Choosing a supplier can be one of the most difficult decisions you will have to make for your business. In order to ensure that you pass on the best prices to your customers, coupled with excellent support, uptime and service it’s important that you choose the right one. When working with partners, if their service isn’t up to scratch, then it’s very likely that yours won’t be either. Planning and research is the key to choosing the right partner, as it is with most things in business. You need to find a supplier which allows you to fully maximize revenue, whilst providing a service that the businesses you deal with will be happy to recommend.
#1: Does the Supplier Offer 24/7 Support?
Businesses need to be sure that in the event of a disaster, they can be up and running again in no time and this isn’t possible if nobody is manning the service desk. It reflects badly on your business if you can’t help them get communications working again and it loses the business in question both time and money. The cost of downtime can be significant; according to technology research house Gartner, Inc., industry surveys suggest that the cost to a business can come to well over $300,000 per hour. This of course depends heavily on the size of the business and the industry that it’s in, but there’s no doubt that downtime is costly to every business that has a network. With that in mind, when choosing a supplier, uptime should be important but support even more so.#2: Do They Treat You as a Partner?
This may sound inconsequential, but it’s important that your provider understand that you’re in business to make money, just like you are and as such, their business goals should align with yours. The supplier should, ideally, offer training so that you and your team can fully familiarise themselves with the products – especially when it comes to sales staff as these are naturally not as technical as other staff such as your support engineers.#3: Do They Offer Clear Revenue Models?
When it comes to business planning, it’s difficult to deal with financials such as profit and loss forecasting if you can’t effectively plan it out first. With this in mind, it a supplier that you have in mind is vague about the revenue that you can make based on margins, then it’s unlikely that you will be able to effectively plan. Transparency is always desirable in a partner so if your telecoms supplier isn’t being too forthcoming then do ask yourself why. When it comes to cost, don’t just go for the cheapest or the most expensive option either. Yes the least pricey will give you better revenue, but may not offer a decent level of support. Conversely, the most well-known suppliers may also not offer this as they are busy and as such have very busy support lines. Research your provider well and ask for testimonials and case studies before coming to a decision and remember that you want to offer your customers value which covers price and service. Don’t assume anything about the companies that you are looking to partner with. A low cost service doesn’t necessarily mean a low quality one and a well-known name doesn’t particularly mean that they are right for you and your business.#4: Is the Service Highly Scalable?
Cloud services tend to be scalable in that they can grow with your business and your telecoms provider should allow the same. Ideally you should look for a supplier who offers services on a pay-as-you-go model so that you don’t pay for more than you use. This allows you to keep revenues tight and grow your telecoms business at a pace that suits you.
