Reflections on the current situation

We find ourselves in unprecedented times both on a personal and business level. We are hearing of many companies cancelling services and furloughing staff to cut overheads.

All very understandable as we all cut back to the bare bones to keep things ticking. However, it is sometimes a false economy to cancel some services. As a telecoms and broadband provider, we are always here to help our customers and those who aren’t our customers to work as effectively and efficiently as possible. At times like these, you need someone who is going to give you the right information for your business and not what is right for the provider!

We have already had customers reduce or withdraw service from ourselves. This will impact our company, but if we feel this is the right thing to do and that it won’t affect our customers business at this time, then we will advise accordingly.

The big thing we do advise is NOT to cancel any service without talking to your provider. They will hopefully give you the warts and all picture and the consequences of withdrawing and how it will affect your business. If they don’t – we will, so give us a call or drop me a line.

For example – If you cancel your business broadband service in the office what are the consequences. Yes you reduce your monthly for as long as this thing is going to last. However, you may be in contract and have penalties in case of cancellation; you will more than likely have to give a notice period. When you want service to be resumed, how long will this take? Networks will have a massive backlog of work to get through from when everything closed down, and this will affect lead times for new services. Will you have to pay a connection charge?.

Telephony services are just the same – The critical advice here is – If your customers cannot contact you now then it gives the impression that your company is not strong enough to survive. They will go somewhere else.

So what I am saying is you may make a short term gain that may cost you dearly in the future in terms of money for the service to be resumed but mainly for the potential business lost because you are not able to function from the office as you were before this interruption.

Remote Working – Are you getting the most out of the services that are available to you? Do you know what services are available to you? Many new customers are not aware of the technology that is available to help them and their business work seamlessly from home. We are talking about Telecoms here as most people can log on to Office IT systems from home as they have O365 or a VPN set up. Telecoms is a bit, but we have lots of great things to help you work and keep in touch with your customers.

Conclusion – Talk to your supplier, and if you feel you are not getting the right answer, talk to us. I hope this helps in these uncertain times?

Stay Safe and Stay Strong – The world will still be here on the other side but may look a little different.

All at Blue Portal Group