remote access

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.

Due to the current situation, employees find themselves working from home, and students are finding themselves attending class online. Zoom has become the go-to method of video and audio communication among employees, students, teachers, etc. because they are able to access Zoom on almost any device from anywhere, anytime. With Zoom comes a new trend, Zoom Bombing.

What is Zoom Bombing?

Zoom Bombing occurs when uninvited guests, otherwise known as hijackers, guess the correct URL or meeting id for a public Zoom session, giving them access to the feed/meeting. These hijackers cause disruptions by releasing personal information or simply yelling profanities in the meeting. This new trend has people asking how to prevent zoom bombing from happening.

Here are ten ways to prevent Zoom bombing:

(As recommended by the Better Business Bureau)

1. REQUIRE A PASSWORD TO JOIN YOUR MEETING

One of the easiest ways to prevent Zoom bombing from happening to you is to require a password to join your meeting. Requiring a password provides extra security against hijackers because not only would they have to guess the correct URL/meeting id, but they would have to guess the correct password as well, which is unlikely to happen.

2. USE A UNIQUE ID FOR LARGE OR PUBLIC ZOOM CALLS

Whenever you create a Zoom meeting, you are required to either create an id for the meeting or generate a random id. Generating a random id will always give you the more unique and secure id, but creating your own id will work as well, as long you…

3. DON’T SHARE THE UNIQUE ID’s PUBLICLY

Another trend that has come with Zoom is taking a screenshot of your Zoom meeting and sharing it on a social media website. This makes your meeting EXTREMELY public and allows for hijackers to get in much easier. If the meeting is private, keep it private.

4. ONLY ALLOW HOSTS TO SHARE THEIR SCREEN

This is also a simple yet effective way to keep the hijackers out is to only allow the host(s) to share their screen. Giving anyone in a Zoom meeting the ability to take control of the screen is an easy way for guests, whether invited or uninvited, to share unwanted content.

5. CREATE A WAITING ROOM

A Zoom waiting room works just like any other waiting room. A waiting room stops guests from joining the meeting until the host(s) is ready for them to join. It’s a way to make sure that no uninvited guests are waiting to get into the meeting, kind of like a bouncer at a club.

6. CREATE AN INVITE-ONLY MEETING

An invite-only meeting is just like it sounds. Nobody can enter this meeting unless they have been invited by the host(s). Nobody likes it when an uninvited guest shows up to a party, so don’t allow it to happen here either.

7. LOCK THE MEETING ONCE IT STARTS

Once the meeting starts, the host has an option to lock it. Locking your zoom meeting will not allow any new members to join the meeting, even if they have the correct id and password. It’s better to be safe than sorry when locking your car or the doors in your house, so do the same with your Zoom meeting.

8. REMOVE ATTENDEES OR PUT THEM ON HOLD IF THEY BECOME DISRUPTIVE

Anytime someone in your meeting is being disruptive or distracting other attendees, just remove them from the meeting. If you remove someone from the meeting, they are not allowed to rejoin.

9. DISABLE THE UNRUY PARTICIPANT’S CAMERA OR ALL CAMERAS

Assuming this is an option, hosts are allowed to disable the camera of any and all members of the meeting. This will allow any unwanted, inappropriate gesture to be blocked for everyone in the group.

10. MAKE SURE THE DISABLE FILE TRANSFER SETTING IS ACTIVE

Once in a meeting, if file transfer is not turned off, it is common for hijackers to spam the chat with memes, GIF’s, and inappropriate language/photos. Turning this setting off will stop each and every one of those things from happening before it even happens.

Now that you have learned 10 EASY ways to prevent Zoom bombing from happening in your next or all future Zoom meetings, take action. Zoom bombing may seem harmless, but people are having to get used to working and going to school remotely and need each and every minute to learn and concentrate on their work without any disruptions.

Don’t let this happen to you!

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CONTACT THROTTLENET

There are overarching concerns when working remotely are safety, security, and compliance.

It is important to ensure remote work can be performed safely and securely to avoid data being compromised.

Those in the healthcare and financial industries need to take extra precautions to ensure they are not only secure but also remain compliant.

A Solution That Meets All Compliance Requirements For Your Business

For those that aren’t aware, your remote work solution must be compliant if you are subject to HIPAA, FINRA, SOX or PCI regulations. If the method remote access isn’t compliant, you are exposing your data and business to unnecessary risk. Some things to consider when thinking about this.

Am I working in a secure, web-based environment or am I working on a local server infrastructure located in my office?

If you answered a web-based environment, you’re most likely in compliance since the provider is responsible for ensuring their systems meet whatever regulations you might be subject to.

Conversely, if you’re working via remote connectivity, you need to make sure you’re accessing the data via a secure VPN or RDP connection. If you’re not, you need to get this in place as soon as possible to ensure your data is secure while in transit.

What does working remotely means for file access and collaboration?

If you answered Office 365, you should be in compliance as these meet minimum standards; however, there are those organizations that require heightened compliance measures when using these solutions and this may require upgrading your subscription to a more compliant variation. For example, your Office365 account may need to be increased from E2 to E3 for those familiar with how Microsoft designates these.

Finally, and most importantly, if your solutions allow for MFA, please turn this on. This is one of the simplest yet most effective ways to ensure security around your data. For those that may not be familiar with this, when you log in to an application, it sends a code to your phone which provides a number you key in addition to your username and password.

Reliable Internet Connections

What does working remotely mean for a secure home internet connection? This is pretty simple since you just need something that provides minimal bandwidth and is reliable.

However, for the employer, you will need a more robust internet connection that can handle many simultaneous secure connections since you’re going to have your entire team remotely accessing the network and, as a result, consuming bandwidth. We recommend Charter as our experience with them has been positive and the speeds are typically consistent.

Keep in mind that cloud-based apps such as Microsoft Office 365 or Google Apps do not require or put any strain on the employer’s internet bandwidth. This is because your end users are accessing those secure cloud platforms directly from their pc and internet at home; however, you do want to make sure the data is as secure as possible on a home network. We’ll talk more about this later.

Either way, your remote workforce shouldn’t have to increase their connectivity – in most cases – unless they live in rural areas in which case they may be limited.

At Throttlenet we’re here to help you decide what does working remotely mean for you and your business? How can we help you and your employees stay compliant and productive? Call us for a FREE consultation today!

In our effort to better serve you in these unusual times we are unrolling a 3-part series that covers A-Z for each aspect. Check out our blog on safety and security here.