Which do you find the best way of supporting your customers?
I currently use just email but was wondering what the benefits of operating a ticket system or forum would be.

Look forward to your replies!

Hi there,

3 years ago when we started out we used email but it was messy and a bit hard to keep things arranged especially with a large number of emails coming in every day. A couple of months later we started using perldesk (ticket system) which instantly showed the great difference, to say the least..it's much easier to handle than emails and gets things organized. We stayed with perldesk till last month when we switched to kayako because the new perldesk is extremely buggy.

Hope that helps :)

When our webhosting was in its initial stages, email support was fine but when you get more than 50 customers , it's hard to remember their peculiar needs , like upgrading or billing issues. So we shifted to a Helpdesk system and it was more organized. We have support forums for non-server related issues , usually script support and web design ideas. Email is now used for pre-sales or if a customer forgot their login information in their user account.

I would recommend ticket system. If you don’t have enough clients then you may continue with email support.

We use PerlDesk for client support and we also inform clients of our public webmaster forums. Even though it's not a client support forum, it seems to keep some of the script related questions contained. :D

We started off using an email system (shared IMAP mailbox), but this rapidly became impractical so we switched to a web-based ticket system.

All seemed rosy until we found clients were replying to the ticket response notification emails, rather than submitting their responses in the web interface - thus replies weren't hitting the ticket system.

At the start of the year we switched to Cerberus which provides the best of both worlds with email tracking and a public "support center". It's a brilliant system and worth every cent.

-Shaun

The use of all 3 is beneficial. Over all of them, I'd highly recommend a good ticketing system. That way you can keep a consistent record of support issues and their fixes. This can help should you need to reference previous issues or even use it for legal purposes.

Regards,
Waylon

Originally posted by shaunewing

At the start of the year we switched to Cerberus which provides the best of both worlds with email tracking and a public "support center". It's a brilliant system and worth every cent.

-Shaun

We also use Cerberus and would strongly agree – its email piping is great for both customers and staff. We started using email as well, and the transition to Cerberus was seamless as customers can still just send their email to support@ and reply to the emails they receive from us – all piped through the helpdesk. It is also good for staff, as some prefer to use email while others prefer to use the web based center.

Our support is split about 50-50 between the forums and the helpdesk – we operate both forums and helpdesk at the same priority which is important as if you want to build a strong forum - staff need to be heavily involved.

:)

Hi guys,

Our first ticket system was through the system that came with modernbill. Prior to that we'd used email, but as you bring in more staff, email support does become near impossible.

We then went onto perldesk, which is an excellent tool with excellent value for money. We're now onto the more multi-purpose Kayako helpdesk product. Enable email piping and you are in essence providing your customers email support anyway :-)

We also still operate forum support, however we state clearly it's for non-urgent issues. The whole forum thing is not something we've managad to take off as of yet.

We use everything possible to make sure our customers are able to contact us at all hours. My suggestion would be to provide your clients with support options that fit into your budget.

Starting off with email can lead into some difficulties down the way. If you have the option - I would start with a ticket system so that all conversations can be tracked appropriately.

Forums, like many have said, are wonderful additions to your site, not really for technical support on hosting, but more for community support on design, code and other script issues.

Live Chat is a big plus for customers. This is one thing many customers look for right away. Atleast I did when I started looking. I wanted to make sure that in the weee hours of the night and early morning, I could reach someone just incase. And there are a few free ones out there as well as some affordable ones that work wonderfully - PHPLIVE is my favorite.

If you do provide around the clock support , you might want to look into getting a toll free number your customers can call. There are several affordable companies that have some excellent options - like having your number forwarded to a cel phone so that you can always be able to answer your calls.

We use basic email for sales and billing concerns. The wonderful thing about some help desk is you can set up your emails to go point to your help desk - and it will automatically set up a ticket for that client. That way - regardless - a ticket is created and you are able to track it.

I am new to this industry, very new, but I have taken alot from what I looked for in a Hosting Company and what I viewed to be a professional host provider and incorporated that into my site and business model.

