End-User Support concerns...

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Posted by SparkyTX, 08-03-2004, 10:31 AM
I have been lurking about on here for a bit. Been doing a LOT of research as I am preparing to enter the hosting world. There is a lot of great information here. Let's see if you guys can help steer me in the best direction... I am looking to get into hosting to make some bucks on the side. I would love to eventually be able to shift from my present "cube-based" job to "home-based", but that is a while from now. I am a technical guy. Been in computers and programming for almost 20 years. While I have done my share of programming, my specialty is database systems. Not only relational designing. but also database coding. While I have been getting into web development recently (ASP, VBScript, Javascript, HTML, etc), I am still a newbie in this environment. I would like to host, but do not want to cause my customers grief when it comes to end-user support if I cannot answer their technical questions. Is this something I really need to be concerned with? Not having done this before, I don't even know what kinds of questions to expect. I see my options as threefold... 1. Go with someone like HostMySite.com where I am simply a middle man in the hosting world. They provide the end-user support, I supply the marketing and sales effort. Pros: low initial investment, low time requirements. Cons: low profit margins, no control over plans offered. 2. Go with someone like MatrixReseller.com where they provide the hardware and software, I provide the sales, marketing and end-user support. I assume if I have a end-user problem that has me stumped as well, I can forward the issue to MR and then forward the response to my end-user. This model can work, but can consume more of my time and delay responses to my end-users. Pros: highly flexible plan offerings, higher profit margins. Cons: Higher up-front investment, higher time requirements, possible lacking of end-user support abilities (me). 3. Go with a setup like mentioned in #2, but outsource end-user support to someone like TripodSupport (I have read good and bad reviews about them, using them as an example) or go with someone like DIYHosting and buy the end-user support option. Pros: professional, 24x7 end-user support; full reselling flexibility; lower time requiremenst. Cons: highest up-front prices While no one can pick the right setup for me other then myself, I am looking for your advice. You guys know better than me the types of support calls that you receive as well as the frequency. With what I have described as my own skills, what would you recommend? Thanks in advance, y'all!
Posted by Vortech, 08-03-2004, 05:24 PM
Does DIYHosting offer support for the resellers end users? A lot of our customers use visionexcomm.com or TripodSupport to support there customers on off hours. It seems to work for a lot of users. But it could still take some managing on your side to make sure they are doing a good job.
Posted by IHSL, 08-03-2004, 06:17 PM
Yes, it's a paid H-Sphere addon. One of the main reasons we started this quite a while back, was the demand from our resellers - most of which had previously had bad experiences with outsourcing and/or with previous hosting companies, so came to us for a solution. H-Sphere offers the perfect platform to do this, of course. Simon
Posted by cartika-andrew, 08-03-2004, 06:45 PM
Based on your experience - I do not believe you would have any problem supporting your customers yourself - especially initially - the types of questions typically asked by end users are fairly basic, and your provider would be there to answer any questions you may not know.. Having said this - DIY support is outstanding - so - if you want to completely offload this portion of your business - you probably could not go wrong with that option...
Posted by akuo, 08-03-2004, 07:56 PM
Another possible alternative would be to use an outsourced support company on a per-ticket basis. That way you can handle support when possible and only pay for outsourced support while you're working or sleeping I do keep hearing good things about DIY however (mostly from their oposition!!) It's always going to be a little better having your actual reseller handling support, as they'll have full access to the servers etc
Posted by cnm72, 08-03-2004, 08:13 PM
judging by your experience, I would say that you would be able to handle if not figure out quickly most support questions and then inquire about the more challenging ones to your mother host company...
Posted by Vortech, 08-03-2004, 10:02 PM
Most level1 support stuff is super simple. How do you turn this or that on, what are my setting for outlook. Really simple stuff, it comes with time as well. At first it may take you longer but you will get faster at it for sure.
Posted by Shaw Networks, 08-04-2004, 12:10 AM
The option of outsourcing support is always there, but honestly, as long as you know how to manage a server or run a reseller account properly, you generally won't be presented with questions from customers you won't be able to answer. Besides as long as you aren't providing live support, you'll always have a bit of time to research the answer if you don't know it off the top of your head.
