In 2018 having a fast and reliable internet connection is essential for your business. A poor connection can dramatically reduce productivity, so it’s vital to find the right provider so you can hit the ground running. We’ve put together some tips and advice to bear in mind whether you’re choosing your first business internet provider, or on the lookout for something new.
Reliability is key
Nobody wants to be in the middle of an important project when suddenly an error message appears, and your internet has gone down – cue the stress. It sounds obvious, but the best way to ensure a reliable provider is research, research and more research. You wouldn’t buy your next gadget, holiday or car without checking out reviews and trawling through information on online, so it shouldn’t be any different when it comes to your internet. It may seem overwhelming at first, but by getting to grips with the basics of what you need can make a world of difference when it comes to picking the right, reliable provider.

Balancing value and quality
Asking ‘how much will my internet connection cost?’ is similar to asking how long is a piece of string – costs can range widely dependent on usage, business size, growth rate, location and a number of other variants. So, we would recommend doing a self-assessment to gauge an understanding of your requirements and allocate a budget that you are confident will cover your needs.
More often than not, if a provider is offering incredibly cheap rates and seems a little too good to be true, there’s a reason for that so be wary. Loss of productivity and time spent trying to resolve the issue can end up being more costly to your business, so be business smart and choose a quality provider.
However, what you don’t want to do either is over compensate and pay for a connection that your business won’t even touch when it comes to usage – it’s all about finding the ideal package for you. It’s hard to imagine your usage rates, but we like to think of it as someone running a small café who ends up pouring 100 pints of milk down the drain each week, they’ve paid for it but haven’t used it, and that’s exactly what you’ll be doing if you pick a connection far too big for your business.

Location, Location, Location
When it comes to the internet, it’s inevitable that from time to time things can go wrong, there’s just no stopping it. What’s important is that you have a proactive, responsive and reliable customer service team on hand to get things back up and running as quickly as possible. A big factor of this is location, it’s all well and good having someone at the end of the phone but can you afford to wait for over an hour whilst an engineer gets out to your office? Having a locally based team can make such a difference when it comes to reducing downtime and the impact of loss of business if they can pop over to you whenever something goes wrong.
If you’re currently on the hunt for an internet provider and are overwhelmed by all of the options, get in touch and we’d be more than happy to help – there’ll be no waiting on hold while your call is transferred to another country, just a friendly, local team who is happy to help!