Hello.

Doing a bit of research on phone support and was curious to know what the most popular options are that people use. Sorry if this has been discussed extensively already.. perhaps a link to a previous thread would be in order if so. If not what do you use for phone support? Are 1-800 numbers the best option? Do you find you don't need to have a live person for your sales/support? What exactly are my options?

Any answers much appreciated.

Davin

Davin, phone support is "necessary" for extremely insecure customers.

I worked for a larger host (~1,000 servers) for 2.5 years, who didn't provide phone support. It worked beautifully. And the reason is this:

Tech support is not well-suited to the telephone. Relaying URLs, complex error codes, program settings, file paths, etc. are awkward by voice at best. Because this is a print format we are dealing with (printed on the screen, that is) it transfers natively to a print-based/visual support system such as e-mail or a helpdesk. There is no efficient or accurate voice replacement for copy/pasting a line, or taking a screenshot. Trying to do these things by voice is frustrating and time-intensive.

Another problem is history... with a voice conversation a person (tech or customer) cannot go back and review verbatim what was said. However the ticket/e-mail based system does offer this ability. In a way the client's tickets become a knowledge base for them. It is also your proof as a host -- in black and white -- that issues have been resolved and aren't sitting out there unfixed. (Which you may need in the case of a BBB complaint or chargeback)

And finally there are basic learning models... and lazy human nature... if a person knows that getting something done is as easy as placing a phone call, they invest nothing in the activity nor do they learn from it. Because so little is invested in the inquiry, it is likely they will end up simply calling you again the next time they need the same thing or something else done. Whereas if a person actually invests themselves into deciding what the proper question is, providing the needed diagnostic information and then reading through in comprehending replies/screenshots -- they learn something. (This is the principle behind homework from school, too!) With that basis they are better prepared to handle the next crisis when it arises, and it may well be they now understand enough that they don't need support the next time around.

Phone support promotes laziness. :P

In an industry where everything is based on margins (and especially in the case of competing with dime-a-dozen discount hosts) there is just no sense in running cost-intensive support systems when better quality support can be provided online. The key is getting customers to comprehend why online support far surpasses phone support. We are old-fashioned in that respect and some folks find the idea pretty tough to swallow.

2¢ from here. :)

:D Bailey

Originally posted by bithost(NET)
....

:D Bailey


BRAVO! :D Man you made that sound so good I almost want to get rid of my home phone line!

BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Thanks for saying it so well...saved me about 20 minutes of typing my reply!

--Tina

Originally posted by bithost(NET)
Davin, phone support is "necessary" for extremely insecure customers.

I worked for a larger host (~1,000 servers) for 2.5 years, who didn't provide phone support. It worked beautifully. And the reason is this:

Tech support is not well-suited to the telephone. Relaying URLs, complex error codes, program settings, file paths, etc. are awkward by voice at best. Because this is a print format we are dealing with (printed on the screen, that is) it transfers natively to a print-based/visual support system such as e-mail or a helpdesk. There is no efficient or accurate voice replacement for copy/pasting a line, or taking a screenshot. Trying to do these things by voice is frustrating and time-intensive.

Another problem is history... with a voice conversation a person (tech or customer) cannot go back and review verbatim what was said. However the ticket/e-mail based system does offer this ability. In a way the client's tickets become a knowledge base for them. It is also your proof as a host -- in black and white -- that issues have been resolved and aren't sitting out there unfixed. (Which you may need in the case of a BBB complaint or chargeback)

And finally there are basic learning models... and lazy human nature... if a person knows that getting something done is as easy as placing a phone call, they invest nothing in the activity nor do they learn from it. Because so little is invested in the inquiry, it is likely they will end up simply calling you again the next time they need the same thing or something else done. Whereas if a person actually invests themselves into deciding what the proper question is, providing the needed diagnostic information and then reading through in comprehending replies/screenshots -- they learn something. (This is the principle behind homework from school, too!) With that basis they are better prepared to handle the next crisis when it arises, and it may well be they now understand enough that they don't need support the next time around.

Phone support promotes laziness. :P

In an industry where everything is based on margins (and especially in the case of competing with dime-a-dozen discount hosts) there is just no sense in running cost-intensive support systems when better quality support can be provided online. The key is getting customers to comprehend why online support far surpasses phone support. We are old-fashioned in that respect and some folks find the idea pretty tough to swallow.

2¢ from here. :)

:D Bailey

You know, you have by far the best argument I have ever seen!

