Pros and Cons of IT Support 24/7

According to a survey, 58% of consumers say being able to shop 24/7 is the number one reason they shop online. Companies have international customer bases that are online round-the-clock, and that means a decent chunk of customers will be disappointed if they can’t receive help during off-hours. A report published in 2021 found that 50% of customer support teams are only available during business hours Monday to Friday, and only 28% are available 24/7. While it’s possible to grow your business without providing 24/7 support, companies should consider the benefits to the customer experience that IT support 24/7 provides.

Pros

The biggest benefit of offering 24/7 support is you provide a more convenient service for your customers. Providing round-the-clock support means your service meets customer expectations, and they can contact you whenever they need you. A 24/7 support team is also better equipped to handle support queries sooner than a team that’s only available 9 to 5 because you have more staff available to tackle your support queue. When you implement round-the-clock support, you’re likely to see your First Response Time and Average Resolution Time drop as your support team is available round-the-clock, which means they can respond to your customers more quickly.

Rolling out 24/7 support can also push companies to adopt new technology to improve their support team’s efficiency. When companies first start offering 24/7 support, they look for tools and technology to help them increase their team’s productivity while bringing on new team members. This can mean implementing chatbots, automating ticket routing, or rolling out canned email responses—all of which can be used by other teams in your business as they see the benefits it brings to your support team.

Cons

The biggest drawback to providing round-the-clock support is having a bigger support team. To provide 24/7 support, you’ll need to hire more support reps, which means higher staffing costs. IT Support 24/7 can also be a logistical challenge if you don’t have international offices. You’ll need to outsource out-of-hours support to a third-party service, hire team members to work night shifts (which means bigger office utility bills and may bring added costs such as office security) or hire remote team members in different time zones (which has tax implications but also brings opportunities for growth and innovation).

Companies should also keep in mind that providing 24/7 support isn’t always necessary. There are alternatives: You could add support during business hours on Saturday and Sunday to increase your support coverage, or you could offer 24-hour support on weekdays. So before you roll out 24-hour support coverage for the entire week, take the time to analyze your support volumes and peak times. Cross-reference this data with your team’s availability, and identify which changes can have the biggest impact on ticket backlog and customer wait times.

3T Pro offers 24/7 computer support (3tpro.com/our-services/onsite-it-support) and IT services to clients in Dallas, Ft. Worth, Richardson, Rockwall, Mesquite, Grand Prairie, Carrollton, Allen, DFW Metroplex, Garland, Plano, Irving, and Arlington, Texas. To know more, visit https://3tpro.com/about-3t-pro/.

I'm a freelance copywriter and I write on a variety of topics.