Small Business Computer Consulting

It is very important to educate your small business prospects and clients on key small business networking terms and buzzwords.  After all, in order to "win them over", you need to be speaking the same language. In fact, you may even want to prepare a "cheat sheet", based on the below definitions, to help you in your prospect and client pre-sales activities.

If you’d like to order a license to reproduce these networking terms for client sales literature, please contact questions@ComputerConsulting101.com and put "Licensing Your LAN Buzzwords" in the subject line.

• NIC (Network Interface Card) – a printed circuit board, adapter card or the underlying supporting chipset that snaps into the motherboard of a desktop PC, notebook or server and transmits and receives packets on a network; used to connect to networks including a local area network (LAN), wide area network
• (WAN), or a broadband network for high-speed cable modem or DSL-based Internet access or other dedicated Internet access service; most common NIC used by small businesses is the 10/100Mbps Ethernet adapter.
• NOS (Network Operating System) – an OS designed for communications between networked computer systems; popular NOS’s include Apple Mac OS, Linux, Microsoft Windows NT/2000 and Novell NetWare.
• Peer-to-Peer Network – an inexpensive alternative to a client/server network in which a PC doubles as both a workstation (used by an end user) and a server (from which resources are shared); although virtually any OS can be configured for peer-to-peer networking, peer-to-peer networks are often assembled from Microsoft’s least expensive consumer OS’s, such as Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows Me and Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition.
• RAID (redundant array of independent disks) is technology generally used to increase a server’s reliability — by simultaneously writing data to multiple hard drives. While many people also use RAID to improve server performance, RAID eliminates a single point of hard drive failure. Years ago, you could only get the benefits of RAID through SCSI-based hard drives. Today, IDE hard drives can also enjoy entry-level RAID fault tolerance benefits.
•  SCSI (small computer systems interface) is a high-end interface for connecting both internal and external computer peripheral devices. Years ago, only SCSI-based storage devices were used in most servers.
• Server – any computing device or peripheral on a network designed to provide shared services and resources to network users; primarily characterized by multi-user usage, as compared to a desktop or notebook PC; common servers include the file, printer, e-mail messaging and collaboration, Web, proxy and database server.
• Wireless Ethernet – set of standards and in-progress standards that allow Ethernet networks to run without physical cabling and utilize radio waves for transmission.

The Bottom Line about Networking Terms

In this article, you’ve been introduced to networking terms. To learn more about networking terms click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

To help you and your clients get started on the right track with handheld devices, here are some simple tips to help you find your clients’ the right PDA to avoid frustrating tech support headaches.

Purchase Handheld Devices Wisely

Be very cautious when considering brand-new, unproven handheld device models.  Major design and software bugs are usually fixed in the first three to six months following the initial release. Unless you and your clients are prepared for the risks and demands of being an early adopter, let "someone" else endure these all-too-common headaches.

Get software, peripherals and accessories bundled with your handheld device purchase.  This shopping approach will not only save you money and installation time, but you’ll also dramatically reduce the compatibility risks.

Know What You Are Getting Into

Pay attention to vendor support offerings for handheld devices.  Technical support and warrantees are not created equal! This is almost a mantra of personal technology adoption: who you buy something from is often as important (or even more important) than what you buy.

Make sure the handheld device is compatible with the desired operating system.  If your clients’ offices are wedded to a particular version of Microsoft Windows or another OS, be sure your PDA can sync up its data with their desktop or notebook PCs.

The Bottom Line about Handheld Devices

Lastly, insist on a PDA that is "well connected".  USB interfaces tend to be the easiest to configure and troubleshoot, while providing the best performance.  Avoid older, legacy serial interfaces whenever possible.

In this article, you’ve learned about the handheld device. To learn more about the handheld device click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business

Many of your computer consulting business clients will come from non-technical, business backgrounds. As a result, many will not immediately grasp why a failed hard drive cannot "simply" be replaced by a new or refurbished hard drive.

As part of managing clients expectations, it’s important to educate your clients on the steps that go into formatting a hard drive, loading the OS, configuring device drivers, loading software applications, customizing the OS and applications and restoring data.

