Why small businesses dump their IT Consulting Services

For more than 10 years, we have been approached by small business in the Chicago area about our IT consulting services. Many of them are unhappy with their current IT service provider and are looking for something different. It might be helpful to summarize some of their complaints, so that you can avoid several common problems.

Terrible response time for support: It is shocking—but not uncommon—to hear about IT consultants failing to return phone calls for weeks, or failing to show up at a promised meeting. It is important to be sure you have extremely reliable IT help. Two ways to ensure this: get a list of references and ask them about responsiveness. Another method is to call them out of the blue during the initial engagement process, perhaps during lunch hours or in the late afternoon. See what kind of response you get.

High billing with low results: Small businesses do not like to be overcharged for meager results. To make matters worse, some IT consulting firms are dismissive when questioned about their invoices. It is important that invoices are discussed openly and disputes settled properly. It is more important that IT consulting companies follow up and ensure that the client is happy with the results. A meeting of the minds is important: the client should not be expected to pay until he is satisfied with the results. So it’s a good idea to ask a prospective IT consulting company how they would deal with a disputed bill. It would be useful, as well, to see a sample of their bills. Detailed invoices help both the company and the customer in pinpoint and resolve problems quickly and efficiently.

Hiding behind jargon: While it is true that consultants are hit-and-miss, personality-wise, there’s no excuse for the most common complaint heard about IT consultants: that they’re arrogant and use incomprehensible jargon. Be sure your IT consulting firm doesn’t hide behind jargon. When it comes down to it, they should be able to explain themselves to anyone. All it takes, really, is time and patience. They should let you ask as many questions as you need to, and they should respond with clear and concise answers.

Authored by: Jimmy Kim