I am planning to hire a support guy. Any suggestions? (requirement, experience, payout rate, etc.)

Also, what do I need to give them? A email address, log in for Modernbill (I am using it), what else? Do I have to give my access of my reseller account to the support man?

Thank you

Some requirements he should have:
- The control panel you use (reseller and user end)
- The billing software you use (modern bill)
- Linux is a plus (not needed, but a plus in the future)
- Good knowledge of the ticket system used
- Good peoples skills
- Good grammar, punctuation, spelling
- Good English :: a MUST if you provide support in English
- Two or Three years previous experience

The above would be the minimum a support rep would have if I were to hire. They are expensive coming with the above specifications, but it's well worth it in the long run and your clients will love you fot it!

Also try and get him in a country across the globe from you, so he can do nights and you do days.

You should give them an e-mail address, a staff account on Modern Bill (is that even possible?), a staff account on your help desk software.

No, there is no need for access to the main reseller account.
Can you really trust them enough?


Payments... this is tough.
Depends on how many clients you got, cheap ones can go at about $50 a month, but others go to $1 an hour.
Depends really on the person you employ.

Maybe if you cannot afford hiring someone, you can hire outsourced support?
That is always more cost efficient especially if you cannot afford it now.

Originally posted by Anjay
[b]
Payments... this is tough.
Depends on how many clients you got, cheap ones can go at about $50 a month, but others go to $1 an hour.
Depends really on the person you employ.


$1/hour? I wish that were true :)

I had a guy doing support remote for me. I setup call fwding for him line to ring from our 800#. I gave him $8 / hour + $5 signup for virtual accounts and $100 signup for DS. We only worked him 20-25 hours a week though.

If you are paying support people - basically outsourcing them do you have to pay any other standard employee fees like income tax, Canada Pension plan, employment insurance?

Is there a way to get around this with support and sales reps?

What about workers compensation?
Do you also have to worry about T4's etc?

Originally posted by Anjay
Payments... this is tough.
Depends on how many clients you got, cheap ones can go at about $50 a month, but others go to $1 an hour.
Depends really on the person you employ.


That's like slave labour.. $1 an hour? That isn't even legal in most places.

Originally posted by kdghsu
That's like slave labour.. $1 an hour? That isn't even legal in most places.

I know. ;)

I don't pay any support reps that - all mine are actual in-house and I don't out source, meaning by French law I must pay them over minimum wage among other things which are all mandatory.

It was only a suggestion, since you can find a lot of good people asking for them much since they just want to build up more experience. ;)

The best is to use outsource support if you cannot afford much.
BobCares and other places are good for things like that. BobCares is $1 a client I think - but I'm not sure the time period.


It is technically illegal to give them that little, $1 an hour or $50 a month, but if you were to say look in the Job requests forum - a lot of people are just looking for experience, plus it depends what they do and how much support. If you only have 1 ticket every few days, then $1 an hour would seem plenty for the little amount of work he'd have to do - prices all depend on how much the staffer does, how many clients you have - and overall, how much you can afford, as well as the experience and qualifications of the actual rep.

I'd never pay that little - for various reasons as I want people actual on-site, and also due to French law (damned red tape! :stickout: ) - but look for a price both you and the rep wants, then it should be fine.

If you do only want to pay $50 a month, then you could find maybe your friends to do you a favor, or even look in the Job Requests forum - remember, $50 a month is plenty if you only get one or two tickets a month. Truthfully you wouldn't require a support rep then, but maybe you merely just want to take in the profit and not do any work?

It all depends on various things.

Wow, this thread reminds me of the Industrial Revolution in the USA. If you're actually paying a tech bare min (by the standards of their country) then you will most certainly get what you pay for. Who else would accept a job like that?

One of two people:

1. Someone very desperate who will leave as soon as a better offer comes along (i'm sure your clients would love suddenly not getting support)

2. Someone who doesn't know what their doing.

At least that is the logical assumption.

If price is that much of a worry, then your business isn't as healthy as it should be.

What would be an acceptable level of pay per hour 4 a tech support guy?

The support guy must have full access to your server so he can perform his task (you must choose someone you trust).

$50/month is unrealistic. Minimum $1000/month if you expect him to work 20 hours a week (which is probably enough unless you have a lot of clients and support tickets and requires a full-time worker). If you don't pay him enough for a living he will need to get more than one job at once, decreasing his performances.

<< Wow, this thread reminds me of the Industrial Revolution in the USA. If you're actually paying a tech bare min (by the standards of their country) then you will most certainly get what you pay for. Who else would accept a job like that? >>

I don't pay any of my support reps, my techs or any staffers the bare minimum! (not even the cleaner!)
I only gave the above pricing as a suggestion to the topic starter, since a lot of people new in the business cannot afford much.
The very reason I also advised maybe he'd prefer Out Sourced support such as BobCares or another one.


<< The support guy must have full access to your server so he can perform his task >>

Are you talking tech or support guy?
A support rep should only have access to the HelpDesk and the Billing software (not always - but helpful). He does not need access to the full server, although there should always be a tech there who should have access to the full server.
I only give my techs access to the server - not my support reps since they merely answer questions in the helpdesk and via online chat. If something is needed to be done, then they contact the tech who deals with it accordingly.


<< $50/month is unrealistic. Minimum $1000/month if you expect him to work 20 hours a week >>

Again, are we speaking about Support Reps or Techs?
Techs have to know Linux extremely well, and they will need access to the server. The Support Rep does not need access to the server since he or she only deals with clients via e-mail or the helpdesk and then contacts the tech accordingly, or that is how I have it done. I don't see why I should entrust server access to all my Support Reps - the reason being I always make sure there is a tech in the office so the support rep can ask him to do things, etc. as it is too much hassle if all your support reps have access, and especially if you have a lot of support reps.

We did $8.00 / hour for remote tech support like I said. If we were to hire someone inhouse we would pay them between $10-12.00 / hour. In my opinion that isnt much.. (a support tech).. A technician I would say $36,000 / yr minimum. I would expect him to have at least his CCNA though.

my fren works with a company (quite reputable and big I would say, but it shall remain anonymous here) as a remote support guy, and his pay is around $180 a month. His job is just to log in to helpdesk whenever he is free to help cutting down the support load.

just for your reference though i am not so sure if you are thinking of hiring remote support rep :)

Cred?

I think Cred meant he has a friend who works for a company, who he'll not name, and his friend merely replies to tickets when he can and he gets $180 a month.

That's quite an understandable fee, yet we have no idea of actually how much work Cred's friend does - so if his friend only replies to one ticket a month, the company is paying a lot for support.

I have sent you a PM.

Originally posted by [GWiz] Scott
I have sent you a PM.

Sorry Scott, but read rules. ;)
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/misc.php?s=&action=forum-rules


"Participants may not instruct users to check your e-mail, check your PM, or inform them that they've got mail or a new PM, or any variant thereof. This rule is also applicable in the advertising forums."

Any employees hours should be kept track of - even if they're paid monthly. It is important to know how many hours they are actually putting in so you can compensate their payments appropriately

That's also true.

The employer should know exactly how many hours the employee does, no matter what.
Firstly it's helpful among other things, but it can help when it comes to bonus', etc. and other special things that you are obliged to offer.

Plus also things like lunch times, breaks, etc. should be noted - of course only if they are in-house since with out-source you can't prove a thing in reality. :D