Oftentimes, businesses fail to see the importance of technology until it malfunctions, leading to network downtime. Network downtime refers to the inaccessibility of a network due to the failure of a particular system, application, or the entire network of a company. Although the interruption may be temporary, the true cost of network downtime is more than just money – it can have serious commercial consequences and lasting damage to a company’s reputation.
According to TechRadar, 37% of SMBs in a survey done by cloud-based data protection company Infrascale said they have lost customers and 17% have lost revenue due to downtime.
However, just saying downtime negatively impacts your business is like saying smoking is bad without understanding what it does to your body. Thus, to understand the importance of network technology maintenance, we need to accurately assess the costs of downtime, of which there are four:
1. Loss of Revenue
When your network is down, your business becomes unable to perform revenue-producing operations, such as checking stock, inputting orders, and processing transactions. When this happens, your employees may have to do it themselves manually or put in overtime, which leads to mistakes and potentially more business costs. For example, your employee may misplace an invoice or create additional orders.
2. Damaged Reputation
If your business frequently experiences network downtime for a long time, clients can lose faith in your business. Once that happens, it is an uphill battle to win them back.
3. Inability to Get Sales and Inventory Updates
Without real-time views into inventory, you risk losing customers who want to buy from a retailer who can check stock across multiple locations and provide up-to-the-minute views on what’s available nearby. At the same time, retailers may also overstock their outlets as they are unable to obtain the latest inventory updates.
4. Impact on Customer Service
Downtime means your business will be unable to provide critical services to customers. For example, if your customer service team cannot access an essential system, such as a POS terminal, you may lose current or potential customers. This results in increased inefficiencies, losses in customer and employee confidence (especially if they get scolded by customers) and even reduced business competitiveness.
In conclusion, it is easy to overlook the importance of investing in network technology. 19% of SMBs in the survey also admitted that they do not feel their businesses are adequately prepared to address and prevent unexpected downtime. From this group, 13% said they do not feel their business is prepared for unexpected downtime because they have limited time to research solutions to prevent it.
If you find yourself wondering if investing in network technology, monitoring, and support is worth it for your business, you might want to weigh the cost of network downtime before planning your yearly budget. If you do not have time for research, this is where EKTECH comes in: as a solutions provider, we are more than equipped to support your business – contact us today to get started!
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