Small businesses look for service over price in telecoms

But Yankee Group survey also suggest firms will ditch suppliers for someone cheaper

Three-quarters of UK small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) choose telecoms suppliers on the basis of customer service rather than price, according to research by analyst Yankee Group.

The research, commissioned by Telstra, also suggests that the main reason for switching away from suppliers is to find cheaper solutions (71 per cent), but 62 per cent of businesses say poor technical quality of service would lead them to change providers and more than one third would abandon their vendor if they experienced poor customer service.

Andy Hedges, chief financial officer of Telstra Europe, says service is of key importance to smaller businesses.

'Whilst price is still an over-riding criteria when selecting a supplier, service is increasingly important to SMEs. A number of SMEs really don't have the time or the focus to look after multiple suppliers and they don't have the IT resources to deal with major issues,' he said.

'With the explosion of ecommerce, SMEs are so reliant on access technology and security that they are now needing the same level of service that a large multi-national bank needed in the past.'

The report shows that a third of the SMEs surveyed plan to upgrade their services this year, with the move to voice over IP (VoIP) telephony being the main driver.

But convergence of voice and data services is leading to support problems, says Hedges.

'There is confusion over desktop support and data support. VoIP leads to confusion over what is "voice" and what is "data". Businesses don't know if they should be talking to telecoms suppliers or IP support companies about VoIP problems,' he said.

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