Questions we’ve been asked hundreds thousands of times.
What’s with the name?
Considering we have clients in nearly all 50 states, we get this question a lot. As you probably guessed, we started this business in Louisville, KY and our headquarters remain in the Derby city. In 2019, we opened Lexington Geek in Lexington, KY, and plan to continue expanding into new markets with similar demographics in the future.
Most people typically think of pocket protectors and thick glasses when the term “Geek” is used. To us, a Geek is someone who has a deep-rooted passion for technology. We are firm believers in the old adage, “If you love what you do, you’ll never work another day in your life.”
Can You Service Businesses Outside of Kentucky?
Yes! As the COVID-19 pandemic taught us, today’s digital age allows many of us to work from anywhere with an internet connection. Several of our cities are located throughout the United States, and because we offer 24/7 services, we are able to accommodate service hours to meet the neds of clients in different time zones. We also regularly coordinate and deliver boots-on-the-ground service throughout the US, so we’re no stranger to fulfilling on-site service wherever you might need.
Why do small businesses use Managed Service Providers (MSP’s)?
In today’s business climate, most organizations could not survive without technology. Most SMB’s reach a point where it no longer becomes sustainable to keep IT in house, so they hire MSP’s like Louisville Geek to help manage their technology needs. There are several reasons companies make the decision to outsource their IT needs to a specialized provider, but in our experience, it typically boils down to the following reasons:
Lack of technology skills within their organization
Often SMBs depend on a single “quasi” support technician. If this one individual is occupied with other tasks or unavailable to users, technical glitches can accumulate and employees may be unable to complete regular daily tasks. Plus, it’s unreasonable to expect a single individual to stay current on all the technology trends that enable and impact a business. From workstation issues to network problems, from hosted email and cloud services to database management and security expertise, today’s information technology demands are typically too great a burden for any single individual to master.
Working with a technology partner provides access to a range of professional technicians, on the other hand, who solve problems quickly and often faster than a single individual merely assisting in the role is able. Consultancies boast an advantage in that they can employ technicians across many disciplines. Such professionals also typically command greater experience, expertise and knowledge.
Save money and Increase Technology ROI
Maintaining a full-staffed IT department is expensive. MSP’s can help organizations scale these costs and customize them to clients needs. Reputable MSPs will have relationships with well-known vendors (Microsoft, Dell, Cisco, etc.) and are able to negotiate cost savings and other advanced resources unavailable to the general public. The majority of our clients purchase all of their hardware and software licenses through Louisville Geek because it’s more affordable and convenient.
Reduce Risks
When it comes to cybersecurity threats, nobody is safe. Especially small businesses. Cybercriminals know that most small businesses don’t have the resources to invest in cybersecurity prevention so they view small businesses as low-hanging fruit. An MSP can help organizations choose the right approach to protect their data at an affordable rate.
What Makes You Better Than Your Competition?
As author and physician Edward de Bono once put it, “Companies that solely focus on competition will ultimately die. Those that focus on value creation will thrive.”
Competition means there is demand for the services we provide, which we view as a good thing. It’s also inevitable, so rather than wasting energy focusing on our competition, we focus on ways to consistently improve ourselves. The majority of our key performance indicators (KPIs), Rocks (EOS milestones) and company-wide goals are all centered around improvement.
We think what sets us apart from other MSPs is our flexibility. We don’t lock you into any long-term contracts, and we won’t hold you hostage if you are unhappy with our service. Every business is different; there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Because we work with a variety of different vendors, we are able to comparison shop for our customers (similar to an insurance broker) to find a solution that aligns with your business objectives.
Most of our competitors have 1-2 receptionists (with no technical expertise) who answer the phones and route calls to the next available technician. This may work for some MSPs, but it often leads to long wait queues and other service issues stemming from the non-technical receptionist’s lack of knowledge. Our Technical Support Concierge Team is made up of technicians who manage support calls, create support tickets, schedule service calls and much more. And because they are technical minded, often they can solve minor issues themselves, something a receptionist typically cannot do.
What Has Been The Biggest "gamechanger" In Your Business?
While it’s hard to identify a single factor, adopting the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), investing in a headquarters building that best facilitates our needs and workflow and learning to properly mentor leaders and effectively delegate responsibility top our list.
Are You Affiliated With The Geek Sqaud?
While we do share the “Geek” in our names, Geek Squad is owned by Best Buy. We are not affiliated with the retailer’s service arm, which is also responsible for installing everything from microwave ovens to television surround systems. Further, the Best Buy service crew typically provides residential services, as opposed to managed services for businesses. Their customers also sometimes call us for assistance, but that’s another story for a different day.
Is Louisville Geek A Private Or Unionized Company?
Louisville Geek is a privately held company. There are five managing partners who all remain active in our day-to-day operations.
How Many Employees, Engineers, Or Developers Do We Have?
Since 2018, we’ve had approximately 80-115 full-time employees.
Do you all offer project management?
Yes. In fact, the Project Management team is the first department our new clients work with. Before a new client is onboarded, we assign a project manager who will put the onboarding plan in place and will oversee the entire onboarding process. The project management team also helps clients who require cloud migrations, office moves and expansion assistance.
