Have you had customers who are constantly asking stupid questions then when you reply clearly explaining everything they email you with the same questions again and again?

I had one who always said "I would like my account changed to microsoft.com" or other clearly taken domains. I against all business bought their first domain name for them for free!

Now they wanted their account cancelled so I asked why and they said we were always down. I have carefully replied to that email with a link to our uptime of 25days or so on that server.

I like to see what they say now ;)

Isn't that something like the horse that Sir Lancelot rode?

You'll always get a customer like this from time to time. In most cases it's just that they're new online and don't have an understanding on how it all works. Sometimes it's worth remembering that not everyone has a level of comprehension of DNS and networks to really 'get' why they can't have microsoft.com

If after explaining it to the best of your ability in a way you think they should be able to understand they still don't work it out, it's generally better to just let them go, thank them for choosing you, and wish them the best at their next host.

Early last year we had someone sign up who we since have learnt got their first computer ever, only three weeks before. We had to walk him through almost everything after dailing up. Since then his knowledge has grown to a point that he happily hosts three domains, and now helps others in his area (Nigeria). It was a struggle at first, but once we figured out how to explain things in a way he'd understand right away everything went smoothly. Initially it can be a little frustrating until you develop that customer relationship with them - after all different people react in different ways to the same advice.

Greg Moore

LOL,

We got a sign up yesterday, and after 10 min of signing up he sends in a support ticket saying He would cancel if he didn't get his account info right now.

Well while he was doing this I was tracking him and find out his ip is in Singapore and his account info is in Texas.

My god now the crooks are getting pushy. :rolleyes:

Originally posted by The Laughing Cow
Have you had customers who are constantly asking stupid questions then when you reply clearly explaining everything they email you with the same questions again and again?

...

Now they wanted their account cancelled so I asked why and they said we were always down. I have carefully replied to that email with a link to our uptime of 25days or so on that server.


LOL, sounds like a bad one. One good thing to remember is that you also get to choose weather you give service to these people. If one person is going to double your support costs all by themselves I'd let them know _in the nicest possible way_ that they're not welcome. And don't forget the 80/20 rule! http://library.shu.edu/HafnerAW/awh-th-math-pareto.htm

NOTE: I am a sysadmin and programmer, keep that in mind when I give customer support advice. :-)

Yeah I agree with it all. I cancelled the account for the customer. I then wished them luck with their next host. They were with us for a few months and for the best part didn't use their account anyway. I suspect it was a minor using mothers credit card and didn't understand all the information.

This is why we NEVER EVER register domain names for customers. If they want a new domain, we simply refer them to GoDaddy. :)

Originally posted by avara
If they want a new domain, we simply refer them to GoDaddy. :)

I have found that some people actually do not want to deal with getting the domain and are willing to pay $35 up front to have you do it at GoDaddy. I find it's a very easy $25 profit for 3-5 minutes of work. :D

I don't think I could live with my conscience charging people $35 to fill out a form at GoDaddy...

Customers have such questions generally because they are new to the net...
They need care but generally we all tend to get impatient..
I remember when I had personally started I knew nothing about simple things like even formmail. The worst was I had my site with nomonthly.com
They were quite angry whenever I asked a question which always made me think a 100 times before I asked tech any questions... Finally, it was one of the reasons why I left them...

I always feel that we must be good and reply even if we do not want the customer..
We can always say in a kind way that we can't cater to his needs and I'm sure he'd understand ... Give the refund and retain the goodwill...


Have a great day :)

Regards
Amar

Originally posted by bobcares
Give the refund and retain the goodwill...

Exact reason why the 30 day money back guarantee should be there. So both parties can 'test the waters'. ;) Everybody should have such a thing for web site hosting.

You call all that bad eh?? What about the client who keeps calling himself an idiot? how do you deal with those kinds? :rolleyes:

Hey Kunal! Don't see you round much anymore.

Funny you should mention the idiot thing. We've had customers who do exactly the same thing. :) As for how to deal with them, we tend to just do as I said in the post above. You need to get a feel for these guys and how they think. Once you can work with them at their level the penny will drop and they'll get it (mostly). I've dealt with domain transfer issues before using houses and street addresses as examples, hardly mentioning a computer term at all. While most people who read this forum would find it insulting if a host described a domain transfer to them in that way, a lot of people new to the net find it a great way to understand a little of how it all works and what everything means to them.

In fact when I used to buy hosting myself way back when, the one thing that used to tick me off with my upstream was to have a support ticket answered with 'fixed' and no explanation of how or why. At least if I knew what went wrong I could keep an eye out for it next time.

The one thing people should remember is those guys who are paying $8 a month and e-mailing every day usually stop after a couple of weeks. While you're only getting $8 (minus fees, processing, etc etc) out of them, what you also gain is a loyal customer who you've had a lot of personal contact with. These loyal customers have family and friends, and often get refered to you because they know you're going to put up with them even though they feel 'like an idiot' for having to ask something they feel embarrassed about.

Another example was a guy who signed up a mini account once and e-mailed constantly for a week (and still contacts us a lot). A week after that initial signup, he signed up two professional plans and a commerce plan for friends, and still signs up smaller accounts on a fairly regular basis.

While we all tend to look at the smaller accounts as not having that 'dollar value' of the big ones (especially running 6 plans), you'd be suprised just how many of them can snowball into something larger given some time.

Finally, we're all in a service industry (web hosting). It's the service that often makes the difference between a good and bad host. Some guys are going to need a lot more than others, so you should have that sort of usage built into our overall planning - another good reason for sensible pricing strategies :)

whoops I kind of 'did a Tim' on that post... sorry for the eye strain

Greg Moore

Originally posted by Incognito
Isn't that something like the horse that Sir Lancelot rode? hah hah haaaa! :D

post deleted

Originally posted by kunal
You call all that bad eh?? What about the client who keeps calling himself an idiot? how do you deal with those kinds? :rolleyes:

I remember a customer of our's months ago who kept insisting she was too stupid to use our software. She wasn't of course, just frustrated over various things, and it's just another type of customer that you learn to deal with. You'll get some who just want information so they can fix the problem themselves, other's want you to step them through a fix, but insist on doing it themselves so that they can learn for next time, others don't care about the how and why, they just want it fixed. The one's who call themselves idiots are usually the latter, they just want things to work, and it's often best to offer that you'll fix it for them.

It's also important to think long term, and to let clients know the real cause of the problem and the solution ("You had permissions on file XXX at 644, when they need to be at 755"), rather than just telling them that you've fixed it. Often, this gives them enough information to fix it for themselves in future, and they won't have to contact you about it.

I think the important thing to remember with support is that you're helping people, not just fixing problems.

hmm... it just gets annoying, your trying to help them... but they refuse to understand that...

strange ppl in this world...