Well put!

*kicks dirt* :blush: Gosh guys, thanks...

:D Bailey

simply the best bithost. Keep it up :)

Such a well-versed reply, I just "had" to do a forward on this one. Thinking of what question I should ask you next! :)

The root of neccesity for phone support is the stupid "how to choose a host" articles in my opinion.

I get numerous pre-sale questions about this and thefore have a ready-made reply like the one bithhost(Net) stated.

I saw once one of those stupid articles saying " ...if you have phone support your customers think thay you are actually there..." as if when you reply to a support ticket customers think "you are not acutually there".


Google doesn't offer phone support as far as I know. Does that mean they're not reliable?

Great comments! Absolutely love them!

This answers my questions as well as my data backup stuff (finally) gets moving forward.

One question: With the electronic support, have you ever gotten stumped with a problem that required you to call them or them call you?

On few rare occasions I phoned my customers:

Once, I customer wouldn't just read my replies to his question, so I had to repeat myself over and over after which I gave up and called him.

Another time, the customer had provided us the wrong email address, so we couldn't sent them the welcome message.

A couple of times to verify international orders.

Originally posted by dprimm
One question: With the electronic support, have you ever gotten stumped with a problem that required you to call them or them call you?

Once! I am currently contracting with a company that does like to offer phone support. We had to get a client set up with a root password on his OS X system and then change his internal DNS server settings (/etc/resolv.conf on OS X) off of his ISP's and onto the host's, because the ISP's kept flaking out and "losing" his website. :rolleyes:

Because it was a fluid sort of operation -- first I had to determine if the fellow had a root pass to start with, then lead him from there, the phone was okay. But only okay... we still had the same voice stumblings of explaining what to type in command line, for example.

Unfortunately I don't have the controller side of Apple Remote Desktop because if I had had that, I could have just logged in to his system and gotten it all set up for him... Oh well. Which reminds me, I need to go back and set up a tutorial on how to do that. It's not a common call but it is one of those things that is complex and requires a decent set of directions.

:D Bailey

I agree with what you said...

I often people saying "please call me on... to talk about this" (Pre-sales). I'm not sure why, I always just reply with "we do not provide phone support", but most likely:

A. We are in UK and calling USA will cause un needed expense
B. Sometimes people are just "timewasters" and wont actually sign up
C. Anything they can say over the phone they can write in an email

I also think it is lazy, saying "can you call me"...

Not to ruin the like mindedness in here, but...

While no phone support can be ideal for a number of reasons, many of which bithost pointed out, dismissing it entirely without fully analyzing your unique situation can be a mistake. In our 9+ years in this industry, phone support has been "essential" to our growth and success. Countless times we have "closed a deal" or made a "customer for life" because we answered the phone promptly, solved a client's problem, or explained a service fully in just a few minutes.

Using phone support effectively is important. Setting standard hours and answering during those hours, clearly delineating what you do and do not support, and making sure phone calls where clients ask for items get put in a client's record, or having the client follow up with an email can make phone support be a great supplement to email and ticket based support.

Your target market will also help determine if phone support is the right choice for your business. With that said, if you cater to business clients, no matter how big or small, and these business owners are over the age of 30, phone support is often a critical factor in their decision to choose you as a host for any website that is designed to generate income.

Here at WHT, where we are mostly "tech" savvy, you'll read tons of posts like "I hate talking on the phone", "I much prefer live chat", "tickets are so convenient", etc... But in the real world of business, sometimes a phone call is a necessary evil to get something done. Many times a 5 minute phone call can help clear up an issue that might take a back and forth exchange over a few hours or a day to fully solve.

If you are running on razor thin margins, packing your servers to the brim, and trying to signup as many people as you can per day, then phone support may not be for you. However, if you feel that a little time invested with a client can reap huge rewards down the road in terms of customer loyalty, referrals, and building an image of your hosting company being compared to superman/woman by your clients, then offering phone support may be the right choice.

Per laziness, we have found the opposite with phone support. Handled correctly, a phone call can help a client to be more self sufficient, as you can walk them through something once, and then they know it. Or, by giving them more support then they expected over the phone, the client may feel that next time they will not bother you, as you went above and beyond. Of course there are always abusers, and those need to dealt with or just "put up with" to make the whole system work. Simply pointing people to flash tutorials and FAQ entries is easy to do, but often makes a client feel about 2 inches tall, which is the first step to leaving you at the first sign of trouble or bump in the road (Take a recent lesson from Servint's 4+ hour downtime and clients still singing their praises).

