Is Your IT Support Team Making Any of These 5 Mistakes?

Introduction

Your IT support team is often your first line of defence when it comes to troubleshooting, user setup, system configuration, and even cyberthreat prevention.

In short, that means they need to know exactly how to deal with practically any IT support problem — either through fixing it themselves or knowing who can.

But no team is perfect, and it’s possible that, whether you have an in-house or outsourced IT department, some things slip through the net.

So, here are 5 mistakes you should know about (and act upon) if you recognise them in your business.

#1: Not keeping in-step with the latest software solutions

With a family of products like Microsoft 365 being updated each and every month, no IT support department worth their salt can afford to rest on their laurels when it comes to software. So, if you find that your frontline tech support staff don’t understand or aren’t familiar with new systems or updates, it could slow down issue resolution. No team can be familiar with everything, of course, but staying up to date on the most popular business solutions is a sign of an effective IT team.

#2: Ignoring or putting off infrastructural upgrades

When it comes to your company’s IT infrastructure, there’s a very fine line between overspending on tech you don’t need and underspending on tech you do. We’ve covered the topic of the repair vs. replace dilemma before in some depth, but the short version is that there comes a point of diminishing returns on both sides of this argument. If your IT team isn’t angling for key upgrades in an effort to save money, you might actually be losing productivity as a consequence. The best advice here is to consult with the IT support experts on what’s best for your business.

#3: Not communicating effectively or working as a team

When a member of your staff has a technical hurdle they want to overcome, how long do you think it would take them to resolve it? If you either have no idea what the answer is, or it’s longer than you’d like it to be, your IT support team might not be working at full effectiveness. Likewise, if your team isn’t letting staff members know when their problems have been solved (or haven’t, as the case may be), improvements could certainly be made.

#4: Assuming everyone has the same technical knowledge as they do

Just as every human being is different, so too is every IT support team a different blend of personalities. Because of this, you may have sometimes come across some technical support teams who lean too heavily on the technical jargon side, even when explaining solutions to other staff members. For example, if an IT technician is trying to explain that a user might want a 1TB PCI SSD to expand their PC’s rapid storage, that’ll fly over many people’s heads. An effective IT support team will always explain problems – and solutions – in plain English.

#5: A lack of complete training for IT technicians

While there’s obviously no expectation for every member of your IT support team to know how to solve every issue, there is still a baseline level of knowledge all technicians should have. If any member of your team is consistently misunderstanding user problems, or has to ask someone else to step in to help, it may mean that they need additional training in order to perform reliably. Of course, this may also speak to an underlying issue with the structure of the team whereby IT support staff may require a different onboarding process. Or, you could simply lean on a team like Get Support, with an ever-growing team of fully trained IT experts here to support you whenever you need us.  

Want an IT support partner, rather than provider?

At Get Support, we pride ourselves on being able to deliver IT support services which aren’t just one-off, break-fix, or fly-by-night solutions. Instead, we always want to become a fully-fledged working partner with the companies we serve. That means being there when problems arise – but also when they don’t – to provide expert advice and guidance on IT strategy, long-term hardware and software roadmaps, and much more.

With over twenty years of experience under our belts, our team of remote IT experts can help your business out of practically any technical jam. Not only that, but with so many different personalities and skillsets on our time, we’ll always be able to match the issue up with the person who can solve it most quickly. That’s less downtime for you and more value from your IT support agreement.

To learn more about how we might be able to help your company, take a look at our IT support agreements, call us today on 01865 594 000, or fill in the form below and we’ll get back to you.