How often should you communicate with your IT specialist? It can be a tricky question to answer. On the one hand, if they’re in charge of fixing your computer and it’s not working, then you want them on the phone as soon as possible! But, on the other hand, there are plenty of times when an IT specialist can’t progress without more information from you.
Essential Aspects of Communicating With the IT Specialist
The IT specialist is the individual who understands the technical aspects of your business and knows what you need. Therefore, it’s essential that they feel like their opinion counts when consulting and making decisions on information and technology matters.
When communicating, make sure your messages are clear and concise to avoid unnecessary confusion. Also, ask for clarification if needed. The goal is to ensure both parties understand each other. Additionally, always steer clear of business slang and jargon when communicating with your IT specialist to prevent misunderstandings.
Communication breakdown will only add additional costs to what you’re already paying for an IT specialist’s services. Similarly, please don’t assume anything about the field they work in. Instead, always let them share their knowledge and expertise so that you are both on the same page on what needs to get done and how long it will take.
How Often Should You Communicate With Them?
It varies depending on the project. For some projects, you need to communicate with them daily or weekly about your needs and wants for changes in the design. For other projects, you only have to speak with them monthly or even less often than that. You can determine how often communication is needed by asking yourself these questions:
- How complex are your requirements?
- What are you trying to accomplish?
- Are you adding new features or just doing bug fixes of existing ones?
The more complex a feature set becomes, the more frequent communication between your IT specialist and yourself.
The Dos and Don’ts While Communicating
Do not repeat what you have already said. It is essential as the IT specialist might be doing something else and would not want to listen to a lengthy explanation they have heard several times before.
If there are complaints, make sure they are constructive, so it does not put them off from helping further with your request or problem. However, it can also result in delays due to constant clarifications leading towards frustration on both ends if poorly handled.
If you do not understand something, it is important to say so and ask for clarification rather than pretending that everything is going great. It will help the IT specialist diagnose your problem better as they would be able to understand what exactly went wrong with your system and provide a solution accordingly.
Try communicating over phone or video chat rather than emails and texts. You can misinterpret emails and texts easily. Also, it is possible to ask for clarifications in real-time while speaking with the specialist over the phone or video chat directly.
It is essential to keep your IT professional in the loop about changes such as hardware and software updates which may disrupt their work on resolving other issues or might create a problem if not managed well. This way, they would know what needs attention at any given time without constantly asking questions/clarifying issues, causing delays due to misunderstandings and miscommunications.
Conclusion
Being a business owner or manager is enough work on its own. You’re not going to have time to worry about your IT infrastructure, so you need to hire an expert who can handle it for you. Your best bet is to go with a managed service provider (MSP) to provide the highest level of communication possible and let them know when something isn’t working correctly.