Educate Your Client

As a computer consulting business owner, you know replacing a hard drive is not as simple as removing the shrink wrap and installing the device into the PC. But, many times, your clients don’t.

Or they just assume that all the OS files, device drivers and software applications will "magically" appear. This all may sound really basic, but taking a few minutes when discussing PC warranties with your clients to explain these issues.

How does the Vendor Handle Hard Drive Replacement?

You need to know how your preferred PC vendors handle hard drive replacement under warranty service. What kinds of labor are covered if a desktop PC or notebook hard drive needs replacement under the warranty?

Some vendors specify that the hard drive device needs to be just physically replaced and operational, and recognized by the PC hardware setup program. Under this form of warranty coverage, the technician’s job is done the moment the empty (blank) replacement hard drive is installed in your client’s PC.

The Real Cost

Unfortunately, as most PC vendors feel financial pressure to reduce their support and warranty costs, your computer consulting business clients probably will be subjected to a no-frills warranty service approach.  Hard drives for desktop PCs are relatively inexpensive, around $100 to $200 at retail.

So it’s important for your clients to understand that warranty service on a hard drive replacement generally doesn’t cover the more substantial labor costs involved with restoring the hard drive and system to the pre-crash condition.

If your clients outsource this work to your computer consulting business, it easily could cost them $200 to $500 (or more) in labor to get that PC hard drive back to its pre-crash condition. Even if your clients’ internal gurus handle the work, this easily could pull these internal gurus away from their "real" jobs for a half-day or more.

The Bottom Line about the Computer Consulting Business

The expense of recovering a crashed desktop PC hard drive tends to be more concentrated on soft costs, which most times aren’t covered by the PC vendor’s warranty, therefore we see more and more reason not to recommend purchasing extended warranty coverage with entry-level desktop PCs.

In this article, you’ve been introduced to the computer consulting business.  To learn more about the computer consulting business click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

Getting various hardware components factory-installed with PC purchases, like CD-RW drives and network cards, can save your clients on initial purchase and installation costs.

At first, it may seem counterintuitive to recommend this strategy of PC purchases to your clients, since doing so takes a service revenue opportunity away from your firm.

Aim Big

However, progressive-thinking computer consultants are always working on the next big solution provider opportunity. These consultants aren’t worried about missing out on some low-margin $49 component of PC purchases. They have their eye on the $10,000 network upgrade or the $25,000 application development project.

Let the PC vendors include these bundled hardware components for peanuts. Bundled hardware components make sense for your clients’ technology budgets, while it frees up your firm to concentrate on opportunities to add real, high-level value as a true computer consultant – not just a hardware technician.

Show Your Clients You Care

Forgoing this revenue also shows your clients that you’re willing to do the right thing for them, even if it means losing out on some billable hours. This forward-thinking approach drives incredible amounts of client loyalty.

Most clients aren’t dumb – they recognize integrity (and reward it by recommending your firm to all of their friends.) You can’t beat that form of advertising.

The Bottom Line about PC Purchases

In this article, you’ve been introduced to PC purchases.  To learn more about PC purchases, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

Sure, you need technical skills. But to be a successful IT consultant, you also need to be able to work well with people. In this article, you’ll learn about some of the personality traits that make for a successful IT consultant.

IT Consultant Traits: Are You Assertive?

You need to be assertive, but not overly obnoxious. That is a fine line to walk.  You need to make sure people don’t walk over you.  You also need to be able to stick up for yourself without coming across as too aggressive. That really turns people off. 

IT Consultant Traits: Are You Business Focused?

You need to put your business goals ahead of being perceived as being nice.  Sometimes it will be impossible to always be the nice guy. You are going to have to ask yourself what is most important for your business.

Can you put your business financial needs over your desire to work with the latest greatest IT projects?  Sometimes it is a lot of fun; you are working with the leading edge stuff.  A lot of times you are going to have to hunker down and focus on what your clients are asking for and deliver it.

At the end of the day it is your clients that pay the bills.  And that’s your business focus.

The Bottom Line about IT Consultant Traits

In this article, you’ve been introduced to IT consultant traits.  To learn more about the IT consultant, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

If you’ve been in the computer consulting business for a while, you know that influencing product selection is one of the more valuable services that your firm performs for its client base.

