Same day, remotely
- Printing, email and accounts
- Slow machines and software faults
- Microsoft 365 and mailbox problems
- Most of what people ring about
Usually today. Here is the honest version rather than a number chosen because it sounds good.
Most IT problems are fixed remotely the same day. The ones that need somebody in the room are normally same or next day in Luton. What you will not get is a promise that cannot be kept.
Monday to Saturday, 9am to 9pm. Sundays are kept for emergencies.
Remote work needs nothing installed in advance and no appointment. If it can be fixed without a visit, it usually is, because that is faster for you as well as for me.
No ticket number, no first-line script, no being passed on. The phone is answered by the person who will do the work, which removes the step where most of the delay normally lives.
Most faults do not need anybody in the room. Starting remotely means the clock starts when you ring rather than when a van arrives.
The same person every time, who does not need the history explained again. Second calls are always faster than first ones, and that only works if it is not a different engineer each time.
Parts. If a drive or a screen has to be ordered, the fix waits on delivery, and you will be given the real date rather than an optimistic one. Where a machine matters enough that you cannot wait, that is worth discussing before it fails rather than after.
Being on another job. One person can only be in one place, so occasionally the answer is tomorrow rather than today. You get told which, straight away, so you can decide whether to wait or to call somebody else. Both are reasonable and neither will be taken badly.
Sundays and out of hours. Kept for genuine emergencies, which mostly means a business that cannot open. Routine work waits for Monday, and that is deliberate rather than a limitation to apologise for.
And the one worth saying plainly: if you need guaranteed cover round the clock, you need a team with rotas, not one person. You should hear that from me rather than find it out during an outage.
Remote help is usually the same day, Monday to Saturday, 9am to 9pm. On site in Luton or Dunstable is normally same or next day. Harpenden, Hitchin and further out are planned visits rather than same-day. Sundays are kept for emergencies.
Because one person cannot honestly guarantee it, and a number that gets missed is worse than no number at all. What you get instead is a straight answer when you ring: either I can be there today, or I tell you when I can and you decide.
Almost always, and it fixes most things. Printers, email, accounts, slow machines and software faults rarely need anybody in the room. A visit is for hardware, networks and anything that needs hands on the machine.
You get told that, with a realistic time, rather than being left wondering. If it cannot wait and it is genuinely urgent, say so and it gets treated that way.
Sundays are kept for emergencies, not routine work. If your business cannot open on Monday because something has failed, that counts.
Then you need a team with proper rotas, and you should be told that rather than sold something thinner. Above roughly twenty people, or where no downtime is tolerable at all, one person is the wrong answer and I will say so.
Tell me what is playing up, or send me your web address. You get back one page: what is slow, what is insecure, and what Google cannot see. If the answer is that you do not need me, I will say so.