Small Business pays for Technology supplier's mistakes

I have run across two instances lately of a small business that paid for mistakes made by their technology supplier.

Most suppliers to small business are small businesses themselves. When they make a recommendation of a solution to their customer, they tend to charge in two parts. The first part is for the hardware and software. Since they must purchase this themsleves, they tend to charge for it up front. They charge for their time later. This is something they can control, and it is where they make their profit.

All of this is understandable, and if the solution was guaranteed, it would not be a problem. But since the supplier had to pay for it up front, if the hardware doesn't do the job, new hardware must be bought. The client ends up paying for this. The first purchase is a loss.

This may be understandable except for one thing. In both cases that I mentioned, the supplier had made an assumption. They assumed that because this was a small business, they did not want to pay for a top of the line solution. They bought a cheaper solution, because they assumed the client would not pay for it. The client wasn't given the opportunity to choose. The quality of the hardware may have been ok for most situations, but not all.

Technology suppliers need to change their approach with small business. They need to assume that their clients are intelligent, even though they don't know the details about the technology that they are buying. They need to make clients aware of the options and the risks that exist. If they do that, then their client will have more respect for them and trust the solutions that are recommended. Until that happens, small business will continue to feel that they do not have any control and will not trust the solution providers. That is one of the reasons why many small businesses are reluctant to take advantage of new technology. They knwo that they are likely to get the shaft. They only go there when they have no choice, or have totally satisfied themselves that the solution is right. Both delay the implementation of solutions that could bring productivity advantages to their business.