Again - this is just in my experience and in my opinion. I DEFINENTLY do not think everyone can start of with these options, but a combination of a few of them can really help.

Hello WHT Users!

I would prefer the Ticket Support / E-mail (which creates a ticket). The reason being is because we have a record of the incident, just in case the problem happens again, and as well, it provides us an excelent tracking tool, with e-mail notifications letting you know when someone has made a ticket. It has worked best over our telephone support, and forum support. We actually don't even recommend that anyone use our forum support, because all we will tell them is to file a trouble ticket.

As well, on forums, you have to give your login information... so why would you want to use forums as a support method? It's unsecure, and people would easily retreive your login information (that is, if you plan on using forums as your only method of support).

We use Kayako eSupport. URL: www.kayako.com

Hi!
Helpdesk is certainly the way to go.
Use a helpdesk which would pipe in the email as well.
Some examples of good helpdesk software are
perldesk , cerberus , otrs, ticketsmith...
emails as the only support solution will never work. You can never track the responses. Multiple people cannot handle the email meaning that you can never provide 24x7 help either.

Have a nice day

Regards
Amar

Thanks for that guys, I think I will start looking into getting a ticket system. Cheers.

If you are willing to shell out the $1,000 for the deskpro enterprise license you should definately go with that. We use it and it's totally awesome. All my techs love the desk.

Telephone - no matter what we do to support them online - customers will pick up the phone and call.

Helpdesk
http://exoscripts.com/

Telephone
http://angel.com

Chat
http://www.tufat.com/script.php?script=chat

Got a Cell with SMS text msgs?
Set up an instant SMS contact page.

etc... ;)

Depends on your client base needs...but if you give them options..it's always better as many have preferences that they're comfy with.

We are currently using a helpdesk (eSupport). Easy to use and stay organized with. With email piping, e-mail support is still an option for clients. As of now, we don't offer forum support.

We're currently using email support and the built in helpdesk in modernbill. We have been developing a helpdesk of our own for over a year now, which has more features than anyone could ever want. We're hoping to migrate our support to that helpdesk within the next month.

Go with helpdesk. it will save you from lot of troubles. You can use IM as a backup method but it can get messy. I am using cerberus. It is cool.

Originally posted by rishidude
I am suing cerberus. It is cool.

OH... Why are you suing cerberus ? :rolleyes:

typo dude. It is 1:30 in the night and this is natural :P

Just kidding. I understand ;-)

Amar

We've found over the years that the ticket system works best for us. This way the guys from the support are more accountable and responsible. Competition in the support team is involved and the end result is more satisfied customers.

Greetings:

What are your thoughts on http://www.cerberusweb.com/ ?

Thank you.

They were one of the companies they we looked into for getting a help desk. However, we use Kayako. They looked good though.

I've used a few different ticket systems.

So far Kayako is on top with esupport.

cerberus is decent.

TR is nice and is free. http://bestpractical.com/ for thos of you starting out and want your own ticket system. A little more time to setup though.

What ever method of support you can provide do it. and do it with 24x7 support. Otherwise prospective clients will go on to the next hosting company.

Originally posted by hybricom
TR is nice and is free. http://bestpractical.com/ for thos of you starting out and want your own ticket system. A little more time to setup though.

Sucks resources like no tomorrow though.

We used RT before switching to Cerberus. It was running on a dedicated server with not much ticket volume and was still slow as a dog.

-Shaun

I have been looking at many solutions and the best I have found for me is eSupport.

Cerberus, while powerful, is overkill unless you want to do statistical analysis to recognize interesting trends over the course of time.

Seriously, I say go for email support integrated with OTRS. Email is MUCH more personal - tickets feel like to customers like they are just one of many. Psychologically speaking, the first point of contact is important so if a customer contacts you by email and you respond quickly, that's much more impressive than if you just solved their trouble ticket.

OTRS could be considered a trouble ticket system but then there are no "guts" to the ticket system as all the communication really happens by email - it just organizes the mess that people find when they have too many issues piling up.

Get personal! :-)

Roj