasons a business might need after-hours IT support.
Why Do You Need After Hours Service?
Take a look at these scenarios to determine whether you might need 24/7 employee and customer support — and more than just an after-hours answering service. Even outside of your office hours, your employees, customers and vendors may require technical support.
1. You want to increase your productivity
Access to after-hours IT support ensures that any technical issues can be taken care of quickly and efficiently. Work can continue even when the regular IT staff is not onsite. Get a much quicker resolution to issues that could hold you back — and avoid coming in the next morning to an IT disaster.
2. You need access to trained professionals
…but even though you need access to them, you don’t necessarily need them full-time. Having a reliable team of trained professionals available for after-hours IT support means your business can receive the highest quality of service when an issue arises. These professional technicians are experts in their field — and they’d be prohibitively costly to hire and keep on staff.
3. You want to reduce your overall downtime
After-hours IT support can help to minimize the amount of time your business is not operational due to IT issues, allowing you to keep productivity levels up and customer service standards high. This is especially important for companies that rely heavily on technology, such as customer service centers, e-commerce sites and businesses that are open 24/7. Today, even if you don’t run your business 24/7, you frequently need to maintain your presence 24/7.
4. You need to increase your security
Having an after-hours IT team on call means that any security vulnerabilities or threats that may occur outside regular business hours can be addressed quickly and effectively. Hackers and cybercriminals don’t live in the same time zone as you — it’s very likely that your organization will experience an attack outside your regular business hours.
5. You want to provide better customer service
Maybe it’s not your employees trying to log into your portal. Maybe it’s a customer or a vendor. Providing comprehensive IT support to customers after hours can improve customer satisfaction levels, helping to ensure a positive brand image.
6. You need a cost-effective solution to late-night disasters
After-hours IT support provides a budget-friendly alternative to hiring a full-time IT team, allowing businesses of any size to reap the benefits of experienced professionals without breaking the bank.
7. You want to deal with problems before they occur
An after-hours IT team can provide proactive monitoring and maintenance services to help identify potential issues before they cause downtime. This can help to increase the overall efficiency of your operations, allowing your business to move quickly and confidently. More importantly, it saves you money, because those problems will cost more if they occur when you don’t expect them to.
8. You need to improve communication across your business
By having a reliable support team available after hours, businesses can ensure that team members have access to the resources and knowledge necessary for efficient communication. You reduce the chances that trouble tickets could be missed and heighten inter-department collaboration.
9. You have time for things like backups, automation and analytics
An after-hours IT team can provide services such as automation and analytics that help to streamline operations and gain valuable insight into customer behavior. If you’ve found that your internal team doesn’t have the time or energy for these projects, augment them.
10. You can support remote employees and work-from-home employees
Having an after-hours IT support team available allows businesses to provide remote support services, making it easier for customers to get help without having to travel or wait in line. For employees, it provides a support team that works when they work best.
11. You’ve found yourself needing emergency response
After-hours IT support ensures that businesses can quickly and effectively respond to any emergency situations that may arise. Sometimes these aren’t cybersecurity issues: sometimes they’re issues such as actual flooding or equipment breakdowns.
Did any of those scenarios speak to you? If you’ve run into problems outside of normal business hours, you know you need an after-hours service desk. But there could be challenges holding you back.
What’s holding you back from after-hours IT support?
You know you need after-hours support. But maybe you worry that 24-hour IT support will just be too expensive. There are a few major benefits you get from acquiring after hours IT support from your MSP:
- You get access to a knowledgeable and experienced team that can help you quickly address any IT-related issues at any time.
- You save money by not having to pay for a full-time team.
- And, most importantly, you get the peace of mind knowing that your business is protected no matter what time it is.
Having after-hours IT support is a must for any business serious about the success of their operations. The benefits that come with it are well worth the initial investment, as they can help to prevent costly outages and protect critical data.
And you may be surprised regarding the cost. An MSP is far more cost-effective than hosting your own after-hours IT support team — largely because you only pay for the time and services that you actually need.
Don’t take chances with your business. After-hours IT support is an essential component of a modern, 24/7 business.
At Red River, we provide more than just 24/7 tier-1 and tier-2 support. We provide all the services that your organization needs to grow and thrive. Contact us today for a consultation and quote.
