Top 10 Questions to Ask Your IT Solutions Provider

1. How can I trust that you will have my best interests at heart?
2. Can you communicate to me in plain English?
3. How can you help me budget for my IT and help me stay on track?
4. What are the prospects of you continuing to be in business indefinitely?
5. How can I be sure that things are going to work well when you are done?
6. Do you have the resources to provide service in an effective manner?
7. Can you help me with all my IT needs?
8. How well will you work with other IT providers that I need?
9. How do you stay informed and educated on technology?
10. What happens if I'm not happy with your service?

Smart Dolphins' Answers:

1. How can I trust that you will have my best interests at heart?

• We price our services based on a price list that is fixed, not on an hourly rate. Therefore our clients don't need to worry about how long we take to delivery a particular service nor any motivation to pad our bills. No Surprises with Smart Dolphins!
• To put our clients at complete ease we offer a Satisfaction Guarantee in which we give our clients the ability to adjust an invoice based on their perceived value.
• Our reputation and brand depend on our honest to goodness interest in having our clients' best interests at heart.
• Ultimately, our clients take the most comfort in our true intentions after they get to know how much we care about our clients. The Pod cares!
  

2. Can you communicate to me in plain English?

• On over 100 feedback surveys, we received an average score of 4.81 out of 5 from our clients on our ability to communicate. That score speaks fairly clearly for us.
• This has always been a top priority for us and so our hiring practices and strong customer-centred culture result in people that are able to communicate well.
• One of our core values is strong relationships and success of any relationship starts with good communication and clear understandings of all aspects of the relationship.
• Talk to us and find out! We offer a free Initial Systems Evaluation (ISE) where we meet with you to discuss your business, our business and how we might fit.
  

3. How can you help me budget for my necessary IT expenses and help me stay on track?

• Our core product, LIGHTHOUSE, is a service arrangement that provides certain valuable services at a fixed monthly price. Consider it IT insurance with the opportunity to know, to the penny, how much your monthly costs will be.
• We do what we do every day, all day. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. This focused experience results in cost effective solutions that can't be beat.
  
• We utilize cost saving technologies ourselves and pass those savings on to our clients.
  
  

4. What are the prospects of you continuing to be in business indefinitely?

• We have successfully grown our revenues by an average of 46% per year for almost 7 years while successfully servicing over 500 clients… and counting.
• We have averaged an overall score of 4.78 out of 5 on our feedback survey scores; proof that we are well loved and supported.
• We have built solid operational systems and structure, grown a recognizable brand, invested in technology and have strong ties to our community. We aren't going anywhere.
• Our strong competitive advantages and operational efficiencies means a win-win for everyone.
  

5. How can you be sure that things are going to work well for me when you are done?

• We have received a score of 4.69 out of 5 for our results through our feedback survey. With the challenges that computers can impose, we are proud of the straight A's we earn!
• Smart Dolphins always prevails. With patience and open communication from our clients, we will always find a way to make even the most challenging solutions work and work well.
• We have a very focused service offering; we do a few things REALLY well ALL the time… and then we do them even better.
• We have won numerous awards in the community that speak to the quality of our work; Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Employee of the Year, Technology Business of the Year… to be continued
  

6. Do you have the capacity and resources to service my company in a timely and effective manner?

• Our clients say we're fast. We scored 4.78 out of 5 for our speed of service on our feedback survey score.
• We're more than just a one man show - we have a team of 12 Dolphins to respond to our clients' urgent and difficult demands.
• We have invested heavily in technology ourselves to better serve our customers.
• Because we are highly focused, we can accomplish fantastic results in a fraction of the time of someone more diversified in their approach to business. Focus or fail.
  

7. Can you help me with all my technology needs or will I need additional suppliers?

• We supply everything a typical business needs for their computer network; this includes competitively price, high quality computers (and related techie stuff) and a variety of solutions.
• We are focused on delivering what we do best, but we have also built strong relationships with complimentary businesses that can fill out any areas that a client might need.
• We have Dolphins with a wide variety of experience and skills that can add value to any technology related need regardless if it is in our focus; often you just need someone to decipher another techie supplier's tech talk.
  
  

8. When I do need additional technology suppliers, how well will you work with them?

• We work so well with third party technology suppliers that the majority of our referrals come from these types of companies - they often want us to work with all their clients! We have become well know in many industries (medical offices, travel agencies, accountants, lawyers) because we work so well with other technology suppliers that have targeted those industries.
• With our breadth of experience and strong fundamental understanding of technology, we can speak the same language as other techies and can translate that for our clients as well as clarify what these companies need to know about our clients.
• Dolphins are friendly folks and we enjoy the opportunity to meet and relate with other techies.
  

9. How do you stay informed and educated on the latest-greatest technology?

• Honestly, we are not attracted to technology for technology's sake. We don't attempt to be on the bleeding edge as our target market (small businesses) isn't typically interested in being technology's frontiers. So instead, we get to know well established, standard solutions… that work!
• We have established a number of internal practices and culture around constantly educating and reeducating ourselves with our standard solutions. We also have Dolphins who are focused on researching and developing specific new solutions or tweaks to old solutions.
• We love to learn and improve - it's one of our core values! Dolphins are known for reading thick technology-related books in a weekend, staying up late at night experimenting and we all like to share our war-stories (A.K.A. learning experiences) with each other.
  
  

10. What happens if I'm not happy with your service??

• With the help of our Satisfaction Guarantee we remove the risk of dissatisfaction; on the rare occasion a client has felt underwhelmed we either correct the situation or we'll adjust the invoice accordingly to our client's perceived value.
• We're Dolphins and like humans, we make mistakes. Our mistakes are our problems, not our clients. We are also very resilient and see these as great opportunities to show our true colours