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Website Acting Sluggish? Server Monitoring Will Tell You Why (Part 2)

April 19, 2018Manage Service24x7x365 network monitoring, Businessman troubleshooting computer with server monitoring, IT Helpdesk, MSP, network monitoringSystemsNet Administrator

Server monitoring is key to network performance

Welcome back to the second half of our fantastic two-part article on how to diagnose and repair website slowness with the help of a managed monitoring system. Last time talked about the importance of a snappy website and the difficulty in speeding up the website without clues. Let’s pick back up at clue gathering.

Troubleshooting with Server Monitoring

Server monitoring is a simple phrase with a big list of applications. There are all sorts of reasons to implement server monitoring from testing your own hand-written programs to watching for malware activity. The reason it’s so diversely useful is because with server monitoring, you can watch absolutely everything about the state of your server and what it’s up to. At the most basic level, it can tell you the temperature of the CPU and going over about 85 F on a regular basis can definitely slow you down (that’s what the cleaning was for).

Beyond that, server monitoring will track things like your CPU, memory, and disk usage which are all ways to tell how many resources are available to run your website and deliver it to viewers. CPU percentage indicates how many tasks your server can do at once, memory or “RAM” is like your computer’s immediate thinking power, and Disk usage will show you how full your hard drive is (if it’s full, things stop working). If any of these seem overtaxed or approach capacity during high-traffic times, your website is likely to slow down for all users as the server struggles to serve the data they’re requesting. Server monitoring not only shows you these stats, it can keep an eye on them as your traffic fluctuates and send you an alert if any go over a designated percentage.

Tracking Your Processes

With the basics covered, server monitoring can also take an in-depth look at the processes your server is running. If you want your website to have access to 100% of the server’s resources (you do), then it’s best to remove all unnecessary programs from the computer and stop all extraneous processes. Server monitoring can show you which processes you’re running and how much of your computer’s resources they’re eating with each cycle. Not only can you discover unnecessary resource-hungry processes you can close, it may also reveal certain processes from your site that might be consuming more than their fair share of resources. This could be a clue that it’s time to update your plugins or remove features you don’t need anymore.

Identifying Bandwidth Problems

There’s also the possibility that your sluggish website is a symptom of your bandwidth rather than the performance of the server itself. With a little monitoring, if you determine that there are more than enough resources and the server is plenty responsive with non-network tasks, the issue may lie with your internet provider, cables, or network configuration instead. First, check your network settings to be sure you’re not artificially bottle-necking yourself by accident. If that’s not the case and your server is a local machine, ISPs have been known to throttle bandwidth of high-demand users, like those hosting a popular website, and you may need to buy a larger monthly package. For a cloud-hosted server, talk to your hosting provider about how you can increase your allotment of bandwidth, which will probably also result in buying a larger monthly package.

Server Monitoring as a Service

Finally, server monitoring is a wonderful tool, or rather set of tools, that allows you to keep an incredibly detailed eye on the performance of your website and the server it runs on, but it’s also incredibly complex. If you’re not personally excited by the idea of constantly checking on your computer’s temperature, resource usage, and networking speed but still want to keep your website optimized, consider hiring a professional service to monitor your server for you. They will help you determine where to set up alert points (ex: when the computer heats up over 90 F or uses over 80% of its resources) and can even help you optimize for better performance based on the information the monitoring provides.

No matter what kind of website you’re running or how many users you handle every day, you deserve the snappy page loading that only a well-optimized server can bring. With server monitoring and professional IT support, you should be able to quickly troubleshoot whether your sluggish page load is due to heat, unnecessary processes, or old platform plugins that could be updated and replaced. Whatever the cause, server monitoring will help you identify, optimize, and get your site up to speed in no time. For more great website and managed IT tips, contact us today!

Website Acting Sluggish? Server Monitoring Will Tell You Why (Part 1)

March 23, 2018Manage ServiceManaged Service Provider (MSP), managed services, MSP, Proactive monitoring of network infrastructure, VITASystemsNet Administrator

Man waiting on a slow running website at a desk on a laptop

Slow internet getting you down?

