6 Ways Slow or Unreliable Internet Connectivity Can Result in Revenue Loss

While internet speeds have seen a massive boost since the days when dial-up signaled “you’ve got mail,” not every business is running on an optimal internet connection. Without speedy, reliable internet access, customer (and employee) satisfaction, productivity, and even the lifeblood of your business – revenue generation – inevitably suffers. 

Not convinced that slow or unreliable internet can have a detrimental impact on your business? In this article, the Lightyear team unpacks the many ways subpar internet connectivity can impact your bottom line – and what you can do to fix it.

Reduced Employee Productivity

Happy, productive employees are the “secret sauce” of successful business operations. Additionally, many modern businesses are looking to cloud computing for a faster, more efficient collaborative work model. In a recent survey, 78% of business leaders indicated they are using cloud-based solutions for business operations. Over half of those respondents don’t feel they are seeing the results they expected. While slow internet can’t take the blame for all of it, it is a major contributing factor. How productive can your employees be if CRM, accounting, and ticketing systems respond like a lead balloon? How efficient is your warehouse or manufacturing if they can’t rely on a stable, responsive connection to run machine software? Can your marketing and HR team seamlessly connect to the solutions they need for daily ops if they can barely fire up Google?

Employees are expensive. Slow internet is a productivity killer. As such, slow or unreliable internet connectivity can be extremely costly. Period. So, what can you do about it? The best solution is to upgrade to an internet package tailored to meet your needs. It’s likely that a dedicated internet access line with SLAs, uptime guarantees, and no peak-hour throttling would perform better for you, so long as your bandwidth aligns with usage needs. Additionally, investing in network optimization tools that make sure you are getting what you need from your business internet can have a big impact.

Literal Revenue Loss

It may come as no surprise that most things in a store or commercial facility these days are connected to the internet. In fact, many components of a commercial operation actually rely on internet connectivity to function.

If you operate a store and your internet connectivity goes down? Well, sorry but your PoS system may not be able to process transactions at the moment. Operate a factory with a bunch of connected machinery? With no connectivity, your widgets may not get made. The list goes on. Today, many of a company’s core revenue-generating events rely on connectivity uptime and bandwidth to happen. This is why internet outages can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars when they occur.

If you face issues in this arena, similar to the section above, we’d recommend ensuring your primary facility internet access is via a dedicated connection with an SLA for uptime, and that you architect redundant and diverse connectivity at each of your sites to deal with an outage. This may feel costly, but as noted earlier, outages that block revenue generation can be far more costly.

Impact on Video Conferencing / VoIP / UCaaS

Even in 2018, 41.6 million businesses were using VoIP solutions to power their business communications and now, 87% of startups are looking to video conferencing or VoIP solutions (Zoom hell anyone?). Poor internet quality or insufficient bandwidth significantly impacts video conference / VoIP call quality through disruptions such as video issues, dropped calls, audio delays, and distorted sound. These issues disrupt the flow of communication, leading to misunderstandings and frustration. Consistently poor call quality can make your business seem unreliable, harming relationships and hindering growth.

Implementing network optimization strategies is crucial for maintaining clear and reliable communication with any conferencing / VoIP system. These strategies include the following.

• Bandwidth Management

• Network Redundancy

• Packet Loss Mitigation

• Voice Codec Selection

• Quality Monitoring and Analysis

• Local Survivability Features

Additionally, ensure you have alternative communication methods in place – from mobile/landline services to full-suite UCaaS platforms – to maintain connectivity during outages.

Increased IT Support Costs

The more you see of your IT support for troubleshooting and problem resolution, the more you need to pay – and the impact on your business revenue follows. While some businesses can better manage this issue by looking to external support services rather than carrying the full cost of an in-house IT team, the best solution is, of course, reducing IT outages and downtime. Moving from reactive to proactive network management and monitoring consistently to address problems before they happen, and keeping unplanned costs low will be the best improvement you can make.

Delayed Cloud Computing Backup

In businesses reliant on cloud services, internet connectivity issues can impact more than the direct responsiveness of those solutions. Think of hidden traps like delayed data backups leading to security issues and failed protections, missed or duplicated work due to delayed/failed synchronization, and even failures in your disaster recovery plans. Looking to solutions like hybrid cloud strategies, better optimization, and ensuring you still have some form of local backup are critical to mitigate and prevent curtailed revenue.

Poor Customer Experience

Employees aside, what does poor internet do to your carefully managed brand reputation? Slow or unreliable internet connectivity likely means that your employees may not quickly respond to support tickets, or your in-store / in-facility experience ends up subpar. If facility-wide wifi is key to your in-facility experience, then subpar connectivity will dampen a customer’s perception of your commitment to quality. If crappy internet connectivity means low support productivity, customers will associate your brand with a poor overall support experience.

The solution to this problem can come from either improved connectivity / network redundancy via some of the solutions noted above, or can involve troubleshooting your access points and wi-fi hardware itself.

Loss of Your Competitive Edge

Slow internet hinders your ability to stay flexible and competitive in an increasingly digital business arena. When a business loses its competitive edge, revenue loss is sure to follow. If you are in a fast-paced industry, even the smallest knock-on effects on service delivery, customer experience, and internal processes can quickly add up to major revenue loss. Whether it is helping you source internet connectivity options, boosting the efficiency of your WAN services for better productivity, or choosing the right colocation partner, leveraging software to optimize your IT procurement is essential. As is proactively mitigating potential losses through internet performance reviews and technology upgrades.

Not sure where to start optimizing your business internet? The Lightyear team can help. Reach out to us today, and experience the many benefits a strong, steady, and responsive internet can bring to your business.