Remote IT support has been a standard solution for small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) for years now. In a 2019 survey of over 500 small business owners, 37% used managed IT services. In fact, IT services were the most popular business process to outsource.
Of course, things have changed drastically over the past year – and remote IT support is now more important than ever. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused workers to migrate from their offices into remote working positions.
Before the pandemic, only around 7% of the U.S. workforce had telework options and now nearly 33% of employees are working from home, according to NPR – meaning that companies have a bigger need than ever to supply their teams with reliable remote IT support.
Benefits of Remote Tech Support for Small Businesses
As the pandemic has forced many companies to adopt remote work strategies faster than ever, it’s worth exploring the benefits of remote IT support and how they fit into a post-pandemic work environment.
1. Quick Response Time
Certain IT problems have simple solutions: patches, updates, or configuration changes. These aren’t the types of issues that require the dedicated skills of in-house technicians, but they often get called to resolve them nonetheless.
With remote technical support services, businesses have a simple way to resolve these basic issues quickly. One of the key benefits of a remote IT tech support service is that help desk agents can take control of the user’s system, check for issues, and apply support solutions as needed, 100% remotely.
2. Increase in Employee Productivity
Quick issue resolution means less time waiting and more time working. Nothing tanks productivity faster than a nasty security breach or a business system failure. With so many employees moving to remote work solutions, these productivity issues are compounded.
Help desk software solutions keep things moving and provide employees with the support to stay fully focused on their tasks.
3. Around the Clock Support
A modern business isn’t limited by geography when they move to remote work operations. Even smaller SMBs may have customers across the globe in various geographic regions and time zones. This can be a challenge for providing first-class support, particularly when done in-house.
On the other hand, the benefits of remote IT support mean that all customers can access 24/7 help desk support, regardless of their location or time zone. This is one of the biggest benefits of remote help, as it guarantees that all customers in the network will be protected at all times of the day and night.
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4. Immediate Access to Experts
Having an in-house technician is great – but what happens when that technician hits a roadblock in the troubleshooting process?
With remote access support, companies can access the skills of an entire team of IT professionals. Should one technician be unable to resolve a customer issue, that support ticket will escalate through the support team until it reaches someone who can provide a solution.
Additionally, these support technicians may be held to higher service level standards as determined in the vendor agreement, which can provide some assurance of quality and additional security to business owners.
5. Ongoing Education
Remote tech support can be a simple way to teach employees about basic computer fixes. Most of us who have dealt with in-house IT know that it’s not always an interactive educational experience. But with remote support and screen sharing, workers can watch IT personnel navigate folders and programs to find solutions to IT issues.
Although limited, these workflows can be a great way to educate team members on basic IT fixes and make it less likely that they’ll request help in the future. This aspect can be particularly helpful in dealing with the new remote workforce, as many will experience basic issues with simple tasks such as laptop configuration that will need correction.
6. In-Depth Monitoring
It can be hard to collect internal data on in-house IT issues when you aren’t specifically monitoring them. A dedicated IT support vendor with the right tools will help with that.
These vendors will keep comprehensive notes on your company’s service needs, including tickets issued per hour, first contact resolution rates, most common technical problems, employees who have the most service requests, and so on.
This data can be valuable for internal assessments on employee performance and IT efficiency. Leverage this data when available and make use of your service provider’s data collection capabilities.
Remote IT Support Benefits
The benefits of getting remote IT support aren’t limited to one facet of your service – they affect every aspect of worker productivity and employee management. And even after the pandemic settles down, the need for remote work options will remain. In fact, it’s estimated that 25-30% of the workforce will still work from home multiple days per week by the end of 2021.
Get familiar with the client benefits of remote IT support as you choose your options, and look for solutions that will help prepare you for the new normal, that is remote work. Contact the experts at Fusion Computing to find the right remote IT support solution for your business. With Fusion, you work with 100% local techs whether your service needs are onsite or remote.
