Almost every technology provider promises the same thing: that they’ll be there when needed. The problem is that “being there” has no unit of measure.
What happens without a deadline
Without an agreed response time, each case is handled according to mood, the day’s workload or whoever called loudest. The company can’t complain because nothing was ever agreed. And the provider can’t improve either, because it doesn’t know how long it really takes.
What changes with a number
When the agreement sets a response time in hours, three things happen. Requests come in through a single channel, because the clock has to start somewhere. Every case is logged with an opening and a closing time. And at the end of the month there is a figure anyone can read.
Commitment that can’t be counted turns into an opinion.
One person accountable
The second part is a name. Each account has one person who answers for it, even when a team does the work. The company doesn’t have to explain its problem three times or guess who to write to.
It isn’t the most visible part of support. It’s the part that stops a business from depending on whether someone picks up the phone.