IT Emergencies: How To Plan For Them

IT emergencies require advance planning. Don't overbook your staff so they are able to accommodate IT emergencies.

In a perfect world, there should be no IT emergencies, but it doesn’t work that way. Handling IT emergencies are critical to maintaining your customer base and a great opportunity to acquire new business. You cannot afford to staff up to every peak, nor can you afford to fail to meet the needs of an existing client.

Don't Overschedule Your Staff

Generally, you want to schedule at about 75 percent capacity for technical people that don’t have sales responsibilities or management responsibilities. This leaves about 25 percent flexibility for non-billable projects, IT emergencies, and new business targets.

There will be peaks that you cannot meet. Then it is all-hands-on-deck and the ability to do triage among customers as well as for a single customer becomes important. This is the time when standardizing pays off

If you’re booking someone out in the field for a full day, schedule them eight to 11 in the morning and do the afternoon appointment from one to four. This leaves you some time.

Explain IT Emergencies To Your Clients

Also clients that you have long-term relationships with do understand when emergencies come up and will excuse a rescheduled maintenance appointment. After all, they want to know that you will respond to their IT emergencies too.

If you need to call them and tell them that you’re stuck at a client emergency--the server’s down, lightening struck, or there was a fire or whatever-- most long-term clients are pretty understanding if you’re running an hour or two late. It really boils down to keeping the communications open, staying in contact with people, making best use of your resources and just don’t over schedule on the routine stuff.

The Bottom Line about IT Emergencies

The project work is a lot more predictable generally because you’re going to know the requirements a couple of weeks to a couple months ahead of time. Be sure to build some slack time into the schedule to accommodate IT emergencies.

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IT Emergencies: Be Prepared

IT emergencies are something that virtually every computer consulting business needs to deal with at one time or another. However, in order to satisfy and retain your long-term small business clients, you must be prepared to deal with common IT emergencies.


You want to be prepared for IT emergencies with checklists, the ability to access online resources, telephone support lines, and tool kits ready to go.

Begin with matching your abilities to their basic needs.

Find out what kind of hardware your customer has, what the operating system is, what applications are involved, and how is it impacting their business operationally and financially.

Failure to assess the situation before you are on-site can quickly get you into quicksand. Make sure that your clients' most probable IT emergencies are things that you think you can fix... or things for which you can provide a quick workaround.

IT Emergencies: Can You Fix It?

For example, if they have a major problem with Linux and you don't have that kind of experience, emergencies and cleanups are NOT the place to start the learning curve. The more the problem impacts the company, the better the opportunity, IF you are prepared for it.

At the same remember it is not possible to know everything.

Preparing Your Company for IT Emergencies

With a new client, there's a good chance that even if their hardware and their operating system, are familiar, that they may be using an oddball hub, switch, or router. If it is going to cost you more to learn how to fix this sort of item, it is better for you and the customer to replace it with something that you are comfortable supporting. You can get the customer up and running faster and you are building a common installed base, "cookie-cutter"-style, to make any future support burden easier.

In this respect, it is simply the same approach you are working toward with your regular clients. You can provide better service in less time when you focus on one type of server, one backup software program, and one anti-virus solution... than having to keep up with all the upgrades and renewals, or replacements for a broad range of quickly changing products.

Remember that in the customer's eyes, if you can handle taking care of the emergency priorities through triage and cleanup, they are going to be EXTREMELY receptive to anything else that you recommend.

The Bottom Line on IT Emergencies

IT emergencies are great opportunities for you to strengthen your long-term client relationships. Done right, you'll build incredible client loyalty. However, IT emergencies done wrong will just about ensure that you lose the client.
Use the IT emergencies tips in this article to be better prepared.

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IT Emergencies: Use Them as Ice Breakers

IT emergencies can help gain you access and credibility when working with a new client. Triage the problems so you know what you need to fix first in IT emergencies.

When prospective clients have IT emergencies, you have an opportunity. In this article, you'll learn that two important factors come together during IT emergencies

How IT Emergencies Help You

First, the customer feels the threat of having neglected IT issues. Often a new, widespread, and deadly virus hits, and the customer discovers that renewing the anti-virus license was overlooked or there were no procedures for updating the virus definitions. Then there is the sudden business impact of having to put some IT project on the back burner.

Perhaps one the customer’s main clients wants on-line access to the status of their account. All of a sudden, the project which was on the back burner it is now boiling over.

Secondly when you have saved the day, you have both access and creditability. You are there and they are ready to listen.

How and When Will You Fix IT Emergencies?

In responding to an emergency, it is important to remember that the emergency customer is looking for assurance that the “pain” will go away as soon as possible. This means solving the problem quickly--either with a clever workaround or a direct solution.

But what does “as soon as possible” mean? That is what they are looking for you to tell them.

Within an hour or two of arriving for IT emergencies, they expect you to be able to explain the problem and to demonstrate the ability to prioritize the situation with them in terms of their business needs. They’re expecting you to know where to turn to find solutions and to be resourceful and demonstrate initiative.

Not All IT Emergencies Can Be Fixed Immediately

If you ever watched the TV show “ER,” it’s a lot of triage. It’s a lot of figuring out what absolutely has to be done today, what has to be done this morning and what can wait till the next visit. Triage is also knowing what you can do quickly to produce results. It is not always fixing the hardest problem first and sometimes it is providing a clever workaround.

Technical problems that affect the entire company, like bringing up the LAN, tend to go up to the top of the list with issues that just affect one person tending to go the bottom list. But there are exceptions.

Sometimes Even One Computer Can Create IT Emergencies

If part of the technical problems involve only a single computer but this means the clerk cannot submit online information to ADP in time to make payroll, that may, indeed will, become a top priority. In this case, something as simple as arranging for a direct dial up connection that bypasses the LAN, can be the basis of a long lasting relationship, even if the LAN remains down for three more days.

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