Its definately worth offering it....

It will put a lot of people off if they cant contact you in times of trouble!

That said, as netsolutions says, some use it some dont but some abuse it as well

Cheers,

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Jonny Baird
Vibus Limited
UK & Ireland Reseller, Dedicated and Collocation Accounts

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Registered User

I asked my customers to complete an online survey a couple of months ago and one of the questions related to 'telephone support' (should we provide 0800 support for them).
Strangly enough, the majority of them stated that they didn't want or need it? They even rejected the idea of using 'Live Helper'?
Perhaps I'm just lucky, (as the majority of my customers are business users)  as they seem perfectly happy with the online knowledge base we providem, combined with the email support.

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Eladesor
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He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.

EverythingButComputers Limited

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Registered User

In my past experiances its best to excell on one level of support. Dont do everything be good on e-mail and something along the lines of humanclick/live helper. In the days when that was free it was a very useful tool, anyone know of something similar, but more realistically priced?

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Registered User

atm, we have a call-back service, ie you leave a message and we will get back to you (were a budget service and therefore cannot provide propper phone support). Most people just email support@, probably as its easier.

I'm also toying with a live support service that is in testing stages. The response with that has been alot and we get alsorts chatting, from people intrested in hosting to people who want support (other ppl just want a chat!?!). Be aware that abuse is common but you can monitor their Ip's.etc and ban them (untill they delete the cookie).

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Andrew

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Registered User

We offer 9-5 M-F telephone support. I must say that the line is somewhat under-used...not sure if thats a good or a bad thing!

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Registered User

We wouldn't get clients if we didn't offer it (business decision to go for quality over quantity when we started - that is not a dig at lower priced hosts. We just much prefer to have fewer high paying clients over hundreds or thousands of low paying clients). Having said that - we have also thought of starting an alternative brand for email only support type hosting, although it is inconclusive as to whether we will bother or not.

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••• Mark Castle ••• Secura Hosting Ltd •••
••• Managed Hosting •••
••• AS29452 • UK Company Reg No: 04330657 • VAT Number: 789 2703 81 • Sales: 0845 123 2632 •••
My views are my own and not those of my company.

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Web Host - VIP Member

Can't believe I never chipped in here, not like me at all.

We offer phone support on an 0870 number at the moment, some people just like being able to pick up a phone and talk to someone at the other end - but phone support takes a special kind of support person, someone who can make small talk whilst they are looking at a problem, it also helps if you've got headset phones, especially cordless ones

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Karl Austin :: Owner :: Director :: Admin :: Tea Boy
KDA Web Services Ltd. :: 0800 542 9764 :: Company: 04114724 :: VAT: GB 842 9597 81
"Individual Solutions for Individual Customers" - Call us today for free

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. - Einstein

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Web Host - VIP Member

we offer 24/7 phone support as well as a ticket system and the ticket system does get used more but there are a lot of our customers that prefer to talk with a live person.

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Matt Hilbert
Fastservers.net
0800-169-0028 ext 106
ICQ 165636161

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Registered User

can't remember how much HC is now, but we used realtimeaide for a while, until falling out with them! Now using instant helper from webumake.com, but I suspect it's a similar price to HC to be honest... though the support is far better (no, not on commission, just v pleased with the service!)

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Steve Westrop
JigsawHosting

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Registered User

There is a free one (complete with source code) floating around hotscripts atm, Ive never tried it so I cant comment (its php btw).

Im happy with human click for the mo.

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Andrew

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Registered User

We don't offer phone support for a number of reasons.

1/ Much easier to handle things the way things are (PerlDesk ticket system with emails piped through). This allows the support to deal with the issue then give a full report back giving step by step guidance or whatever info needed.

2/ Multiple staff can assist at the same time using web based support.

3/ We have support staff spread around the world in different timezones. A phone number to the office could be workable but not if the support on duty at the time isn't located in the office.

Having said this, some people just like to speak to a 'real person' rather than an email address so we're considering giving limited phone support (office hours). Its likely to be an 0870 number though to try and encourage people to use the web based methods (as things really do get done more efficiently this way).


EDIT: Just realiseed how old this topic is

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Jim

•• (url-removed: need 20 posts) ••
High quality UK or US based shared, reseller, VPS and dedicated hosting since 2002.

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Registered User