I've been wanting to start a hosting business for quite some time now, but my only problem is that I don't think I have enough time to give for customer support. I'm on for about 3 hours a day every day, but still, running a web hosting business by myself wouldn't work too well.

I found a reseller package where I could add on something like 5 dollars per month and they would provide the customer support for my hosting company. It's only something around 15-20 dollars per month for 3500mb of space, 55gb of bandwidth, and them providing the support service.

I was just curious if anyone had ever heard of a service like this before. It seems like a good idea, and you'll definately get a feel for what your support service would be like if you just talk to them for a while...

I don't know if they are openly doing the support thing for everyone, so I won't include the company name, but I was just thinking that sort of a service combined with selling reseller packages might work out pretty well for some companies...

Anyone know of anything like this?

I don't think you need that service when your starting out. 3 hours a day is plenty when your starting out the buisiness, maybe look into it later when your company starts to expand.

If you don't have your own servers or bandwidth, *and* you don't provide your customers with support yourself, you're getting to the point where you have to ask what *do* you offer?

If you want to outsource everything and be a pure-play marketing company, that makes it a little harder to offer a real value. You're basically just becoming another middle-man with no added value.

There are several companies providing support for web hosts. Bobcares is one of them. If you are just starting out you do not really need support for every minute of the day. Get a handful of customers first. In most cases you still won't get many support requests and you can find out how the clients react if your answer a ticket after 2 hours instead of 2 minutes. But for the long term you need to plan and put proper preparation in place.

3 hours a day is good enough when your starting out.

You may just want to spread it evenly throughout your 24 hour period just to make sure you get to see their request faster.

Actually, it all comes down to time management.

What you would actually want to be concerned about is making sure your customer's sites are up and running smoothly and getting sales every month... 1 client per month is good for a start as it won't take much of your time plus you get to learn more.

Hello,

I would suggest trying it for a couple of months and seeing how it goes. Check up with your customers and make sure everything is okay and working properly.

Make sure you get transcripts of all support requests so you know your company is being handled correctly. Because afterall you are putting a hosting company into another hosting companies hands by doing this, which basically translates into giving your company to the competition, not really the best idea but if they are responsible it should not be a problem.


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I agreed with WebsiteDistric and Emonex. 3 Hours is good enough if you are just started your hosting biz. If you are using a reseller plan and providing webhosting biz with it, you can always ask "help" from the company that you purchased your reseller from.

I wanted to add to, that look over the company's policy that they have a clear policy on customer support. Since you are handing over your clients request for support to them this might lead them to pirate your clients.

Although there are several companies who would be ethical enough not to do it... but it is better to be safe than sorry in the end.

Hi,

Do not expect to get a lot of customers for the first few months or even the first year.

I think if your customers are below 100, three hours per day should be enough. Plan your support time carefully - check emails and support your customers every 2 hours.

Best regards