And the bottom line is....the bottom line. You'll find that clients are willing to pay more, a lot more, to have someone help them on the phone, so they can focus on growing their business and not spend 45 minutes watching a demodemo (a great product btw) tutorial so that they can "better themselves". :)

- John C.

One of the few times I disagree with John.

While I believe it is important to have a phone number listed for emergencies and other issues. I don't believe you need a general technical support line in order to be successful. If that were the case, we'd have packed up and went home long ago. :D

--Tina

Originally posted by AH-Tina
One of the few times I disagree with John.

While I believe it is important to have a phone number listed for emergencies and other issues. I don't believe you need a general technical support line in order to be successful. If that were the case, we'd have packed up and went home long ago. :D

--Tina I didn't state it was needed for success, but to dismiss it without a thought as to your target market and how it can enhance your business is not smart. Many companies are successful with no phone support, I do not dispute that. I'm just offering a different opinion on how phone support can be a plus and not a "pain that techies and the like hate to use". ;)

(Disagreement is why I posted in this thread in the first place, so I'm glad someone doesn't agree.)

- John C.

Hey guys thanks for the great responses so far. I see the logic on both sides of the argument and unfortunately I still feel a little stuck.

As far as tech support goes I would think most customers would be willing to deal strictly with a ticketing system. As ticketing software becomes more and more functional I think its becoming the standard and customers are getting used to that. What I'm worried about is sales. How many customers want to talk to a live person to work out a unique situation? What if you have that one customer thats willing to offer you alot of money for a "specialized" service or configuration? I'm thinking a few of those accounts might make a huge difference in your numbers. Do people find that you get alot of requests for phone support in regards to sales?

Davin

there is no contradiction. some types of customers need phone support, others prefer low prices. if you are getting into budget web hosting, forget about phone support for a while. sales hotline - maybe, but tech support over the phone will push you out of the budget niche (due to increased price). yet you won't reach the premium hosting niche if everything else in your service (hardware, overselling, lack of features) is cheap.

there is no contradiction. some types of customers need phone support, others prefer low prices. if you are getting into budget web hosting, forget about phone support for a while. sales hotline - maybe, but tech support over the phone will push you out of the budget niche (due to increased price). yet you won't reach the premium hosting niche if everything else in your service (hardware, overselling, lack of features) is cheap.


I agree with this completely.

We have our toll-free number setup, and directed it to voicemail while we were going through our DC migration. The time our techs would have spent on the phone for issues that our clients should have already known about, over and over again, multiplied by the per min. charges, would have forced us to increase prices to cover it.

Originally posted by bithost(NET)
Tech support is not well-suited to the telephone. Relaying URLs, complex error codes, program settings, file paths, etc. are awkward by voice at best. Because this is a print format we are dealing with (printed on the screen, that is) it transfers natively to a print-based/visual support system such as e-mail or a helpdesk. There is no efficient or accurate voice replacement for copy/pasting a line, or taking a screenshot. Trying to do these things by voice is frustrating and time-intensive.
Preach it girl!! :gthumb:

Yes I am in agreeance over keeping tech support online. What I'm trying to get at is what do people use for sales support? Are people getting alot of requests to speak to a live person? Are you going with a voicemail system or do you actually have a live person answering calls? What are the popular options here?

Originally posted by davin
Yes I am in agreeance over keeping tech support online. What I'm trying to get at is what do people use for sales support? Are people getting alot of requests to speak to a live person? Are you going with a voicemail system or do you actually have a live person answering calls? What are the popular options here?


Why would you provide sales phone support if you don't provide phone tech support? Seems a bit like a slap in the face to current customers. Also, once you close the sale and the customer wants to talk to you again...how do you explain that?

--Tina

1. In my experience, the lower paying customers are the ones who need the most support. If you are going to charge a "healthy" price, phone support may not be a bad decision.
2. It's a good idea to log EVERY phone call on a customer's account. If they use too much support time and are no long profitable, drop 'em.

Originally posted by AH-Tina
Why would you provide sales phone support if you don't provide phone tech support? Seems a bit like a slap in the face to current customers. Also, once you close the sale and the customer wants to talk to you again...how do you explain that?

--Tina

There are a couple of reasons why I'd only want to provide phone sales support and not phone tech support.

