Have you ever had an incredibly high and unexpected invoice for IT services? It’s a common complaint in the Managed Service industry and, from our perspective, it’s easy to see why.
Let’s imagine an issue with a three year old laptop. The client can’t stand the thought of upgrading and simply wants to get another 12 months service from the laptop. The challenge is laid down and the service engineer welcomes the challenge with open arms. Who doesn’t love a challenge? At this point time becomes irrelevant to the engineer. The satisfaction of fixing a particularly difficult issue on an ageing computer becomes his only focus. Seven hours later the problem is fixed and both the client and the engineer are happy. That is until the client receives the invoice and they realise they could have bought a new laptop.
If it is a 3 year old laptop that you can’t live without, it is important for both sides to agree on a price before work is carried out. It is the responsibility of the engineer to estimate a project timeframe or to cap the work at a specific number of items. Having that 10 minute conversation will save hours and hours of angry emails and phone calls.
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