A common question asked of support teams for IT systems is: “Do you have 24×7 technical support?” This is a common feature and selling point in the managed service provider industry. A majority of companies claim to provide 24×7 support, but in practice you receive significantly less service.
That is NOT 24×7!
Let’s explore some common scenarios.
You are working at 6PM on a project that must be completed by the end of the next business day. You have most of the work completed, and just need to communicate with the project manager to get a few items finished. You compose an email and click send. Instead of the email being sent, it just sits in your Outbox. You attempt to resend it, and it still will not leave the Outbox. At this point, you pick up the phone and call your 24×7 support. It is now 7PM, but time shouldn’t matter, as it is 24×7. Instead of getting the normal greeting, you get an afterhours greeting that tells you to leave a message, or that the phone call is being transferred to a technician. Frustrated that no one answered, you leave a detailed message explaining your email problem. Now what do you do? Wait around to be available when someone responds? Go home because no one will respond?
Our experience at Computer Crews tells us that you are lucky if someone were to respond. If someone does respond, the service you get is going to be sub-par. You will either get someone working from a script with limited or no knowledge of your system or problem, or you will get a call from someone telling you they are looking into it without any other information. In a real life scenario, the problem won’t be addressed or fixed to the following business day even with support “24x7”.
Most of the time, you will not get anyone to respond even with 24×7 support. There are only a few people at any given MSP that will know your system well enough and have the technical skills to quickly fix a problem without a significant delay. Getting someone to respond, with the right skillset, and knowledge is difficult, and it quickly changes the meaning of 24×7 support.
If you happen to be working with a company that provides 24×7 support, I suggest you TEST it. Try to have them help you between 5PM and 9AM and see how fast they respond. Do they even respond at all? Were they able to actually help you? Did they resolve the problem immediately, or did they wait to work on it till the next day? Did they consider your problem to be an emergency? You will then have to decide whether 24×7 is a feature you need, or even want based on the response of the MSP Company.
In the IT Support industry we tend to see that 24×7 support is just a marketing term. The support you expect is not what you get and in our experience 24×7 support is the same as next business day support. If you happen to have a company that responds in a timely manner AND with enough support to fix your problem, then make sure you let them know you appreciate the service. It is rare to find the support you need at a price you can afford.