1. Customers may find an actual conversation the most beneficial way of determing what they need for their company before they purchase anything. Conversely customers may find, as already mentioned, that having something trackable is the most beneficial way of dealing with a tech problem. I don't think its a slap in the face to existing customers if you only provide a number for sales.. if your ticketing system and tech support is solid than it would probably be easier for them to go that route anyway. I believe the first person who replied to this thread made a number of good points on why a customer would prefer to deal with tech issues through online ticketing.

There are effective methods to disuade customers from calling in tech issues. I don't forsee a problem in that regard.

2. We won't just be offereing canned packages or standard services. Its very likely a customer may want to speak with someone as there is alot of room for negotiating with the products that we'll have. As I mentioned before "specials" can account for a substantial portion of your revenue. I currently work for a large company that survives off its specialized customer base so I've seen the impact that can have.

In fact the more I think about it the more I've answered my own question. :) I really appreciate everyone's input however.

The problem with not providing phone support is that if someone has an urgent issue, a server is down, etc. they want to know that they reach someone immediately and that it will be resolved immediately. This is best achieved over the telephone. Hearing someone say it will be taken care of sounds much better than just seeing it typed in a short simple email.

Also, a phone is necessary for sales, contact with vendors, etc. I won't even go into that. Just use the same phone line for both sets of uses and you should easily be able to justify the costs.

$.02

Ebay does not provide phone support.
I believe, not even to their clients that open Ebay stores. All support handled through email, FAQ's (can't over state the value of a good FAQ) and a great form system to create tickets.

$.02

Great discussion here. We take the middle road, for now. As for sales, if someone wants to talk by voice, we will call them on our unlimited long distance, thus not costing us anything additional. We'll do the same if our support ticket system isn't getting a situation resolved. This seems to have suited us well, though we're looking at a toll-free voice mail because some people feel comfortable when a phone number is listed in the contact information, especially if you're looking for some higher end customers. Even a $5/month number that is strictly a voice mail box is better than nothing, IMHO, since the customer at least thinks they found a way to contact you and as long as you return the call, you're fine. One more question on to this, and this goes back to sales. In this day of low-cost phone services, do you think customers are still turned off if your contact number is a local number as compared to a toll-free one? Since local numbers are not charged per-minute, this may be a decent compromise.

Offering a sales line but not a support line is a BAD idea.

What you will get is your customers phoning on the sales line requesting support. You then have the choice of providing support over the phone - guaranteeing they'll then phone all the time or telling them it's for sales only and making them p1ssed at you.

We DID offer telephone sales / support for our first 3 1/2 years of operation (what a huge waste of resources) and actually stopped offering it 4 months ago. We explained to customers our reason for stopping - it was almost word for word what bithost said above :)

We expected to lose customers (estimated 10%) what ACTUALLY happened is we had about half a dozen grumbles from customers and not a single account left.

Not only that but the people that were constantly on the phone have stopped contacting us for support all the time - they've had to get off their *** and actually learn something and it's made a huge difference. We now get approximately 1 ticket per day per 100 customers (!) as opposed to being on the phone all day.

We do however have a huge support section on line which covers just about any question any customer could possibly have about our services. The difference is people now READ the information instead of jumping on the phone and getting us to do it for them.

Best thing we ever did.

Originally posted by my_forum_id
Offering a sales line but not a support line is a BAD idea.

What you will get is your customers phoning on the sales line requesting support. You then have the choice of providing support over the phone - guaranteeing they'll then phone all the time or telling them it's for sales only and making them p1ssed at you.

We DID offer telephone sales / support for our first 3 1/2 years of operation (what a huge waste of resources) and actually stopped offering it 4 months ago. We explained to customers our reason for stopping - it was almost word for word what bithost said above :)

We expected to lose customers (estimated 10%) what ACTUALLY happened is we had about half a dozen grumbles from customers and not a single account left.

Not only that but the people that were constantly on the phone have stopped contacting us for support all the time - they've had to get off their *** and actually learn something and it's made a huge difference. We now get approximately 1 ticket per day per 100 customers (!) as opposed to being on the phone all day.

We do however have a huge support section on line which covers just about any question any customer could possibly have about our services. The difference is people now READ the information instead of jumping on the phone and getting us to do it for them.

Best thing we ever did.


We stopped offering phone support years and years ago. Your experience is exactly what I experienced as well.