Is It Hard To Recruit Or Retain Talent In A Booming Industry Like Technology?
This has always been our biggest challenge for a few reasons. Technology is always evolving, which means that we must continually maintain skills and expertise to meet our clients’ needs. And while the Louisville talent pool is not as big as a large metropolis like New York or San Francisco, we’ve found creative ways to find and retain talented engineers. For example, we developed relationships with local colleges and made a commitment to providing ongoing training for our employees, which is a must if you want to succeed in the technology sector.
Do You Shop Prices For Hardware Or Buy From One Specific Vendor?
When we produce hardware for our clients, not only do we shop all of our vendors for the best price, but we also look for additional perks such as extended warranties to ensure our customers get the most bang for their buck.
How Do You Determine Pricing For Managed IT Services?
Our flat-fee pricing depends on a few variables:
How many users your organization has. This is important for a few different reasons. First, we’ll need to know how many licenses (Microsoft 365, antivirus, etc.) you’ll need. Second, the number of employees is typically a good indicator as to how much service the organization will require on a monthly basis.
Network and Application Complexities. A community bank with 5 branches is going to require a more sophisticated network than a plumbing company with 11 employees. Regulated industries such as healthcare or financial have strict regulations that they must adhere to in order to protect sensitive data, such as health or bank records. Because many of our clients are in these regulated industries, our team is well-versed to assist with compliance from a technology standpoint.
What day-to-day services are we providing? We offer a variety of different services, so our pricing will also depend on which of these services we’re providing to your organization.
Do You Offer Flat Fee Pricing
Yes, we operate in a flat fee, “all you can eat” model.
What’s included in the Flat Fee Managed Service Agreement?
- 24×7 Unlimited Support for all IT needs
- Next Generation Anti-virus with Endpoint Detection and Response for all workstations and servers
- End-user documentation portal for IT-assets
- Warranty management/procurement services
- Server, workstation and network device updates, maintenance, troubleshooting and remediation
What’s NOT included in the Flat Free Managed Services Agreement?
- Hardware and software purchases
- Project Work: Significant Infrastructure changes, office moves, audits and custom software development
- Installation and configuration of new networking equipment or servers
- Advanced configuration of network equipment
- Application upgrades (e.g., ERP or CRM systems)
- Requests that fall outside of typical IT Support Service
Do You Charge To Onboard?
Yes. We treat the onboarding process as a project
Why do you charge an onboarding fee?
While onboarding new clients is always exciting, it also requires a great deal of planning and execution to ensure that the transition is smooth.
How do you determine the price for onboarding fees?
We understand that, in most cases, paying for an onboarding fee is not ideal so we offer 3 options and encourage customers to choose the option that best fits their situation:
Option 1: One-time fee
We charge a one-time onboarding (project) which. Monthly billing begins once the onboarding project is closed.
Option 2: No Onboarding Fee in exchange for a Two-Year Service Commitment
Louisville Geek will waive the one-time onboarding cost entirely in exchange for a 2-year service commitment. Billing monthly support starts once the onboarding project is complete.
Option 3: No Onboarding Fee in exchange for a One-Year Service Commitment
Louisville Geek will waive the one-time onboarding cost entirely in exchange for a 1-year service commitment. Billing for monthly support starts the day we start physically onboarding them.
Do you provide IT services during the onboarding process?
Yes, we refer to this as the Adpotion phase. During this phase, our support services are available for internal IT members (and/or VIP’s) right away but we always forewarn our customers to expect slower than average resolution times until we’re fully onboarding all devices with our monitoring and management software.
Do your employees work on commission?
Yes, some of our sales reps are paid on commissions as part of their compensation plan. While our base compensation sales staff remains aggressive, we believe sales personnel are best incentivized to develop the strongest value-based relationship with customers when they have skin in the game.
Am I going to have one go-to person manage my account, or do I just call the main line when we need support?
All managed service clients are assigned an account manager who they can turn to at any time, however, all clients are encouraged to call our support line or submit tickets through the support center when possible to help speed response. Because our system automatically notifies your account manager whenever a ticket is updated, they’ll always be in the loop.
How can Louisville Geek protect my business from ransomware?
As cybercrime continues to surge, small business owners must understand that there is no such thing as a perfect, foolproof, impenetrable secure environment. That said, there are several measures organizations can take to prevent a ransomware attack.
We recommend utilizing a Managed Detection and Response (MDR) solution. MDR pairs class-leading, next-generation endpoint protection with 24/7 monitoring and active threat hunting. Detection is very important in any cybersecurity strategy as Ransomware operators will utilize known good tools that are built into the operating system in a technique known as “living off the land”. Being able to detect when these tools are being utilized for nefarious purposes is very important.
Training your employees on how to recognize suspicious emails or file downloads can go a long way in preventing malicious access to your network. This can be accomplished with Security Awareness Training.
Finally, you must have a backup and disaster recovery solution in place. This solution should offer immutable Cloud-based backups. Immutable backups are very important because Ransomware operators will go after on-site and even Cloud-based backups and attempt to delete them. Immutable backups cannot be modified.
