Maintaining a good relationship in any working environment is important, not only for the obvious reason of keeping the peace, but it helps promote productivity, communication and overall morale in the workplace.
When it comes to your managed IT services, it’s important to establish a good level of communication to keep operations running as smoothly as possible. After all, if they don’t uphold their side of the bargain, your business will suffer in some way or another. But how do you know if you’ve established good communication? Faults from your IT provider might not be due to incompetence and, in fact may be entirely down to poor communication.
Today we’re going to look at how you can recognize if you have good communication between your business and your IT provider.
You’re honest with each other
A white lie never hurt anyone – or did it? Failing to tell the complete truth in a working relationship can create unnecessary paths, reducing productivity and affecting the outcome. If you’re always honest, you’ve got the base of a great working relationship with your IT provider.
Hold regular meetings
Communication is key in any working relationship, and while there’s a good chance your IT provider knows their way around the job, regularly communicating progression, problems and ideas helps establish a professional working relationship. Pro tip: jot down issues and questions you may have between meetings to make the most out of your catch up sessions.
You can easily get in touch
Problems can arise in the blink of an eye – especially when it comes to IT related issues. Having the ability to easily get in contact is essential, and if you have no problems contacting your IT provider, it’s likely you’ve got a great working relationship. Managed IT services should be available in fairly short notice for their clients.
Attitude
We’ve all been there; you call IT with a problem you’re experiencing that’s affecting your business. You’re met with a can’t-be-bothered attitude and this negatively affects your relationship with them. Striving to uphold a positive attitude on both sides of the relationship is equal to better communication with your IT provider.
Consistency
When speaking at work, the words you choose are important. Your team should not be confused by your suggestions. To save time, you should express your message using the fewest words possible and maintain consistency in tone, voice, and subject. Repetition is not an option. Make an effort to utilize brief phrases and words so that the wrong message isn’t conveyed to your IT provider. They should also be committed to providing the same in return to assure a quality and long lasting working relationship.
Friendship
While there will always be people that are simply incompatible, having a genuine friendship with those you work with makes working life so much easier. Take the time to befriend your IT provider! You’ll find that all of the above mould into place and you have great communication!