How Much Is Internet Downtime Costing Your Business?

There’s a lot of truth to the old saying “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” It’s particularly relevant when we look at the impact internet downtime can have on business operations. It’s not uncommon for business owners to overlook downtime-prevention measures in an bid to save money, but when faced with internet outages, it often becomes clear that preventing the problem can be far most cost effective than curing it!

With some studies suggesting that internet downtime cost the UK economy £7 billion in 2016, it’s never made so much sense for businesses to protect themselves from drops in connectivity-related productivity.

Let’s look at just a few of the ways internet downtime could cost your business:

 

Decrease in employee productivity

Whether you operate a tech-obsessed start up or manage a team of digital marketers who are constantly online, if your business relies on an internet connection for employees to do their jobs, downtime could significantly slash employee productivity.

If the internet is down for several hours or even days, not only will valuable time go to waste, you may have to pay employees overtime to keep up with their workload.

 

Drop in sales revenue

Perhaps one of the most obvious ways a poor internet connection and ongoing downtime can affect your business is through a drop in sales revenue. Without access to the internet, you may be incapable of fulfilling customer orders and unable to operate as efficiently as possible. If your website is down, this can be particularly troublesome as customers won’t even be able to place orders and may seek the services of your competitors instead.

 

Loss of customer trust

Customer trust is crucial for business success. If customers can’t trust you to offer a consistent and reliable service, you will have to work extremely hard to win them back and convince them to keep working with you.

 

Recovery costs

If your workplace experiences a significant IT issue, recovery costs could cause a serious dent in your budget. Fixing problems can sometimes work out more expensive than introducing preventative measures in the first place.

Internet and server failures can happen for a multitude of reasons from poorly configured routers to the use of inappropriate products for the business in question. Thankfully, with the help of a trusted IT support company, downtime can often be avoided. To learn how Prism can help your business run effectively and boost profits in the process, please get in touch with our team.