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Good customer service essential when choosing a business broadband supplier

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With small businesses increasingly operating from multiple sites as well as from home, technology is fundamental to ensure that the business remains connected and that staff and locations can be managed centrally.

The level of customer service and support are therefore very important considerations to bear in mind when choosing a broadband supplier.

Lance Spencer, Product Director from Pipex has provided us with some important things to look out for when choosing a broadband supplier for your business:

UK-Based 24/7 dedicated customer service:

Buying into low-cost, value broadband packages with a minimum level of support provided from an off-shore/outsourced location cannot offer small businesses the required level or speed of customer support needed.

Outsourced support centres often have longer lead times in resolving customer issues than in-house support centres with technicians and advisors experienced in business support who can fix the problem quickly and efficiently with as little disruption to the business as possible. A UK-based customer support service that is accessible every hour of the day and every day of the week with experience in dealing with business customers is crucial when selecting a broadband provider.

Speedy Response Times:

Each working hour without internet connection could cost a small business dearly. The entire time that a business is unable to connect to its broadband service, it loses out on critical interactions with its customers and suppliers and restricts access to its online applications. Without these key applications and connectivity, a business is in no position to make informed decisions, which is detrimental to its growth.

Service providers should therefore be committed to resolving any issues with a business broadband service as soon as possible. Enhanced care options can guarantee your services is up and running again in half the time of competitive guarantees - within ten hours compared to the standard of 24 hours.

Suitable Broadband Products:

Wading through a variety of packages, options and services offerings, each with its own variation of customer support levels, small businesses quite often do not realise that they may be buying into a package which does not meet their specific needs. Businesses that rely on large file transfers, video conferencing, Voice over IP, online content creation and publishing and graphics design will benefit from enhanced upstream, i.e., faster upload speeds than standard products.

The service provider should be able to identify the business’ needs and assess which package or offering would fulfil them best.

Guaranteed Bandwidth:

A business that relies on its broadband connection for critical applications can’t afford to have its bandwidth drop at peak hours. A broadband service provider should be able to provide a customer with a constant data-transfer speed that does not slow down at any point of the day ensuring that business can run at full speed at all times. Hence, choosing a service that prioritises business traffic and provides its customers with guaranteed bandwidth eliminates the stress that comes with latency or disruptions in the broadband connection.

Moving forwards, customers will continue to be driven by the need to have a seamless and uninterrupted experience when using business broadband. This will mainly be gauged by business uptime and being able to use to the full all of the applications necessary. As technology and the Internet are increasingly used for rich media, new applications will continue to develop and help to increase sales through new channels. In this environment, a business should expect that its technology partners will continue to evolve and support this.

Further Bytestart Resources

Posted December 9, 2008
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