We’ve all been there at least once. There’s no internet in the office, and everyone’s waiting at their desks for things to come back online.
So, how bad is internet downtime really? Is your business internet service cutting out for long periods nothing more than an employee break, or does it actually have the power to stand in the way of making profits?
Today’s blog answers exactly that. Read on to learn about business internet service, its importance, and how disruption may affect daily operations. Switch to internet service providers at the Oppuous marketplace if you’re looking for the best wireless speeds.
What Is Business Internet Service?
Just as the name suggests, business internet service consists of internet plans catering to organizations. Business internet service provides higher upload speed than normal 5G/4G LTE or even home Wi-Fi®.
In addition, a business internet plan usually provides better uptime rates than normal residential internet. You can also configure and leverage cloud services with it. However, start-ups or small businesses should take note that the initial installation fee (including any extra taxes) for business internet service will be higher compared to a residential setup.
Ideally, your business internet service provider should also enable you to set up a static IP and establish virtual private network (VPN) connections. Unlike normal connections where an IP depends on factors and is based on a wired connection to the gateway, you’ll be able to maintain a single IP address even after downtime.
While not exactly inexpensive to begin with, this kind of internet connection helps you facilitate business operations better.
The Impact of Internet Downtime on Business Operations
Keeping the above information in mind, let’s explore how downtime in business internet service may impact your daily operations.
Revenue Loss
Let’s begin with the one impact that really hits home: losing out on revenue. E-commerce stores are most greatly affected by this because every second equals potential sales.
If customers cannot access your online store for a while, they will make one of three choices:
- Wait for it to be active again
- Think the store has closed and won’t visit again
- Visit a competitor’s site.
E-commerce companies can’t afford to stay down for even a short duration, let alone long hours, so having reliable business internet service is essential.
At Oppuous, we host trusted and experienced internet service providers, such as Cox Communications and T-Mobile, which eliminate downtime and ensure your main website/online stores serve your customers at any time of the day. In fact, according to a past J.D. Power study, T-Mobile ranked first for the most satisfied internet business customers. So, don’t wait your turn! Transform your current uptime and download speed with T-Mobile or one of our other highly rated ISPs.
Low Productivity
This one’s obvious. You can’t expect employees to be productive when they don’t have access to their:
- Emails
- Online tools (Cloud applications)
- Collaboration platforms.
These three things are crucial for any team to complete tasks on time. Without access to the right tools at the right time, your employees cannot complete their work. An outage caused due to unreliable business internet service results in wasted labor hour costs that you have to pay for.
Reputation
People unable to access your main website doesn’t even compare to how things can worsen when you’re dealing with complaints and inquiries. Maintaining a high customer satisfaction rate has become the norm for modern-day brands.
Low-quality business internet service also prevents your support team from providing any assistance. This is bad for your customers and for your online presence. Poor response times quickly become a breeding ground for negative reviews online.
Forget potential customers; even your clients might be unable to reach you due to this problem.
Missed Meetings
Speaking of clients, unreliable business internet service may cause you to miss meetings and completely disconnect from the virtual world. This is yet another instance where your punctuality will be damaged.
Even with mobile data, the best meeting experience will still have occasional lag and subpar voice quality.
Shipping Disruption
Your customer service and internal teams aren’t the only ones affected by poor business internet service. Other processes, especially shipping, may come to a complete stop
due to this.
Modern-day shipping software relies on a stable internet connection. With many programs being cloud-based, having no business internet service means that you cannot communicate with your carrier partners and deliver on time.
This also includes the ability to track orders, send customers email notifications, and create daily shipping reports.
Preventing Business Downtime with the Best Internet Practices
While downtime due to lackluster business internet service may bring multiple processes to a complete stop, there are some methods you can use to prevent it from happening in the future.
Redundancy and Backup
Network redundancy is a great way for any small business to prevent downtime. Using this business internet service, you can keep things running even if there’s an issue with the current network.
The way it works is by having internet connections with multiple carriers and providers. When one doesn’t work, you’ll automatically switch to another, currently active network. In essence, you’re providing more paths for your traffic, which ensures data can always travel.
However, your ISP (internet service provider) isn’t always at fault when you’re off the internet grid. At times, outdated or faulty equipment can be the culprit, too. This is when you should consider having multiple backup devices such as:
- Routers
- Ethernet cables
- Firewall hardware
You can replace this equipment in case of device failure. It’s also a good practice to check your hardware first before concluding that your network is the problem.
Choose Reliable Internet Service Providers
If your ISP is the problem, there’s nothing you can do other than wait for things to get better. This is why you should choose an ISP that’s trusted and reliable and provides high-speed business internet service.
Visit customer review sites and check how your chosen ISP treats its customers. Next, choose a plan that suits your small business. Take note that if you pick a higher broadband, an extra fee may apply compared to lower bandwidth plans.
Another good practice that can help you in the long run is tracking your monthly data usage. If your business doesn’t require too much bandwidth in the first place, you can try subscribing to FUP (fair usage policy) plans which are less expensive than unlimited plans. This way, you can also budget things better when you auto-pay your ISP each month.
If you’re looking to find the best and most reliable ISP, then look no further than our marketplace! The Oppuous marketplace is like Amazon for digital solutions, and business internet service is no different.
Conduct Regular Audits
The most basic, yet probably most overlooked method, is conducting audits. Whenever you face downtime, investigate the matter in detail to find out what really happened.
Once you know the common factors causing regular outages, you can create a business weakness plan and work on what actually needs attention rather than blindly assuming the reason behind poor business internet service.
The Takeaway
In a nutshell, poor business internet service and downtime create a recipe for disaster and may lower your revenue, productivity, and reputation in the long run. This is why it’s important for owners to prevent downtime and keep operations running at all times.
To find top-notch business internet service providers, check out the Oppuous marketplace, where we host 600-plus providers and 1000-plus solutions, all at the best prices available.
