IT Emergencies: Use Them as Ice Breakers

When prospective clients have IT emergencies, you have an opportunity. In this article, you'll learn that two important factors come together during IT emergencies

How IT Emergencies Help You

First, the customer feels the threat of having neglected IT issues. Often a new, widespread, and deadly virus hits, and the customer discovers that renewing the anti-virus license was overlooked or there were no procedures for updating the virus definitions. Then there is the sudden business impact of having to put some IT project on the back burner.

Perhaps one the customer’s main clients wants on-line access to the status of their account. All of a sudden, the project which was on the back burner it is now boiling over.

Secondly when you have saved the day, you have both access and creditability. You are there and they are ready to listen.

How and When Will You Fix IT Emergencies?

In responding to an emergency, it is important to remember that the emergency customer is looking for assurance that the “pain” will go away as soon as possible. This means solving the problem quickly--either with a clever workaround or a direct solution.

But what does “as soon as possible” mean? That is what they are looking for you to tell them.

Within an hour or two of arriving for IT emergencies, they expect you to be able to explain the problem and to demonstrate the ability to prioritize the situation with them in terms of their business needs. They’re expecting you to know where to turn to find solutions and to be resourceful and demonstrate initiative.

Not All IT Emergencies Can Be Fixed Immediately

If you ever watched the TV show “ER,” it’s a lot of triage. It’s a lot of figuring out what absolutely has to be done today, what has to be done this morning and what can wait till the next visit. Triage is also knowing what you can do quickly to produce results. It is not always fixing the hardest problem first and sometimes it is providing a clever workaround.

Technical problems that affect the entire company, like bringing up the LAN, tend to go up to the top of the list with issues that just affect one person tending to go the bottom list. But there are exceptions.

Sometimes Even One Computer Can Create IT Emergencies

If part of the technical problems involve only a single computer but this means the clerk cannot submit online information to ADP in time to make payroll, that may, indeed will, become a top priority. In this case, something as simple as arranging for a direct dial up connection that bypasses the LAN, can be the basis of a long lasting relationship, even if the LAN remains down for three more days.

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