Is a business telephone system maintenance contract really needed or is it an avoidable overhead?

While you pay the fee “just in case,” a fixed fee according to your individual system that is, it’s true that technical issues cannot be foreseen so you may or may not have a problem and if you don’t, there was no necessity to spend. Or was there? Read on...

Imagine the impact of not having technical support instantly available in the event of a telephone system issue or crash. Your customers, colleagues and business associates won’t be able to reach you via telephone and, potentially, your e-mail and internet services will be knocked out too. Unless you’re a fan of using carrier pigeons for communication, this scenario is likely to mean your business is seriously compromised until a fix is put in place.

With a telephone system maintenance contract, you’ll receive remote telephone assistance and, in most cases, an engineer will visit your premises the very same day. Without a maintenance contract, you’ll probably be given a much lower priority, have to wait for days or have to contact a number of companies in the hope that you can get your telephone system back in operation. You’ll probably also find the whole experience to be extremely expensive, when you factor in emergency engineers, parts and labour. Remember, these companies know you need them urgently but, unlike their contracted client base and their client retention/attrition rates, they owe you no loyalty.

Clients with maintenance contracts frequently have access to items and parts, meaning their phone system can be replaced or repaired quickly and at no additional cost. This benefit is unavailable to the non-contracted, who would instead have to foot the bill.

Outside of a maintenance contract, fees are considerably higher so you’ll likely wait longer and pay more. Disenchanted potential or existing customers might move on to one of your competitors, meaning your revenues and your reputation will suffer.

So, take three or four days with no calls and your sales and profit margins will take a much larger hit than the cost of a maintenance agreement. Is it worth the risk?

Plus, your staff will still want to be fully paid, it’s not their fault that they can’t fulfil their duties!

Having painted the scary scenario, it has to be taken in to account that if communications don’t form a huge part of your business then a maintenance contract may not be as necessary to you. But if you think that without a live telephone system your revenue will be impacted more than the quotes you obtain for a maintenance contract, it would be wise to take the safer option.

Another bonus with a maintenance contract is that, very often, you’ll receive notifications and updates of developments and new products which keep you informed and ready to calculate your telephone system’s expansion or technology changes, as well as the impact that these can have on your businesses compared to the current arrangement.

The old adage of “prevention is better than cure” applies here; a routine annual maintenance visit could detect a small issue before it becomes a large and business impacting one. Smaller is easier and more economical to fix. And far less stressful.

Maybe you need a maintenance contract after all...?

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