IT support services are a vital component of every organisation. Enterprises today operate in a tech-dominated landscape, and IT support is key to helping them efficiently run their operations. Its primary role is to provide help to businesses that produce, market, and use technology products from phones and computers to hardware and software. That’s about every business out there.

But in the same way that strong IT support can boost an organisation’s capabilities in so many aspects, ineffective support can also cause some grave consequences for the business. Results from a study conducted by UK-based IT services firm A&OA revealed just how important IT support London is to companies.

Four in ten businesses claimed to have lost sales due to the lack of IT support, while 38 percent of the surveyed organisations said that their service provider failed to offer suggestions for system improvements, leading to poor performance. Clearly, IT support in London and elsewhere in the globe has a huge impact on businesses.

Unfortunately, many companies still haven’t realised what could be in store for them if they settle for subpar IT support services.

The Impact of Ineffective IT Support—5 Serious Consequences

1. Extended service unavailability

   

   When technology breaks down, failure to resolve the problem as soon as possible leads to compounding issues that not only affect the staff involved but also customers and other employees who are dependent on the output of that staff. Extend the IT problem to more than one person in the organisation and you will have exponentially increased the number of inconvenienced employees or customers and the gravity of the issue.

   For instance, if the local area network (LAN) of a call centre were to suddenly get disconnected, there would be a good number of customer service representatives who won’t be able to access information from the database. So think about the many customers who, consequently, won’t get their questions answered and their concerns addressed. The longer the unfortunate situation continues unresolved, the greater the difficulties that are bound to arise.

2. Shoddy customer service leading to irate customers

   

   Now it’s not hard to imagine what the effect on a business would be if services are inaccessible to clients for a certain period of time. Any tech-related incident requiring IT support that would disrupt customer servicing—computer breakdown, software crashes, slow internet connection, etc.,—could leave a lasting impression on them.

   Dissatisfied and upset customers would tell others about their bad experience. Just a couple of tweets or facebook posts, and the floodgates could open for a social media nightmare. No enterprise would want to be associated with bad customer service especially at this time when competition is extremely high. In the UK for instance, consumers could easily move on to a company that they feel offers better IT support London.

3. Unproductive employees and low staff morale

   

   Organisations would best keep in mind that the IT service desk includes both internal and external customers. Whether you’re a large corporation that maintains a fully-staffed IT department, or an SME with a single IT personnel, it remains that the tech team is responsible for the upkeep and proper performance of all the company’s technology-related equipment and systems.

   Any interruption in these aspects, when left unattended, could leave employees (your IT customers) stressed, frustrated, and unproductive. This is where the value of business IT support comes in. The goal is to resolve the issue immediately so that employees can go back to their tasks. Otherwise, the tech problems could affect not only their productivity, but also the efficiency of sales and external customer service transactions.

4. Greater risk for security breaches

   

   If there is one concern that’s keeping organisations constantly on their toes, it’s the threat of a security attack. When the probability of falling victim to a data breach is increasing everyday, you would want to put as many safeguards as possible. One such safeguard is effective IT support services. 

   Poor tech support puts a company at a higher risk for cybercrime because it often leaves technology outdated and systems in need of maintenance. On the other hand, strong IT support services can offer sound suggestions for technical controls that can mitigate security risk. These measures may include consistent patches and updates, email security, two-factor authentication, etc., all of which are designed to reduce attack surfaces in an enterprise.

5. Overall financial impact

   

   The potential financial repercussions of poor IT support are something that businesses should not ignore. Unavailability of services to external customers and poor customer service could likely lead to loss of customers and, therefore, sales. In the same manner, employees regularly dealing with tech issues get less work done, potentially requiring more people in certain projects.

   Whether it’s due to loss of sales and business opportunities, lost productivity, equipment breakdown from poor maintenance, computer malware, data breaches, or any other technology issue, the fact remains that ineffective IT support could significantly impact a company’s bottom line.

Technology investments and the related IT support that come with them may not usually be high up on a company’s priority list. But when organisations do take time to assess the value of tech support to client servicing and the overall profits, they will realise that keeping both internal and external IT customers happy is worth it.