20 Questions To Ask Your Small Business IT Consultant That Could Save You Thousands of Dollars….and Possibly Even Your Business Itself

“50 percent of those calling themselves ‘consultants’ don’t really know what they’re doing, but almost 90% of those buying consulting services don’t know how to tell the difference.”
– Alan Weiss, Ph.D., of Summit Consulting Group

Not a week goes by where we don’t get a ’911 crisis call’ from a business owner with a major technical disaster that COULD have been prevented. Why do so many businesses pay for substandard computer support? Simply because they don’t know how to truly verify that their network IS secure and end up having to take someone at their word.

This checklist is for all the business owners to EDUCATE them about what to look for in an IT consultant. Below you’ll find a mini acid test you can use to determine whether or not your network really IS being supported properly.

Do they respond to emergencies in 2 hours or less?

Are they easy to reach and responsive when you need them for non-emergencies?

Do they offer an on-going maintenance program to keep critical security settings and patches up-to-date?

Do they offer a monitoring system to watch over your network 24/7 for developing problems?

Do they proactively offer new ways to improve your network’s performance, or do they wait until you have a problem to make recommendations?

Do they provide detailed service orders that clearly show what you are paying for?

Do they explain what they are doing and answer your questions in terms that you can understand?

Do they complete projects on time?

Do they follow up on your requests quickly?

Do they offer any guarantees on their services?

Do they arrive on time and dress professionally?

Do they have other engineers on staff that are familiar with your network in case your regular engineer goes on vacation or gets sick?

Do their engineers maintain current up-to-date vendor certifications and participate in on-going training?

Do you feel as though they are learning on your time?

Do they listen to you?

Are they adamant about backing up your network and having a disaster recovery plan in place?

Do they offer to meet with you regularly to review your business plans, your network status, and their own performance in supporting your company?

Do you have to manage their progress on projects or do they provide frequent updates, status reports, and frequent follow up calls and e-mails?

Do their projects always end up costing more and taking longer than you expected?

Do they offer flat-rate or fixed-fee project quotes, or do they give themselves a wide open playing field with “time and materials”?

If Your Current IT Guy Failed This Test, I Want to Give You A FREE Business Technology Audit To Make Things “Right”

CALL US NOW!