Change your plan and phone line set-up they said. It will be easy they said. It will save your business money they said. You won’t notice any change at all they said.
THEY WERE WRONG.
Day 12 and we still are not back to normal operations. We are functional, but even that is tenuous and I live in constant fear that the temporary solution of an internet dongle will fail (again) or the phone forwarding will do something strange (again) and business will grind to a halt (again).
It’s not just the service to the premises that is needed, it’s the level of technical skill needed once it’s there.
I am confident that the internet is working – I just don’t know how to get it to do what I need it to do. At 46, I haven’t grow up knowing how to network computers or troubleshoot phone systems and while I will give anything a red hot go, I have struggled to decipher what is needed to make this whole system function.
I was completely gutted to be told on day six that the only reason I hadn’t had internet in my business was that the need for a change in username and password was not communicated.
I don’t profess to understand much on the technical side but I do understand that to be a functioning motel business I need to be able to make and receive phone calls, receive and manage bookings at my motel through my online reservation system channel manager, offer wifi to my guests, receive and respond to emails in a timely way, complete bill-paying, pay wages and conduct social media marketing.
It’s not Telstra’s fault that my systems from the wall are not set up correctly now that it is working, but I simply don’t have the knowledge or access to skilled professionals to fix the set-up.
The local guy who does phone work is in London apparently, (how dare he) and at the moment, despite my best search efforts, there is no local alternative.
The guy who does the computer tech work was unavailable last week, is in Barcaldine today, Windorah tomorrow and might be right for the day after – unless something comes up.
No criticism of these people but a reality check is that people in rural areas are constantly battling lack of accessible support and need to either work it out themselves or wait many days, even weeks by the look of it, for a skilled person to help.
My situation is in a major rural town, not an isolated station hundreds of kilometres from anywhere. Imagine how much longer really isolated people would have to wait.
The cost to my business has been significant. The frustration and mental energy spent trying to navigate even to a temporary solution has been monumental.
There has to be a better way we can support businesses who rely on digital access. With business people busy running their businesses, I’m not sure who would drive this but maybe a digital support services project would be a good project idea in the next round of government innovation or digital spending.
– Alison Mobbs, grazier and businesswoman.
