Although it can vary between the different industries of our clients, most managed IT service providers have to offer some type of after-hours support services. For some businesses, requests for after-hours support will be rare. For those that provide services in the retail or hospitality verticals, it could be quite often. Regardless of the frequency of need, providing after-hours services requires some thoughtful planning. It’s imperative to ensure that it’s well executed for the good of the provider and our clients.
What follows are the areas of consideration that must be thought through to successfully establish after-hours support services. Providers, whether large or small, have the same considerations; however, the scope and implementation will vary. In the end, a successful plan must have policies and procedures that go with each of these areas.
Service
First, we must consider whether providing after-hours support is something that we, in our business, want to do. If so, the service decisions we make must ensure that we can remain profitable while offering after-hours support. And that requires asking a lot of questions. For example, it’s important to ask these: Is after-hours support a need our clients have? If so, what is the frequency of requests for after-hours support? Will this type of service be included in our service plans, or will there be an additional charge? Will it be included in some plans but excluded from others?
Typically, most MSPs would offer some type of after-hours support, so additional questions would be warranted. Those might include the following: What hours/days are considered normal business hours versus after-hours? Does our client base have a need for 24/7 service? Conversely, would other extended-support hours suffice?
Once we have the necessary information, we can get more specific about how the services would be implemented. An IT service provider whose firm averages one after-hours call a month is going to implement a much different process from a service provider whose firm averages 20 a week. Solopreneur providers will handle things differently from larger firms, as well.
There are various ways of handling these after-hours requests. We must find the way that works best for our own business. Many firms utilize internal staff with an on-call rotation; others, meanwhile, have extended working hours for their staff. A growing trend, however, is to partner with a helpdesk-services company.
When partnering for helpdesk services, there are other decisions we need to make based on our business and the services we want to provide for our clients. Do we require the helpdesk to be staffed only by technicians for whom English is their first language? Must these technicians be based in the United States? Obviously, one factor is how much they charge for their services. Outsourced helpdesk companies can be great for tier-one support; however, if your client base has unique situations or needs outside the scope of normal helpdesk issues, you might need a company that can provide you with a dedicated team of technicians.
Request Methods
It might not seem like it at first, but the methods used when clients need help represent one of the most important aspects of after-hours support, as well as support requests in general. After-hours requests are often more urgent — otherwise, people could just wait until the next business day — so it becomes even more imperative to make sure that requests are received.
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First, we must determine the methods used to request after-hours support. Are clients able to call and use our after-hours phone tree to get help? Must they submit a support request using a portal or website? Support options should be as simple as possible, and they should ensure the proper team member sees the request in the amount of time that the service agreement stipulates. It’s important and necessary to test after-hours request methods periodically to make sure they work properly.
Regardless of the methods used for after-hours requests, we must communicate them properly to our clients. If we are providing after-hours service, we must make sure that clients know how to get to that service — especially during a time of frustration, when emotions can run high. It is extremely important for clients to understand that after-hours requests will only be handled if they come in through established methods; otherwise, there is a risk they will be missed. A client who doesn’t follow the proper procedures for requesting support during business hours will likely also not follow them after business hours. Sometimes, we might have to have a conversation with a client to help them understand the importance of using the proper support-request methods.
Expectations
Regardless of how great our after-hours services might be, and irrespective of how innovative our support-request methods are, problems will manifest themselves if a client does not have the proper expectations about those services. We must properly convey the exact nature of the after-hours services we provide, as well as any charges that the client will incur for using those services. Additionally, they should know all of the following: if there is a guaranteed response time, the types of services available, the hours and days of after-hours support, and how they can access after-hours support.
Managing expectations is our responsibility. We must be careful that we properly manage them by ensuring that we follow our own policies, as well. Our policies are there to ensure we are efficient; we offer excellent service; and we are profitable. When we do not follow our own policies, we tend to confuse our clients’ expectations. That will cause problems. A client who is used to texting your personal mobile phone instead of using your established support-request methods will be frustrated if, in the event of an emergency, you don’t see their text.
These expectations should be handled in our managed-service agreements, signed by each client. Properly communicating these expectations helps to avoid a client ending up unhappy with a fee they incurred or a call that went unanswered. And even if they are, the agreement at least offers a starting point for a conversation to discuss expectations.
Diana Giles is president of Skyline IT Management, a member of The ASCII Group since 2021.
