Does your business internet EVER go out? Odds are very strong that the answer to that question is yes. The big question is how much does that cost your business? Here is a simple equation to calculate that direct loss…
Lost Revenue = (GAR/TBM) x IIO x TMO
GAR = You gross annual revenue for the year
TBM = Total Business Minutes = 60 x hours per day x days per week x weeks per year that you are open for business
IIO = % of Impact of Internet Outage (a restaurant, for instance, could see 100% impact due to lost revenue from POS transactions, a realtor might see closer to a 70% impact)
TMO = Total Minutes of Outage (how many minutes you have had for outages this year)
This will give you a good feel for your direct costs, however, this is not the only loss that occurs when the internet goes down. There are four other key factors that you must add to the equation as well.
Lost Customer Loyalty – Today people have become accustomed to the immediate response to their requests. If you walk into a fast-food restaurant and there is a sign on the door that says “Sorry, cash transactions only, internet down” you will most definitely lose business and customers. Or perhaps you call into your insurance company for a quote on your car insurance and they say, sorry, our internet is down we can get you a quote when it comes back up, you are probably at risk of losing that customer.
Lost Employee Productivity – It goes without saying that if your employees rely on the internet to get their job done then when it is down you are paying an employee for lost or minimal productivity.
Decreased Employee Morale - You also end up with a frustrated employee because they have an expectation to get a certain job done and if they do not have the tools to do that you end up with a decrease in job satisfaction. That ends up being reflected to the customer as well. How many times have you talked to a business and they said, “sorry I can help you right now because the stupid internet is down”? The employee is the one that tends to take the brunt of the customer’s frustrations and their hands are tied. Bad situation all around.
Damaged Company Reputation – You become known as the company that cannot deliver the promised products or services in a timely fashion and that means lost or frustrated customers.
So enough of the bad news. How can this be prevented?
Typically, there are two internet options in most towns, one from the traditional Telephone Company usually via DSL or Fiber and the other is via the Cable company which can provide a Coax or Fiber solution. You could get a dual connection via SD-WAN, typically one from each provider is the ideal solution to provide a more diverse path and less chance for a dual outage. This is a very sound solution, but the costs sometimes can be prohibitive for a smaller business. The other option is to implement a Wireless 4G solution. In this scenario, you implement a device that you can plug your primary internet connection into and when that fails it will automatically failover to the wireless solution. Once the primary comes back up the wireless solution will then automatically hand off the internet back to the primary. Best of all the solution is typically much more cost-effective.
The lesson of the day, there are always options, you just need to know who and what your resources are.
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