--Tina

Just from recent experience here.
Always trying to see what works.
We have always had support tickets etc. and of course our "regular" their quarter number for calls (sales, support or otherwise).
Recently added extra phone services & toll-free just to try it out & see if there was a difference.
In a word NO. Not one bit.
The ones who called before are still the ones who call (I think it's mostly because of their personality, they just like hearing a voice) 99.99% is still on tickets or e-mail.
(I will mention I do a little web site work on the side and for those issues especially or the unusual tech problem like someone else mentioned where you and the customer need to be "walking through" a problem together at the same time phone still works best, although for general hosting the ratio has not changed one bit. The hosting customer needing a "walk through" would have still called on their own quarter.)

Crossing over to another thread, I wonder if the person who made all of those sales from that cable TV ad had a phone number in the ad? Seems to me that that may get more response with a phone number, but only speculation. I think my latest compromise is going to be to add a phone number on Vonage. This means that I can just let it go to voicemail if I wish which we can listen to and reply however. Thoughts? Or maybe just a dedicated voice mail line.

Originally posted by my_forum_id
Offering a sales line but not a support line is a BAD idea.

What you will get is your customers phoning on the sales line requesting support. You then have the choice of providing support over the phone - guaranteeing they'll then phone all the time or telling them it's for sales only and making them p1ssed at you.


We've thought of this. Our plan is to either charge a small additional fee for all support tickets that have to be opened over the phone and/or to offer incentive for support tickets opened online. This way we may benefit from those users who refuse to learn. :) It won't offset the costs of the line itself however it would leave it open for sales issues for the most part.


We DID offer telephone sales / support for our first 3 1/2 years of operation (what a huge waste of resources) and actually stopped offering it 4 months ago. We explained to customers our reason for stopping - it was almost word for word what bithost said above :)

We expected to lose customers (estimated 10%) what ACTUALLY happened is we had about half a dozen grumbles from customers and not a single account left.


You didn't notice a dip in your new customers? This is what we are worried about.. the customers that you never see because they choose someone else as they want to talk to someone right away.

Also.. do you offer mostly canned services? Is there anything in addition to regular web hosting? We'll have a few more services offered than vanilla web hosting so our strategies may differ as a result. Just curious on this one. :)

Thanks for the great response!

Interesting discussion here. I think I need to pipe in here in support of what John said, and to add an additional bit of info on this.

I've been in the industry for several years, starting as a tech for other companies. I've worked for many companies that did quite well for themselves without phone support and still do today.

That said, they effectively push out an entire market segment as well. For me, when I started my company, my focal point was on small to medium sized local businesses. I should emphasize that this is a rural area. In other words... NONE of my customers are even remotely internet savvy. For them, typing up an email would take a full business day, using the age old "hunt and peck" method.

If a problem occurs, it would easily take 19 emails to determine what a customer is talking about. They tend to use words like "thingy" to describe a feature that isn't working. Over the phone, they can describe what they are looking at... or more importantly what they want in no more then a few minutes. This can be remedied (or done) as per there request.

Now if I were to only offer email-based support, they would send an email (taking them about 14 minutes to write out). Then we would email back a reply, to get a further explanation of what "the thing that makes the other thing work" exactly means. Then they have to write a more detailed email (taking them about 28 minutes) of what they mean.... etc etc. By then they are frustrated and look for a company with phone support.

Is phone support neccesary? For me, absolutely. For you? Ask yourself who your market is. Nerds like us would rather NOT have to call anybody. But if you want to attract the market segment that can't type anymore then 9 WPM, you bet it would help.

One more note... Bailey is correct, phone support does promote lazyness. I have 1-2 year old customers that still call to get an email address setup. But you know the major difference between my customers and the majority of Internet customers? They pay very well for that luxary. So you know what... I'll take the lazy ones :).

I got my own 800 number for only $10... definately makes you business look better, and customers really like it.

We just did the middle ground this week. 800 would have been too expensive with anticipated/potential growth, but we need a phone line for some customers, especially higher end ones. So we added a local line. So at least we have a phone presence now and our monthly cost on it is capped. As a bonus, we did it through Vonage so the voice mails go out to the whole staff so we can delegate as necessary. But often times we can make a quicker sale over the phone rather than writing Emails, more Emails to clarify, etc. I'd say it's good to offer as many ways to contact you as possible, or at least leave options open. We now have phone, support tickets, Email, MSN, AOL, Ventrilo, and Skype. Guess we should add "two cups and some string" as an option.