Posted by akuo, 08-04-2004, 12:18 AM
Not to mention that it gets easier with time. Before long you'll confidently know the answers to 99% of the questions coming in, and only need to call on your provider, Google, WHT etc for the tricky ones. It's really more a question of what level of service you wish to provide your customers. 24 hour support will obviously require a bit of help, but if your customers are happy for you to handle support around your other commitments, then you should have no trouble.
Posted by CPW-Carl, 08-04-2004, 02:20 AM
Probably best to go for a reseller account with a good host. Spend a _lot_ of time researching hosts to find a good one. Since they manage the server, your uptime stats are in their hands. Send them lots of questions and see how they respond. Don't get sucked into going for the cheapest one. Once you have a good host, you will probably be able to handle all the support yourself as you will get questions like how to setup email, ftp accounts etc.
Posted by hsupport, 08-05-2004, 06:42 PM
You can always go with option 2 and outsource the server support as well as end user support. This way you are only doing the sales and marketing and can keep the larger profit margins. We do lots of work with DIY and they are very good. They also have the option of dedicated servers that you can get from them. Regards, Carmen
Posted by paulrpayne, 08-07-2004, 05:20 AM
I started with #2, with MatrixReseller, actually. It was a cheap way to go and easy to jump in. However, whenever there were problems with connectivity, or the email server was down, etc. then my customers were out of luck and I couldn't really do anything about it. Also, when the issue was fixed, sometimes 30 mins or an hour later, no reason for the outage was given and I would have nothing to tell my customers other than "sorry". So, if you are planning on being able to have any sort of accountability to your clients, I would recommend going with someone like ev1servers.net where you have your own box with a friendly administration tool like cpanel, ensim, etc. That way, you are able to easily admin your box with the tool, learn how to manage and customize your own box over time, not worry about other people messing up your box, and yet you still have some help if you need it on things like connectivity and keeping standard services running. So, it depends on what level of service you want to provide and what expectations you will give your customers. I would only go with #2 if you were hosting small, non-professional sites cheaply.
Posted by mrzippy, 08-07-2004, 03:00 PM
what hasn't been mentioned yet (I don't think) and directly affects your decision is the type of customer/target market you are going to focus on. For example, if you plan to attract "budget" customers.. then your support is going to be much higer. If you plan to attract "higher-end" customers from your local market, then your support is likely to be lower. In other words, there is almost an inverse relationship between cost of your hosting plans and level of support they require. Generally, the more you charge, the less you need to support them. That's what we've found. The downside is that it is very hard to find good higher-paying customers. You must also actually give them a good extra value for their extra money. ie: In our case, our support requirements are pretty low.. but when a customer does need support, they have almost instant response, access to 1800 numbers, etc.. they get what they pay for.. but they pay much more then most. So... what kind of customers do you want? Then decide what kind of support they will need.
Posted by paulrpayne, 08-07-2004, 03:12 PM
I think the reverse is true. The more you charge, the better support you should expect to give... they may take less support, as mrzippy says, but they should receive a much higher quality of service. That was the main reason I had to leave Vortech... I had customers who were paying me highly for their hosting and it wasn't ok to just tell them "sorry, it went down again". When I tried to get on Vortech about providing better explanations of what went wrong and what they were doing to keep it from happening in the future, I received a response like "Well, you're not paying much so be happy with what you've got" (paraphrased... but not much). So, "if you want something done right, do it yourself" and "you get what you pay for" are two time-tested truths that seem to have played out for me. I pay roughly 4 times as much for my dedicated server than I would have at Vortech or another reseller, but I can make sure my customers don't have downtime. In over a year, my server has been down for only 30 minutes on one day... and that is WITH applying new software through the cpanel update every night. So, I would say, if you are going to charge $5-$20 a month for hosting, then something like Vortech would prob. be fine, but if you are charging anything more than that, you'll want to have more control.
Posted by mrzippy, 08-07-2004, 03:30 PM
That's exactly what I said. Re-read the last paragraph of my post. Our customers pay a premium for our services. We're much higher priced then the majority of our competitors, but our customers get an extremly high level of support when they need it.

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