Whether you’re running an eCommerce venue, popular blogger, active business site, job board, charity platform or one of any number of popular websites with a ton of daily traffic, speed is everything. Even if you run a little mom-and-pop site for sharing recipes, the highly competitive modern online environment has no room for slow web pages. The slower your page loads, the more likely your visitors are to close the tab and try somewhere else that’s more responsive and considerate of their valuable internet browsing time. Even a one-second delay in page load statistically results in a loss of 7% of your visitors.
Speeding Up is Harder Than it Sounds
Of course, it’s a lot easier to say ‘speed up your web page’ than it is to actually do it. The reason for this is because your load time isn’t a value you set in your configuration, it’s how long your server takes to serve up the page to each user. There are certain things that anyone can do to reduce load time like use smaller images and chop up your content into multiple compact pages instead of big long ones, but what if you’ve already done that or your design relies on big pictures and long content-rich pages?
There are a few other things you or your web developer can do, but the potential fixes get more and more complex with each attempt at optimization. You can, for instance, set up caching so that your regular users hold onto some of the data your page loads up, making it locally available and faster to appear after the first visit. Then there’s compression which zips up and vacuum-shrinks your HTML and CSS files for faster downloads. When all this is done, if your website is still sluggish then the answer is lurking somewhere in the performance of the server itself, but where?
What’s Wrong With Your Hosting Server?
As you may remember from setting up your website, a site has to be hosted on a server, either locally on a computer you own or, ideally, on a virtual cloud server. If you’re hosting on a local server, it’s possible that your problem is actually physical. Take a moment in the middle of the night when you have the fewest visitors to turn off the machine and clean it. Chances are there’s a reasonable amount of built-up dust inside the case, caked to the vents, and just floating around. If your web page speeds up after this procedure, the problem was that the computer itself was struggling to cool itself and keep up with demand.
If you’re hosting on a cloud server, or if cleaning didn’t help, then the problem lies in the processes running on the server itself. The longer a server runs, and the more things you’ve done on it since setting it up, the more likely it is to have unnecessary processes and memory use eating up your resources and preventing your web page from getting the speed and performance it needs to impress your visitors.

Knowing that your website is slow is only the beginning of the solution and without the ability to monitor the slow down, it will be incredibly difficult to identify and cure the reason your website is running so slowly. This has been the first half of our two-part article. To find out what happens next and how to use monitoring to speed up your website, join us next time for the second half. If you’d like more information about IT managed services or to find the perfect solution for your business, contact us today!

IT Help Desk Advice: Do Not Let The Holidays Bring You Frustrations and Headaches

January 25, 2018Manage Servicebenefits of an IT help desk, it help desk, managed services, MSPSystemsNet Administrator

smiling woman help desk during the holiday season

Holiday Help Desk

Today, customers have expectations that many businesses may see as unreasonable. These expectations are seen as even more unreasonable during a holiday break. One of the things you want to avoid doing as a business is letting your customer service fall by the wayside.

The holidays are one of the most important times of the year for any business, and this means your customer service should be at the highest level. If you want to be a bright star in the middle of frustration, confusion, and headaches, you need to have the right support team in order to provide outstanding customer experiences.

Make Plans Early

We recommend that you make plans for the holidays months ahead, preferably two or three months ahead. When you make plans ahead of time, you will be able to set goals that you should be able to obtain. If your business has seen an incredible amount of growth this year, you should certainly plan ahead of time. You can review customer feedback and surveys from previous years in order to get a better idea of what needs to be improved and what can remain the same.

Instill Confidence In Your Customer Service Agents

If you want your customer service agents to deliver outstanding customer service to your customers, you should do your best to instill confidence in all your agents. Remind your agents that you trust them and believe in them. When you have an entire team of customer service agents that can deliver outstanding customer service, you will give your business a competitive advantage over the other businesses in your industry.

Make Sure Customers Are Being Heard

You will receive a variety of messages in your email inbox and social media inboxes. When you receive so many messages at once, your customer service agents may be slowed down. One of the best things you can do is to make sure the customer messages are being assigned to the right it customer service agent. You want the right customer service agent to be assigned to address a particular problem the customer may have.

