With IT support now encompassing a broad range of responsibilities from detailed consultancy to long-term security, it’s never been more important to ensure that you know how to sort the best IT service providers from those who cost you big money, but don’t deliver big results.

As we discussed in a recent blog, you may be looking  change your IT service provider if you’re dissatisfied with the service you are getting. But what might that dissatisfaction look like, and what are some of the telltale signs that your IT services provider no longer serves its purpose? Here are five concrete signals that you have a decision to make.

The best IT service providers deliver excellent customer service

Let’s start with the basics. A good company, whatever the industry, needs to work towards a consistent level of customer satisfaction. Nobody wants to stick with an IT service provider who consistently underperforms in this department.

In 2023, Mirus saw its more than 14,000 customer satisfaction surveys return a 98.47% ‘good’ rating – with just 1.53% rating engineers ‘neutral’ or ‘poor’. We can’t promise to get absolutely everything right, every time – but the best IT service providers learn from their mistakes and improve where necessary.

If your IT service provider isn’t giving you a 98% success rate – and while you may not have figures to hand, you’ll know in your gut – it may be time to switch.

Caller waiting: the best IT service providers don’t keep you on hold or make you call back

More and more, people are becoming used to dealing with questions and concerns via webchat, often with a real customer service advisor or with a friendly and helpful chatbot. But there are some situations that still require a real human conversation, usually when something has gone badly wrong, or you need a fast answer to a pressing question.

Pre-pandemic surveys show that 60% of customers will wait less than two minutes for their call to be answer and 29% will wait less than 60 seconds, with 13% stating that absolutely no waiting time at all is acceptable . This goes to show that being confident that your IT service provider will answer your call when you need them is among the highest priorities for customers. In the new hybrid working world, where remote working has become the norm, it’s safe to assume that peoples’ tolerance for wasted call time has only decreased further.

At Mirus, our calls are answered by engineers who have a 65% success rate for first-time-call fixes, meaning less chance of a subsequent call to solve the same problem. All of our support team are 2^nd line engineers, so you can have confidence that your problem will be dealt with by one of our experts. W

Offering flexibility and evolution sets the best IT service providers apart

Over time, your business needs will change. As your organisation changes size and structure, and as your focuses evolve with industry trends, you’ll need an IT service provider that can not only keep pace with you, but offer guidance, support and an expert eye on what offers best value and logical operational evolution. For example, with cyber security threats on the rise, one of the most important steps an organisation can take is partnering with a reliable IT service provider that offers comprehensive security services. If your provider isn’t offering industry-leading security, it might be time to change things up.

Aside from security, some service providers are fixed in their approach, believing that a one-size-fits-all attitude toward service provision is the best way of maintaining consistency. Others are flexible right up until you sign a contract and then become unflinchingly rigid when you need to adapt the services that they provide you with.

We know that organisations are living, breathing instruments of change. From personal decision-making to global economic factors, business requirements don’t stay the same for long, and we are proud that our clients can choose from a range of IT and technology solutions to help run businesses more successfully and smoothly. If your IT service provider can’t deliver what you need, then they’re simply not for you.

Whether you need strategic IT advice, you want to drill down into the readiness and viability of your security systems, or you need expert guidance deploying new technology to build a modern workplace and boost remote working possibility, Mirus will always put your success at the forefront of our service provision.

The best IT service providers communicate clearly and concisely

By partnering with the best in the business, your IT service provider becomes one of your greatest assets. Through offering up-to-date information and educating you on technology evolution, your IT service provider can help you better understand how to get the most from your technological investments.

One of the primary failings of which an IT service provider can be guilty is not sharing their knowledge and their expertise with you. Whether directly related to the solutions that they are providing you with, or as part of overall strategic guidance, the best IT service providers will make sure that their knowledge and expertise become your knowledge and expertise.

Avoiding complex jargon and complicated technical specifications, information from your provider should be digestible and clear. Your IT service provider should make sure that you understand the service that they are offering and how they make a tangible difference to your business. Not only will this knowledge better place you to judge the quality of the service you are receiving, but it will allow you to further identify weaknesses and other priorities you may need to address.

With a slew of service excellence awards, business awards and Microsoft awards, you can confidently engage our services knowing that Mirus will offer you not only best-in-class service provision, but leading customer experience, too.

Your IT service provider should be helping you grow as an organisation, not passively answering your needs without including you in the decision-making process and knowledge-sharing. If they aren’t, it might be time to switch.

Have more than one IT service provider? A sure sign you aren’t with one of the best

One of the great benefits to enlisting an external IT service provider is that it’s more cost effective than hiring full-time additional IT staff. By gaining the vast expertise of an external team, coupled with the wide array of services they can provide, the best IT service providers should be able to manage every aspect of your business’s IT needs.

Despite this, some organisations find themselves paying for two IT service providers, such as one for cyber security and one for IT strategy. If this doesn’t apply to you, you’re lucky, but if it does – it’s definitely time to switch.

Not only does engaging more than one IT service provider make little financial sense, but it can also create risks for your organisation. Reliable and sustainable IT support hinges on various individual elements all working together in tandem, and without clear delineation between your providers there’s a high chance of overlapping responsibilities. Entirely by accident, one provider could offer conflicting advice to the other, even making direct changes to your IT posture that damage other decisions you have made. At best, you’ll be at the mercy of an inconsistent approach to IT, which certainly won’t deliver a cost-effective use of your technology.

Is Mirus the IT service provider for you?

Whether you have been thinking of switching IT service providers for some time, or the reasons detailed above have struck a chord, we can help to ensure that any change is as seamless as possible.

Mirus IT can help you transition towards greater value, with award-winning support from one of the best IT service providers in the UK. Get in touch with us to find out more about switching your IT support.