Phone Support Needed?

Portal Home > Knowledgebase > Articles Database > Phone Support Needed?

Posted by miami_g, 11-20-2000, 04:03 PM
We are in process of setting up our hosting company and have recieved conflicting advice about phone support/sales. Some claim it is expensive if out sourced and frankly for a start up not worth the cost. Others swear by phone orders being essential. As we started out as resellers we have seen time and again 800#'s posted that never get answered NO KIDDING more than one host is doing this! Opinions appreciated-how much is to be gained by posting a phone number and answering calls for hosting setup or support?
Posted by Travis, 11-20-2000, 04:55 PM
I would say phone support is important. We have posted an 800# for sales and support since day one when QWK.Net was a one-man operation. I would say between 30-50% of your customers are going to make a decision about hosting on whether or not they can reach someone by telephone. Even if you can't answer the phone all the time, get voicemail, and label the number as a voicemail box on your site. Then people won't expect an answer right off, but they'll know they can eventually get in touch with someone on the phone. You will still lose some of the phone-contact-seekers this way, but not as many as if you don't publish a phone number at all. Really, though, if you aren't doing web hosting as a part-time venture, is it a big deal to have one phone number that you answer the few times a day it rings? I would definitely not outsource, but it's something you can very reasonably do yourself.
Posted by Félix C.Courtemanche, 11-20-2000, 05:59 PM
If you do want to offer phone support but don't want to answer to every Joe's that was too lasy to read the FAQ explaining the path to the perl interpreter (for example) use a non 1-800 number. That way you will have important tech issues on the phone, normal ones through e-mail and a majority through your FAQs. If you are full time and don't care having the fun ring at any time of the day, then pick a 1-800.
Posted by mkaufman, 11-20-2000, 06:02 PM
If you're just starting out and are pretty small (around 1,000 clients or so) you wouldn't need phone support as long as you answer your E-Mails quickly. You could just offer and EMERGENCY phone number..
Posted by lets.pretend, 11-21-2000, 10:28 AM
You may want to have a look at www.ureach.com. As far as I know you get 30 minutes free each month so it shouldn't be too expensive for a one-man hosting biz.
Posted by Chicken, 11-21-2000, 10:58 AM
I'd say that marking that number as voicemail wold be a very good idea, since a common complaint seems to be that people call and 'just get a machine'. Don't offer 24/7 phone support if you can't/don't really have it. It just irritates people. If you are just looking for toll-free voice mail, then I can help you with that (like ureach, but no time limits - though I believe ureach has some other features that may be appealing).
Posted by GordonH, 11-21-2000, 11:27 AM
Another problem is time zones. If your customers are mainly in the USA but you are 5 hours ahead it means you are likely asleep when they phone. We provide telephone / voicemail contact but ask that people use it as a last resort as it is usually easier to explain the problem by e-mail. The e-mail support form also takes their password which is a useful security measure if someone is asking you to dump a Mysql database into a directory or whatever. Gordon
Posted by Chicken, 11-21-2000, 09:53 PM
Another good point. When you call your host, it is hard to have instant problem solving techs waiting on the other end. If you get an email with a problem, you can look into it and poke around to see what the problem is. Doing this 'live' while the customer is waiting isn't really a pleasurable experience. Could take 10 minutes to check things out (or much longer), and even 10 minutes for me (while I have a phone stuck to my head), is an eternity. I'd prefer giving them an email, and letting them find out and then get back to me.
Posted by guest1, 11-23-2000, 12:49 AM
Hello, I've seen you mentioned outsourcing phone support this is what i have been looking for can you please provide me with some names of the companies and urls thanks
Posted by mkaufman, 11-23-2000, 09:25 AM
I think Yahoo! just opened up a new service: http://phone.yahoo.com or http://phones.yahoo.com
Posted by Jaiem, 11-23-2000, 10:06 PM
While phone support is great it's harder to track problems that come from multiple contacts by the same person. You can try to assign a contact number but don't count on customers to remember the number. OTOH you can have an email based response system that automatically creates a tracking number. Also, email allows you to take a moment, collect your thoughts and compose a response or look up the needed info. Nothing's worse than having an irrate person on the phone who can't understand why you don't have all the answers at your finger tips.
Posted by superbird, 11-26-2000, 06:02 PM
I'm thinking of having a form on my site where people can send me SMS messages for this purpose
Posted by skysenshi, 05-25-2001, 09:27 PM
SMS Messaging? Well, we do provide that, but we give them our mobile numbers. I don't know if what you're saying (about putting SMS messaging on forms) will work. Why? Because some mobile companies are greedy. Free SMS messaging centers like mtnsms.com or even ICQ SMS are banned from some country's mobile company's networks. Then what these companies do are provide SMS on their own company sites, except you have to pay per message sent. I know it's disgusting and really inconsiderate of the fact that their clients may have some emergencies or something and would have to pay just to get some message sent. The name of these mobile companies are of course, always among the drop-down menu choices of free SMS centers, but those aren't guarantee that a message can be sent.
Posted by Dogma, 05-25-2001, 09:55 PM
I personally look for a number someplace just because it gives me some reasurance that they might not just be a one night operation. So, it is good for consumer confidence!

Add to Favourites Print this Article