Slow or non-responsive support
One of the main complaints our cloud consultants hear from organisations who are unhappy with their current provider is insufficient support. If your provider is slow to respond to support queries, or you are passed around tiers of staff who are not familiar with your platform, or do not have the expertise required to resolve your issue, this can cause delays at critical times.
Additionally, many providers rely heavily on AI for their support. If you notice you are always prompted to use a website chat service, with no option to speak to a support engineer on the phone, or always receive generic answers to your queries, your provider is likely using an AI chatbot for their support services. While AI is a useful tool, and can be helpful in answering simple queries, or triaging requests, the use of AI chatbots to replace humans in customer support encourages a one-size-fits-all approach, with no personal touch. To read about the issues with providers solely offering AI support, read our insight on “Why AI chatbots cannot replace humans”.
Your provider should have clear SLAs around response times for support requests, giving you an exact time frame for different priority levels. A direct-to-engineer approach is ideal, where you can access expertise exactly when you need it, rather than speaking to various members of staff who do not know the details of your platform, or an AI chatbot which hinders your access to support.
Poor communication and transparency
As well as difficulties accessing support, you may find it difficult to access information from your provider. There are several ways this may manifest, which can suggest your provider is not prioritising your needs.
On occasion, changes may need to be made to your infrastructure or service, whether this is due to software reaching end-of-life and needing to be upgraded, changes to your support system, or scheduled hardware maintenance. These are all standard occurrences, but if they are not clearly communicated from your provider, this can cause confusion and issues for you.
Many providers lack transparency around pricing. Maybe you were sold on initial promises of affordable hosting, only to be hit with unexpected costs down the line. Some providers are not clear about their pricing models, with hidden costs for additional bandwidth, or data migration for example. Other providers will dramatically raise prices, while making it difficult to move away from their platform. You can find out more details on these practices in our insight ‘How unclear cloud pricing practices lead to unexpected costs’.
You should look for a provider who will be upfront with you, and give you the information you need to make informed decisions about your infrastructure. They should be transparent around their billing structure, providing you with a quote for your specific solution, and detailing whether prices are fixed or usage-based.
Generic solutions and service
Your specific business needs are unique, but many providers will not take into account your requirements, and instead will offer generic, off-the-shelf solutions. While the provider may present this as a low-cost, convenient option, these solutions are designed for a broad audience, with standard features that are not optimised for you.
As well as providing a generic product initially, you may find your provider’s service is impersonal. Rather than taking a consultative approach, where the provider works closely with you to understand your goals and requirements, they may provide generic advice. This could be in your initial deployment, where they may provide a standard migration plan, not taking into account your peak times or priority workloads. Alternatively, if you find your resource usage is increasing, they may not offer personal advice on optimisation, instead leaving you overpaying, without understanding why.
In contrast, a good provider will work closely with you to design cloud solutions aligned with your needs. A thorough consultation, followed by a bespoke platform design and tailored migration plan will mean your infrastructure works ideally for you. You should also consider a provider that will offer ongoing personal service, giving you the opportunity to raise any concerns, understand any areas for optimisation, and ensure your platform delivers results now and in the future. To find out more, read our insight “How our consultative approach delivers bespoke solutions”.
How Hyve listens to your needs
Our customer-centric approach puts your needs first.
When you initially contact us, we will undertake a full consultation to understand your requirements, before designing a bespoke platform and migration strategy. Your proposal will include transparent pricing and explain our billing structure, so you can budget accordingly, without the worry of unexpected expenses. Throughout the migration process our experts will be on hand to support you, ensuring minimal disruption to your business.
Our extra-mile support does not stop after migration – you will be allocated a dedicated account handler who will be a phone call or message away, as well as access to our 24/7/365 direct-to-engineer support. We offer industry-leading SLAs around support, with a guaranteed response to any urgent request in under 20 minutes.
For an initial consultation, fill out our contact form and one of our cloud experts will be in touch.