Allow Customers To Find Answers

Many customers do not always want to call or email a company in order to get an answer. Sometimes customers ask the same questions, and one of the best ways to resolve this issue is to provide an area where the frequently asked questions will be answered. If you provide an area on your social media page or your website that answers the common questions, many of your customers will be able to resolve their own issues with the support page you are providing.

Resolve The Issues In A Reasonable Amount Of Time

When customers have an issue that needs to be resolved, you will want your customer service agents to resolve those issues as soon as possible. You should set goals to deliver quick response times. When you can resolve issues in a quick timeframe, your customers will appreciate the efforts your customer service agents are taking. Your customers will also be assured that you will always deliver support when it is needed.

The holidays will always feel stressful, regardless if you are at home or at work. Thankfully, there are outlets for you to use. When you outsource help desk support, you will not have to worry about any issues regarding the internet, routers, etc. You do not want to be caught off guard with an IT crisis in the middle of the holiday season.

Are you worried about your help desk during the holidays? Please do not hesitate to contact us today for more information on what you can do to avoid a frustrating holiday season.

How to Handle Distraught IT Help Desk Customers

January 5, 2018Manage Serviceit help desk, IT managed service provider, IT support, MSPSystemsNet Administrator

Angry businessman yelling at an IT helpdesk person on the phone in front of a broken desktop computer.

Understanding the customers perspective is key in providing quality support

Working with computers, especially broken or misbehaving ones, is not easy for everyone. Of course, almost no one is having a good time when a computer or program they rely on suddenly becomes problematic, but some people handle this better or worse than others. Members of your IT Help Desk team can be considered pros when it comes to resisting the frustration of a broken computer but your clients may be a completely different story. They probably tried to fix it themselves at least once and, having failed to do this, are feeling a combination of disappointment, frustration, and embarrassment at not being up to the repair and even a bit of betrayal because they trusted the machine or program to work for them.

This is a heady cocktail and can lead customers, even those that are usually very well mannered, to be terse, upset, or angry when on the phone with their IT help desk technician. Fortunately, all your staff needs is a little patience and a few positive techniques to cheer their customers up by the end of the call.

Bring the Positivity

From the moment you answer a call, a help desk technician needs to be a source of positivity. This doesn’t necessarily mean overwhelming cheerfulness, just a generally upbeat attitude and friendly demeanor. Because many customers call in a bad mood, this permeating positivity will help keep their negative feelings from making the entire encounter an unpleasant one for both parties. Remember that you are the expert and are here to help them with whatever the problem might be.

Don’t Take Offence

When customers call in angry, upset, or disappointed, it’s all too easy to transfer those bad feelings onto the company and its representatives. Some customers might be bitter, accusatory, or just downright mean, but it’s important not to take these things personally. They don’t know you, this is their frustration speaking and if you can solve their problem, or even just give it a good try, their feelings are likely to change. Let their negativity slide off you and maintain your positive attitude.

Listen to the Whole Story

Many customers, when asked to explain their problem, will launch into an entire personal narrative of their experience with the bug or malfunction. While it may be tempting to ask them to cut to the chase, it is often more beneficial to let them finish. The story telling acts as a form of venting, gets some of the frustration off their chest, and often contains important details about why their computer may be having problems.

Alleviate Tension with Humor

Some of the embarrassment and nervousness your customers feel when asking for technical help can be eased with amusing stories about other people who found themselves facing a similar error. Even if the problem was caused by client actions, this will help them understand that computer problems happen to everyone and might even get them laughing.

Explain the Solution

When you finally discover the source of their problem and implement a solution, don’t leave them in the dark about it. Make the customer part of the solution by explaining it to them, along with why the trouble shooting steps you went through together revealed the fix. This makes customers feel included, like they’re on the team, and may help them to avoid this problem in the future.

Offer Something Extra

When all is said and done, whether or not you were able to fix their problem, always ask if there’s something more you can do. Often there isn’t, but sometimes a customer will have a question they’ve been wanting to ask or a small account management task they haven’t been able to accomplish. With this simple act of good customer service, you gain their gratitude and show that their needs really do matter to you.

When you follow these simple steps, most help desk customers will feel better about you and the company by the time the ticket is closed. All you need is positivity, patience, and an inclusive attitude to turn even the most distraught customer into your trouble shooting ally. For more helpful tips on IT help desks, contact us today!