11 Questions to Ask Before You Hire a Managed IT Provider
Switching IT providers is a little like switching mechanics – you are trusting someone with something you do not fully understand yourself, based mostly on how confident they sound. That is a bad way to make a decision worth tens of thousands of dollars a year.
Here are the questions worth asking before you sign anything, and what a good answer actually sounds like.
1. What is your average time-to-first-response?
Not resolution time – response time. A provider that takes six hours to even acknowledge a ticket is a provider that will make a bad afternoon much worse.
2. Who actually picks up the phone?
Some providers route every call through a tiered queue that starts with someone reading from a script.
3. How do you handle security incidents specifically?
A general IT ticket and a real breach should not go through the same queue. Ask for the incident response process in writing.
4. What is included, and what is a change order?
This is where hidden costs live. Get a specific list of what triggers an additional invoice before you are surprised by one.
The best answer to what is included is a document, not a sentence.
5. Can I see an example of your documentation?
Ask to see a sanitized example of how they document a client environment.
6. What happens if my main point of contact leaves?
Good providers assign a team, not a person.
7. How do you handle disaster recovery testing?
Everyone has a backup plan. Fewer test it. Ask when the last recovery drill happened.
8. What does onboarding actually look like?
A rushed onboarding usually means a rushed relationship.
9. How do you price growth?
Per-user pricing sounds simple until you ask what happens at 50 users versus 51.
10. Can I talk to a client who has been with you for 3+ years?
Not a client who just signed – one who has had time to get annoyed and stayed anyway.
11. What would make you fire me as a client?
The answer reveals a lot about how they think about the relationship.
The bottom line
A good managed IT provider will answer all eleven of these questions specifically, in writing, without flinching.