Your clients depend on your firm to guide them toward reliable, cost-effective technology solutions. Along the same lines, your clients count on your firm to help them steer clear of "lemons", or IT support "quicksand" in their IT spending.

IT Spending: Newly Released Technology is Often Not a Smart Purchase

If the first year’s depreciation cost of IT spending on the latest and greatest PC hardware doesn’t deter your clients, this might.

If your clients purchase PCs with processors that have just been released, new kind of motherboards, revolutionary kinds of graphics accelerators or updated chipsets, they may get some very unpleasant surprises.

IT Spending: Your Clients May Blame You

Clients generally don’t like unreliable PC hardware. Many clients will even blame you, the highly paid computer consultant. Peeved clients with major hardware headaches can be huge threat to your firm’s survival.

Protect your clients’ IT spending plan and your company’s future by being very careful when it comes to being an early adopter with bleeding-edge PC hardware.

IT Spending: Shielding Your Clients from Early Adopter Risks

As the PC industry continues to experience unprecedented financial pressures, a lot more products are being rushed to market prematurely.

In early 2001, leading IT market research firm Gartner Dataquest, announced that the U.S. PC market shrank by 3.5 percent, compared to the same period a year earlier. This was the first industry contraction in seven years.

One only can wonder if as the hardware giants reduce headcount, expenses and R&D, will consumers become their extended R&D facility? This revelation is really nothing new to the PC industry.

IT Spending: It Takes Time to Fully Test New Products

For at least a decade, PC owners and small businesses have had to consider their IT spending with a continuous stream of updated hardware device driver software and reprogrammable firmware updates.

The trouble is, from the time problems are first reported, analyzed, diagnosed and ultimately fixed through updates, your clients have to suffer with unreliable hardware products. If you’re looking to help clients control their IT spending, you don’t want your clients to be a hardware vendor’s guinea pig.

The Bottom Line about IT Spending

In this article, you’ve been introduced to the topic of IT spending.  To learn more about IT spending, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

You need to be the voice of reason when it comes to the IT spending habits of your clients. You may encounter a "use it or lose it" mentality, or your clients may want compress all of their PC-related purchases into a brief window.

This usually happens when the owner of the company may be in a good mood and approachable about technology spending.

Whimsical IT Spending is Not a Good Idea.

Experienced computer consultants know that cost-effective use of small business technology comes about through detailed planning and execution.

Heading down to the warehouse club or local office supply superstore and splurging impulsively on a $20,000 computer shopping spree with a corporate credit card may feel good.

But without proper planning, these sudden tech asset IT spending binges may actually increase your clients’ computer support costs. They also run the risk of undermining a lot of the progress your consulting firm has made toward making your clients’ systems more secure and reliable.

Some of the problems you may run into with your clients and their IT spending are best discussed beforehand. Use the following points to plan out your clients’ IT spending plan.

IT Spending Client Discussion Points

• Do your clients have written technology budgets and plans for the year?
• If so, what happens if they don’t use up their technology budgets during a given year?
• What kind of advanced planning goes into how clients acquire PC-related hardware assets?
• Do you discuss anticipated support costs (or at least antici-pated support headaches) before recommending new PC purchases?
• Do your clients’ major technology purchases usually follow on the heels of a great year or great quarter?
• Have any of your clients regretted making a hasty PC hard-ware purchase, because it turned out to be an extremely un-reliable system or very difficult to support and trouble-shoot?

The Bottom Line about IT Spending

In this article, you’ve been introduced to the topic of IT spending.  To learn more about IT spending, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

From a customer service perspective, what can you do to sell more monitoring and managed services?  What would it be worth to a computer consulting client if you could predict and prevent a major problem before it occurred? 

For example, if someone incurred $1,700 in billing last quarter due to some virus-related problems, is there something that you could offer them, a solution that you could give them going forward that could have prevented this? 

What’s The Best Service Choice?

Is it a matter of upgrading them to more complete virus protection?  Is it a matter of giving them more thorough end user or internal guru training? 

