Small business owners don’t always have access to an IT professional who can answer all their questions, solve problems, and provide guidance on how to avoid similar issues in the future.
For this reason, they do two things:
- Rely on their personal knowledge and experience.
- Rely on the assistance of employees when a problem occurs.
Of course, you can’t expect your employees to know everything. You can’t expect them to solve an IT problem as it occurs. Even so, there are ways your workforce can help you solve these issues:
- Share information on what happened
Make it clear to your employees that you want them to share information when they face an IT related issue.
The sooner they come to you with the issue the easier it is to pinpoint the cause. Along with this, it may allow you to duplicate the problem as to find a solution in a more time efficient manner.
- Provide knowledge on finding a solution
Although you may not know the first thing about tackling a problem, a certain employee (or group of employees) may be able to provide assistance.
If somebody has knowledge of a problem and experience finding a solution, don’t hesitate to pass the task off to them. As long as they’re willing to help, as long as this doesn’t interfere with the rest of their work, there’s nothing wrong with this approach.
Note: just because you’re getting an employee to assist with solving the problem doesn’t mean you should completely remove yourself from the situation. It’s imperative that you stay involved, both so you know what’s going on and so that the employee doesn’t feel that you’re taking advantage of him or her.
- Share details with a third party provider
Imagine this scenario: an employee personally experienced an IT problem that requires the assistance of a third party provider.
Since this person knows the issue better than you, ask if they would mind taking control of the situation and communicating directly with the third party.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t be involved. It simply means that the employee is better equipped to discuss the problem, including when it happened and possible causes.
Discuss the best approach in the future
Even if you’ve avoided IT problems in the past, you never know what the future will bring. This is why you and your employees should be on the same page in regards to the protocol of dealing with such a situation.
Here are some tips for discussing the approach to take in the future:
- Tell employees what type of information to collect if they’re faced with an IT problem.
- Make it clear that all problems should be reported immediately.
When your employees are prepared for everything they can take on anything.
Conclusion
There is no denying the fact that your employees can help solve a variety of IT issues. However, you shouldn’t expect a miracle.
If you are unable to solve the problem in house, it’s time to get in touch with an IT solutions provider. This may not be something you want to do, but it could be the best way to solve the problem once and for all.
When you combine your knowledge and experience with what your employees bring to the table, it’s possible to solve a variety of problems. And if all else fails, you can always bring in outside help.
