4 Key Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Digital Support Partner

Ask better questions, get better support. A Buyer’s guide for IT and Digital Leads facing support fatigue

If you’ve been burned by a poor support partner with slow response times, vague updates, endless escalation, you’re not alone.

For IT and Digital Leads in enterprise organisations, choosing a new digital support partner can feel like navigating a minefield. It’s not just about finding a partner - it’s about trusting a team with your digital reputation, performance and peace of mind.

This guide offers four essential questions to help you assess digital support providers correctly and avoid the common pitfalls that lead to failure.

1. “What Does Day One of Working With You Look Like?”

Why It Matters:
Many support partners oversell during the pitch, then underdeliver during onboarding. Day One should bring immediate reassurance, not radio silence.

What to Look For:

• A clear onboarding process with defined roles, timelines and milestones
• Access to a dedicated team who will work with you during and post onboarding support launch (not just a generic helpdesk)
• Documentation transfer and access walkthrough

Our approach:
We assign an onboarding team which is the same team that will work with you post onboarding, hold discovery sessions including how support works operationally and provide you with a fully documented desk to desk process at the outset.

2. “How Will You Keep Me Informed and Accountable?”

Why It Matters:
Poor communication is the top reason support relationships break down. You need visibility, not vagueness.

What to Look For:

• SLAs with specific response and resolution targets
• Monthly reports on incident trends, monthly performance and budget utilisation
• Transparent ticketing systems with real time status updates and commentary
• A team of people who you can contact on various things

Our Approach:
We provide ITIL aligned incident workflows, a 24/7 accessible Service Desk for raising tickets and tracking updates and monthly support reports and reviews with your Service Delivery Manager.

3. “Do You Understand the Specifics of My Platform and Sector?”

Why It Matters:
Generic support won’t cut it in enterprise environments with complex stacks and sector specific requirements.

What to Look For:

• Proven experience with your CMS/DXP (e.g. Optimizely)
• Understanding of integrations and legacy systems
• Sector specific compliance or governance requirements
• Case studies or references from similar organisations
• Relevant security credentials to protect your brand (e.g. ISO27001)

Our Approach:
We specialise in Optimizely and support complex estates across regulated sectors including financial services, manufacturing, utilities, and NFP.

4. “What Happens When Things Go Wrong?”

Why It Matters:
You’re not just buying support for business as usual, you’re investing in reassurance and peace of mind when the unexpected happens.

What to Look For:

• Incident response plans and escalation protocols
• Post incident reviews and root cause analysis
• Major incident processes and follow up activities
• 24/7/365 coverage with guaranteed response windows

Our Approach:
We offer 24/7/365 support with triaged responses within minutes, thorough incident reviews to prevent repeat issues and a structured problem management process to handle reoccurring incidents.

But it’s not just about being reactive. A key question to ask any digital support partner is:

“How Will You Help Me Get Ahead, Not Just Stay Afloat?”

Why It Matters:
Support should be proactive, not just reactive. You need a partner who doesn’t just fix - but helps you grow.

What to Look For:

• Proactive recommendations and backlog management
• Roadmapping support for enhancements and upgrades
• Regular strategic input from senior engineers
• Support for your internal team’s skills and maturity

Our Approach:

We Maintain
We take care of the essentials that keep your digital platform healthy and secure from updates and patching to performance checks and infrastructure alignment.

We Optimise
We help you unlock more from your platform, your people, and your processes. Through performance optimisation and practical consulting, we drive measurable improvements across the digital experience.

Final Word: Ask with Confidence, Choose with Clarity

Choosing a digital support partner is about far more than who offers the cheapest and quickest SLAs. It’s about trust, passion, accountability, consistency and long-term outcomes from a partner that understands your needs.

By asking these four questions, you’ll cut through the noise, surface real capabilities and avoid the traps, that led to poor support in the past.

We support clients whose digital infrastructure is business critical - not just on the balance sheet, but also for the work they do in supporting some of the most vulnerable people across the UK and beyond.