Frankly speaking there is no straightforward rule for delivering support. But, after going through this article one can provide influential support with limited resources.
There is no golden rule, which can be applied everywhere with perfection. Cases are quite different while dealing with Larger and smaller hosting companies. For a beginner following questions can be very useful:
1) What is the capacity in hours for providing support?
What can be the result if there is no enough time available for support? For a new company, spending just 3-4 hrs would be more than enough. Since there would be not much amount of quires to be posted, it is very essential for a new company to create a positive impression in front of its customers. A new hosting company possessing a well laid out tutorials and walk-through gives a better impression to the clients.
It is better to go for self-help-support rather than trying for a 24x7 support system. Clients give preference to a site, which displays that "Customer Support from 9am to 5pm" plus self-help support. By adopting a competitive price one can receive a professional attitude.
2) What’s about one’s technical ability?
There are several companies in which a single owner takes the responsibility of various departments like sales, support and billing. Support is one department in which he/she needs to give test on daily basis. If that Single owner is not technically efficient, then it can be lethal for the company on money and time basis.
The support is an integrated part of the success of the company and it cannot be taken lightly. If company possesses only 50 clients then it is okay but if they are numerous then it can create problems. Thus, one should ensure that the technical support includes following services:
1) Ticketing System / Help desk installed.
2) Backup procedure installed.
3) Customer Contact Form in one’s site installed
4) Security auditing of one’s server.
Above-mentioned features are cheap on monetary basis. Once done, it can act as a boon to the quality support delivered to the customers. One should also ensure that the tech delivering company is good or not.
There are several beginners who appoint a non-technical person for problem solving purposes. This creates a bad impression in the minds of user’s.
If one is technically correct, then an email-based customer support is preferable as here one can think twice before delivering response. Response medium via chat/phone can disclose the knowledge level in front of the customers.
3) What is the support budget?
Certainly, support budget can create a major difference. It is better to have a phone support. One can personally interact with the client via phone. But language and pronunciation can be a hurdle.
Possessing additional budget can lead to setup a nice informative site and tutorials. One should also take the benefits of the systems such as Alertra, Web Site Monitoring system. They can alert a user on his/her Mobile phone or PDA once a support ticket is submitted or rather the server load goes high. It can save an ample amount of working time, and since the ticket notifications are alarmed immediately, on time service can also be guaranteed.
4) Does the clients are comparatively more technically proficient?
Users who are beginners in the hosting usually prefer companies charging very less in comparison to other companies. Their requirements are quite fewer, and majority of contents are static HTML pages. Their majority of questions are quite basic such as "how to upload files”. Thus, one must have full-fleshed basic knowledge.
The term Power-users are used for those who use an ample amount of resources and services like SSH, CGI, ASP, Java, Coldfusion, etc. They make the best possible use of available resources, but at the same time are experienced and often patient. If the power-users are being targeted, get a nerd ready. If not, an ample amount of time would be wasted on googling instead of answering the support queries.
An additional advantage of this market is that one will possess a pool of skilled users. Several users can assist each other here. Several established companies possess a well-maintained user-forum that acts as a support system. Though, one should carefully vigil the forum, to evade any sort of back-bitten.
5) What types of technical services are delivered?
A hosting company would employ numerous amounts of softwares and hardwares that are technically complex. This comprise of CPanel, Server's Operating System, Coldfusion, Java, and ASP.
Technology alters rapidly, and frequent updation of softwares and servers are quiet essential. But a regular change and upgrade can reason a lot of downtime. It would also create irritation among Users. One should selective on the services, and favor using softwares that demands least changes. Plesk, another CPanel, can also act as a useful example for it.
In addition to it, for a beginner its better to begin with narrow services. This will provide a strong platform, and one can include new services collateral to the growth of the company.
Support is not restricted to responding to customers, it also includes the way support has been provided. Possessing a complete support system plus a professional stroke can create a unique impression on the minds of the customers. Further adjoin some of the competitively priced packages and then no one will be there between the user and success.
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