What to Expect When We Have Scheduled IT Work

We often schedule specific times to work on your computers. We might have time set aside to troubleshoot an issue, upgrade software, or setup new equipment, for example. Based on our relationship with you and our experience with the task at hand, we estimate about how long we’ll need, then we schedule that time block with you.

Planning ahead helps us and it helps you; how? For us, we can have checklists available, other resources ready, request licenses we might need, and we have dedicated, uninterrupted time to get the work done. For you, you know when to expect our call, about how much time to block, whether your office will be interrupted, what we need you to have ready, and similar. This allows all parties to prepare for interruptions in the workday and to be sure we have everything we need so there are no delays.

What we sometimes find is that when we call or arrive for the scheduled time, you have a short (or maybe not so short!) list of other things you’re hoping to have addressed as well. The techs don’t want to let you down or say no, but honestly, the time we have blocked is only sufficient for the task at hand. We won’t be able to add more items within the scheduled block of time.

There are a few options – if it’s really an unexpected emergency, we can regroup, address the emergency, and reschedule the original work. If it’s not an emergency, we’ll ask you to choose which is the higher priority; the list you just gave us, or the task we originally planned to do that day? BTW – we prefer to stick with the plan whenever possible since that’s what we’re prepared to work on. Sometimes the items on the new list require some planning or resources that may or may not be available.

We plan ahead for these scheduled tasks, whether they’re onsite or remote. This helps you and it helps us. We really can’t extend the time slot since we often have another commitment at the end of the blocked time. If we try to add more things, that will make us late to our next scheduled client, and that client could be you! Any questions or if you need to do some planning, just let us know. – CMW