You should be looking at your service tickets and your invoices proactively so you can make some of those suggestions. That’s phenomenal customer service because you’re anticipating your computer consulting clients’ needs.

You and Your Computer Consulting Staff Should Be Proactive

The same way that when people are married for a long time, they start anticipating their spouse’s needs, these client relationships evolve over time. You should be able to spot these a mile away as long as you know what you’re looking for.

Also, reward your technical staff for spotting and passing along some of these additional opportunities for you to follow up on. Also compensate your account managers and your technical staff based on their customer satisfaction ratings. These essentially become their report cards.

The Bottom Line about Computer Consulting

In this article, you’ve learned about computer consulting. To learn more about computer consulting, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

From a customer service perspective, you can ask your computer consulting clients three questions that will explode the growth of your company. 

Question Number One:

“How Can We Improve the Level of Service That We Provide Your Company?”

Ask your computer consulting clients this question on a regular basis; at least a couple times a year. You will be amazed at the type of suggestions they give you.

They will tell you some things you’ll be able to implement without charging them another nickel or penny more because they’re simple no-brainer kind of things. For example, “Could you send us an email reminder the day before you’re coming in?” Obviously you don’t have to charge for something like that.

Some of the others may say, “It would be great if you could guarantee this kind of response time” or  “It would be great if you could also take over finding someone who can help us with our PBXs.” 

You’re going to get some ideas, some of which are going to make sense for you, some won’t. Some of them may require a little more legwork and some of them may be great opportunities for additional revenue.

Question Number Two:

“Is There Anything Else IT-related That Your Company Needs Help With?”

Question Number Three:

“Do You Know Anyone Else Such as Business Associates, Friends, Family Members in the Greater Area That Could Use Some Help With Their Computer-related Problems?”

Help Your Computer Consulting Clients Help You

Spend a minute or two to tell your computer consulting clients what they should look out for. If they happen to be on the phone with a vendor or supplier or family member and they’re complaining and moaning that everything’s running slowly or that the LAN’s down again or email’s not working or the server crashed.

Get your computer consulting clients trained to listen for those clues and let you know that there’s an opportunity out there. If they’re a long-term client of yours and they’re happy with you, they should be more than happy to recommend you.  All you need to do is ask and train them to be looking for these clues.

The Bottom Line about Computer Consulting

In this article, you’ve learned about computer consulting. To learn more about computer consulting, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

Computer service repair businesses are in the business of customer service!  A large part of computer service repair is solving a customer’s problem.  This should be the focus during all aspects of computer service repair.  After all, customer service is just that – solving a customer’s problem. 

The Three Phases of Customer Service

Customer service is expected in all phases of computer service repair.  Remember to exceed customers’ expectations before the service, during the computer service repair, and after the service.  Very often, the first and last phases are forgotten.  However, these might very well be the most important.

Customer Service Before the Sale

The computer service repair employee who schedules an appointment needs to consider customer service.  This is the first impression of the company.  A customer who feels his problem has been recognized and is on the way to being handled will feel comfortable and at ease.  The customer who is treated with respect has less anxiety about the outcome of the computer service repair.

Customer Service During the Sale

A computer service repair technician should arrive on a job ready to solve a customer’s problem.  A customer will expect the technician to listen attentively and respond politely.  Any delays on work should be reported promptly to the customer.  The computer service repair technician should also remember to speak in layman’s terms.  Using a technical vocabulary might confuse some individuals – leaving them unsatisfied with the service.

Customer Service After the Sale

Follow-up is a vital phase in customer service.  Once a computer service repair has been completed, the job is not done.  A customer should feel comfortable about calling with any follow-up questions or concerns.  A return visit may be necessary to handle any problems that were not repaired previously.  Handwritten thank you notes will also go a long way towards customer satisfaction. 

Every computer service repair business should focus on customer service.  When work is completed, it is often a good idea to solicit feedback.  Make any necessary changes in weak areas.  A customer whose expectations are met is more likely to send referrals or call for repeat business.

The Bottom Line about Computer Service Repair
 
In this article, you’ve been introduced to computer service repair. To learn more about computer service repair, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.