When your technology fails, how long can your business wait? The answer directly impacts your bottom line and employee morale.
The Real Cost of IT Downtime
Every minute of downtime costs money:
Direct Costs:
- -Lost productivity (employee wages during downtime)
- -Lost revenue (if customer-facing systems)
- -Recovery costs (overtime, emergency services)
Indirect Costs:
- -Employee frustration and morale
- -Customer dissatisfaction
- -Missed deadlines
- -Reputation damage
Doing the Math
A simple calculation for your business:
Hourly cost of downtime = (Affected employees × Average hourly wage) + Lost revenue per hour
- -20 employees × $30/hour = $600/hour in wages
- -Add any lost sales or missed opportunities
- -A 4-hour outage = $2,400+ in direct costs alone
Multiply this across all IT incidents per year. The number gets big fast.
What Good Response Times Look Like
Different issues require different response speeds.
Critical Issues (System Down) **Expected Response: 15-30 minutes**
- -Server crash affecting all users
- -Network outage
- -Security breach in progress
- -Email system down
These require immediate attention. Every minute matters.
High Priority (Significant Impact) **Expected Response: 1-2 hours**
- -Key application not working
- -Multiple users affected
- -VPN issues preventing remote work
- -Printing system down
Important but not company-wide emergency.
Medium Priority (Limited Impact) **Expected Response: 4-8 hours**
- -Single user workstation issues
- -Software installation requests
- -Non-critical application problems
- -Minor performance issues
Annoying but work can continue.
Low Priority (Minimal Impact) **Expected Response: 24-48 hours**
- -General questions
- -Feature requests
- -Training needs
- -Non-urgent changes
Can wait for normal business flow.
Questions to Ask Your IT Provider
When evaluating IT support, ask:
About Response Times
- What are your guaranteed response times by priority?
- How do you define each priority level?
- What are your actual average response times? (Ask for data)
- Do you have 24/7 support? After-hours rates?
- How do I reach you for emergencies?
About Resolution Times
Response time isn't resolution time. Also ask:
- What's your average time to resolution by priority?
- How do you handle issues requiring vendor support?
- What's your escalation process?
- Do you track and report on these metrics?
About Communication
- How will I know you received my request?
- How often will you update me during an incident?
- Do you have a customer portal for tracking?
- Will I have a dedicated point of contact?
Warning Signs of Poor IT Support
Red flags to watch for:
- -No defined SLAs or response commitments
- -Can't provide actual response time data
- -Difficult to reach during business hours
- -No after-hours emergency support
- -Poor communication during incidents
- -Same issues recurring repeatedly
- -Blaming users or other vendors
- -Resistance to documentation
What We Promise
At KaselTech, we believe response time is fundamental:
Our Commitments:
- -Critical issues: Response within 30 minutes
- -High priority: Response within 2 hours
- -All requests acknowledged within 4 hours
- -24/7 emergency support for critical issues
- -Real-time visibility into ticket status
- -Regular performance reporting
We track and share our metrics because we believe in accountability.
Building a Productive IT Relationship
Fast response times are important, but the relationship matters too.
What makes IT support work well:
- **Clear communication** - Both ways
- **Proactive monitoring** - Catch issues before users notice
- **Documentation** - So anyone on the team can help
- **Regular reviews** - Discuss trends and improvements
- **Strategic planning** - Not just break-fix
Evaluate Your Current Support
Quick assessment questions:
- -How long do you wait for IT help on average?
- -Do urgent issues get treated urgently?
- -Are the same problems happening repeatedly?
- -Do you know when issues are resolved?
- -Is your IT provider proactive or reactive?
- -Do you trust your IT team?
If you're not happy with the answers, it might be time for a change.
Ready for Better IT Support?
We'd love to show you what responsive, reliable IT support looks like. Contact us for a free assessment of your current IT environment and learn how we can help your business thrive.