You're paying for IT support every month. But are you actually getting support, or are you just paying for someone to pick up the phone when things go wrong?
After 23 years in the industry, I've seen the same patterns over and over. Here are the five biggest red flags that your IT provider has stopped earning their keep.
1. You only hear from them when the invoice lands
If the only regular communication from your IT company is a monthly bill, something's wrong. A decent provider should be proactively reaching out - reviewing your setup, flagging potential issues, and keeping you in the loop on things that matter to your business.
2. The same problems keep coming back
That printer issue that gets "fixed" every other week? The VPN that drops every Monday morning? If you're seeing the same tickets over and over, your provider is treating symptoms, not causes. A proper fix might take longer upfront, but it saves everyone time in the long run.
3. You can't get a straight answer
When you ask a simple question and get back a wall of jargon, that's not expertise - it's deflection. Good IT people explain things clearly because they actually understand them. If your provider can't tell you what's going on in plain English, they might not know either.
4. They're reactive, never proactive
Your IT provider should be spotting problems before you do. If they're always waiting for you to report issues rather than monitoring and catching things early, you're essentially paying for a very expensive help desk.
The best IT support is the kind you barely notice - because nothing's going wrong in the first place.
5. They don't know your business
If your IT provider couldn't describe what your company does in a sentence, how can they make good technology decisions for you? Understanding your business isn't a nice-to-have - it's the foundation of decent IT support.
So what do you do about it?
If any of this sounds familiar, it might be time for a conversation. Not necessarily with us (although we're always happy to chat) - but with your current provider. Tell them what's not working. If they listen and things improve, great. If they don't, well, you know where we are.