1. Reliability And Availability
It’s no-brainer that your business suffers when its internet availability and reliability is questionable. From customer email inquiries going unanswered, to lack of productivity when your team’s unable to access business-critical tools; unreliable internet costs your business in both time and money. Downtime and outages may be an inevitable reality for many business internet service providers, but their commitment to resolving issues can make a big difference. Being without internet for 20 minutes compared to 20 hours makes a huge impact when it comes to a business internet provider’s incident response service.
Decide what priorities are most important to your business and make sure you read any fine print when it comes to your business internet availability service.
2. Customer Service And Support
Everybody knows how frustrating sitting on hold can be after just a few minutes, and it’s no different when it comes to your internet service provider’s customer support and accessibility. From friendly telephone customer service representatives and online chat services, to knowledge database and help forums, great customer service comes in many forms.
How critical is 24/7 customer support to your business operations compared to a typical 9am-5pm workday service, and are there any hidden charges for tech support? If you do experience outages, how cooperative will your business ISP be in providing a bill credit, or, responsive to any other concerns you may have?
3. Bandwidth And Speed
When figuring out the right internet plan for your business, you need to consider how many people will be using it at the same time, and the kind of tasks they’ll be using it for. The speed and bandwidth you need for every day email use versus services like VoIP or video conferences can vary greatly. Also, consider whether your business operations require uploading as well as downloading of data; while insufficient download speeds are an obvious frustration point for users, upload speed is an equally significant consideration if your business relies on cloud data storage and access or uses video conferencing software.
4. Price, Contract Terms, And Bundling
Although finding an amazing deal on an affordable business internet plan is obviously an ideal goal, it’s important to consider if there are any associated trade-offs to the monthly figure you pay for it. Are you willing to lock your business into a two or three year plan, or, is it worth paying slightly more for the flexibility and freedom of a month-to-month plan that allows you to change your service—without a penalty fee—if you need to? If your business needs to relocate, expand, or downsize, this may be an important consideration to factor in.
Bundle options can be a great solution for businesses who require a number of different technology services, such as cable tv, phone, and internet. Not only do you have the convenience of rolling everything into a ‘one-stop-shop’ monthly bill, but bundling can help eliminate unknown spending variables, as well as provide a more cost-effective option.
To learn more about business internet, as well as bundling options, get a free Internet Access (ISP) quote from us. As one of Baltimore’s top solutions to finding affordable and reliable business internet services, we can discuss the options that will best suit your company. Contact us today to learn more!
