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Give Your Customers an Amazing Experience

Customer experience has always been important to successful businesses, and especially so today. As we grapple with the chaos COVID-19 has caused, companies are identifying new opportunities to delight customers and win more business. With people increasingly turning to software and online services to meet their needs, businesses need to leverage the appropriate technology to serve them. While completing this new digital transformation, companies should take the opportunity to create an amazing and memorable customer experience. Adaptable businesses will be able to survive and thrive even in the wake of a global pandemic.

Seven Ways to Improve Customer Experience with Technology

Building a strong business technology foundation so you have the opportunity to operate, communicate, and serve your customers online. When business leaders are struggling to see the big picture, thinking about the following seven facets of the customer experience may help.

1 – Continuity

Can your business roll with the punches and maintain continuous operations when circumstances change quickly? If your technology failed you when employees transitioned to remote work, it’s time to implement secure remote access and equip your team with the appropriate devices and software.

2 – Communication

Modern customers expect to be able to get in touch with you easily and conveniently. When they reach out, they want to make certain they are heard. Minimizing wait time for responses and resolutions makes people feel cared for, especially when there are systems in place that keep them updated along the way.

Leverage technology in a way that prepares you to listen and respond effectively via email, phone, and online outreach channels. Leverage tools like the cloud for things like documents, forms, and templates. Use VOIP phone systems to route calls, monitor communications, record calls, and more. Facilitate good customer communication by giving your employees accurate and up-to-date customer and business data. Follow through with clear and effective communications during the entire customer experience.

The goal should be to unify your communications systems so they can work together and power up your business efficiency and service quality.

3 – Software

Depending on the nature of your company, your software needs may go much deeper than communication. When you work with a trustworthy and experienced MSP, you’ll get access to the right tools and advanced integrations that bring it all together. An MSP can also help you customize your software to configure it for your specific business needs.

4 – Security

Some consumers are still nervous about moving their customer experiences to the digital realm. They are wise to be cautious about security. Outsource your cybersecurity if that’s what it takes to build trust and make everyone confident that your customer data is safe.

5 – Training

Employees should feel confident and comfortable with the technology systems they rely on to do their jobs. Customers get uneasy when the staff is struggling and getting frustrated. Better tools, role-based configurations, and effective training will eliminate headaches

6 – Business Data

Protecting data is only part of what the best MSPs in St. Louis can do. Better IT also produces better data in the first place, which allows you to refine business processes and improve customer experience.

7 – IT Recovery Solutions

Do you remember the time your company was down for a minute but got right back online? Probably not, because there’s nothing to remember. Downtime that lasts hours or days, though, is much more memorable for employees and customers alike.

Gartner has estimated that downtime costs businesses an average of $5,600 per minute (over $300,000 per hour), and that was back in 2014. Now it’s even more important to address problems and bounce back quickly. Every minute matters, so make sure your IT support team has a good backup strategy and disaster recovery plan.

Best St. Louis MSP to Improve Customer Experience

When you’re focused on improving customer experience, the right technology can make all of the difference. Here at ThrottleNet, we’re consistently rated as the top MSP in St. Louis because of our ability to work across a variety of different industries. No matter your specific business needs, we’ll find a way to improve customer experience in a way that helps you win more repeat business. Contact us today, and our experts will put together a customized plan for you.

There’s NO Time for DOWNTIME

When it comes to business continuity, there’s no time for downtime. Without top-tier security, even the best IT can be quickly rendered useless. Cyber-criminals use sophisticated tools to scan the internet looking for opportunities. Right now, as businesses scramble to make it work from remote home offices and reduced on-site teams, the internet is teeming with insidious opportunity.

32% of all businesses with 11-49 employees have reported a cyber attack within the last 12 months. - 2017 State of Cybersecurity, Better Business Bureau

Cyber-criminals don’t discriminate. Anyone can be a target. It doesn’t matter if you’re a non-profit, small business, or larger enterprise. if your business depends on technology to run smoothly (and nowadays, whose doesn’t?), it only makes sense to secure it properly.

Will IT Security Slow My Business Down?

“Thanks to the knowledgeable support team at ThrottleNet, our network is running faster and more efficient than ever before.” – Dr. Richard Goldberg

Having strong IT security doesn’t mean making every internal transaction require 2-factor authentication or that you need to install retina scanning to access your server. It means finding the right software and protocols for your needs and implementing them in smart ways that work for you. Often it simply requires that your staff and your policies follow some simple best practices, and your software is properly protected. ThrottleNet’s Custom IT Security Solutions Are the Perfect Fit

IT Security = Business Continuity

65% of all businesses could not remain profitable for more than three months if they permanently lost access to essential data. - 2017 State of Cybersecurity, Better Business Bureau

You’re in the business of staying in business. Do you have a business continuity plan? Is security is included? You know how much productivity is affected when your email goes down (we make sure it doesn’t). Now imagine not having access to your server or your essential files and data for a day. For a week? What if your data is held hostage with ransomware by someone demanding payment in bitcoin; would your business survive?

According to the Ponemon Institute, a leading private research organization that conducts independent research on privacy, data protection and information security policy, the average cost of cleaning up after being hacked stands at $690,000 for small businesses and over $1 million for mid-market companies. Most businesses can’t afford that kind of expense, especially in the faltering economy and uncertain future of COVID-19.

How Does IT Security Help You Keep the Lights On?

60% of small companies are unable to sustain their businesses over six months after a cyber attack. - U.S. National Cyber Security Alliance

The first key to IT security is prevention. Every network in the world shares a common weakest link – its users. Keeping your staff keenly trained on best practices and on the lookout for threats is your number one defense against cyber crime. Don’t overlook this crucial element in your IT security strategy!

The next key is protection. Getting targeted by a cyberattack might be inevitable, but getting penetrated is not. A proactive cyber defense plan will not only engage your employees as a security force, but use technology solutions to shield your network, databases, and communication systems from viruses, phishing, ransomware, malware, and all other tools criminals use attack your business.

Must-have IT security technologies include:

Firewalls
Offsite backups with cloud replication

Threat monitoring
Virus/malware/adware detection and removal

Software patches
Heuristic Threat Detecting Software

Don’t forget about your policies and procedures! Tools are only effective if you use them correctly.

The third key is planning. In the event of a cyber-attack, you need your business to be part of the 40 percent that survives. This means having a complete disaster recovery and business continuity plan in place with technology at its core. In the old days, of paper and physical theft and destruction, what was lost was lost forever and there was no going back. But we live in the future now, and technology has mitigated that risk. Play your security strategy right, and your business can be back up, running, and recovering in no time.

ThrottleNet Keeps the Lights on For You

“Ultimately, ThrottleNet’s quick response and expertise has been crucial in supporting our infrastructure at RBO PrintLogistix.” – Jim Riley, CEO and President of RBO PrintLogistix

Backing up data is one thing; testing the backups is another. What good is a backup file if it’s infected with the same ransomware that’s holding your data hostage? The time to plan is before there’s an emergency; redundancies are now essential. By working together, we’ll make sure your business has a plan to stay up and running.

Explore a Managed IT Security Solution for Your Business

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