So I found a reseller account I like, I'm getting the system for signing people up in place, business stuff all figured out, etc.

At what point will I need to hire/outsource Customer Service Staff?

50 clients? 100 clients? 1,000 clients? (OK, 50 and 100 is way too low, it's just I don't really have any idea)

And what things will I need in place to give people the best support and put as little drain on myself?
(I'm thinking, FAQs, tutorials, ticketing system)

My service won't be cheap and I plan on giving people better customer care because of it. My only clients now are friends and family (+ one business account) and adds up to about 10. I could support them in my sleep.

If I can, I'd rather keep all support in house and still provide a level of support that keeps everyone happy (I'm not going to be going for volume).

uh, yeah

Originally posted by miltownkid
So I found a reseller account I like, I'm getting the system for signing people up in place, business stuff all figured out, etc.

At what point will I need to hire/outsource Customer Service Staff?

50 clients? 100 clients? 1,000 clients? (OK, 50 and 100 is way too low, it's just I don't really have any idea)

I don't think this is something anyone can just tell you outright.

It really depends on how much time do you want to put into the work? I know people who've worked 20 hour days, dedicating a lot of time into shaping up their new business and I know some that've put a few hours a day for administrative duties and let others take care of the rest.

It also depends on what kind of clients you'll have... it has become evident that the less your service is priced, you'll attract more people that are simply new to hosting; therefore, will ask a lot of questions.

It also (x2) depends on what kind of support you are promising to your clients. If you're running your own ship for a while, obviously, you're not going to be able to provide 24x7 support yourself.

In the end, it really boils down to: How much time do I want to spend working?

Originally posted by miltownkid
And what things will I need in place to give people the best support and put as little drain on myself?
(I'm thinking, FAQs, tutorials, ticketing system)

FAQ and tutorial are sort of merged into one thing. This will help a lot of customers who may be new to the hosting world. Therefore, however, people who neglect the FAQ/tutorials all together and just want human interaction when it comes to getting things to work.

You might not even really need a ticket system yet. I don't see why so many start ups feel they need to spend a part of their budget purchasing/leasing a ticket system when emails will be more than enough to take care of the first few handfuls of customers.

Originally posted by miltownkid
If I can, I'd rather keep all support in house and still provide a level of support that keeps everyone happy (I'm not going to be going for volume). I never see this kind of 'mindset' much anymore when people say they're going to start up a hosting business. But it should be a decision you make in the beginning and you should stick to it no matter what happens in the first month/quarter/year.

Originally posted by miltownkid
uh, yeah Uh, yeah :) Best of luck to you.

You might not even really need a ticket system yet. I don't see why so many start ups feel they need to spend a part of their budget purchasing/leasing a ticket system when emails will be more than enough to take care of the first few handfuls of customers.
Yeah, I was thinking about setting up a separate forum just because I saw other (much bigger) places do it too, then realized I didn't need that.

I think you're right about email. That's all I really ever do and that's what seems to work best. I plan on using chat and even Skype at times.

I only mention the ticketing thing because there seems to be one built into that WHM autopilot thing and I've seen open source ones I can use (how good they are ???).

The one business site I have (not friend or family) is a bar that, after everything was setup, I've heard nothing from. I have a feeling I'll be able to get a lot more of those (I hope I can anyway :) ).

Thanks for a thoughtful response.

As alpha said, It depends on multiple Factors.

My Suggestion would be to Hire Support Staff when you feel the Need to ...

It depends on alot of factors. Saying you have the technical knowledge to help these people you could probally handle at least 200 clients yourself. Of course you wouldn't be able to provide 24/7 support easily which is something most demand now days. If you can get the business on its feet then hire support technicians down the road it can work great.

Although you need to be pretty dedicated, if you plan to use the "support them in my sleep" theory then I would highly advise finding a good Massage therapist, you'll need it after the first month or so ;) Although it is possible, I did it for several months. But to be honest its not something I would do again. What I would advise doing is looking for a partner to go in with you, one guy on days, the other on nights, this method would also give you more startup capital.

First of all, I must say you have the right idea of things. I have seen ver few startups apart from myself who believe that they'll only sell their service at good (eg. 5$ for 100mb space per month) prices. Most start & end cheap.

Addressing you issue, I think its not the no. of customers, but the no. of support requests & their complexity that matters.

You could handle 200 clients if you get just 5 tickets per week/month. Or you won't be able to handle 50 clients who send 200 tickets per week/month.

My advice is - make a detailed FAQ so that the customers don't have to question you for every little thing. :)

I'm impressed and agree with Blue Blossom that your starting off in the right direction. Try and go with a detailed FAQ and if you can do a tutorial would be great also. There's a company (can't think of their name) that has flash demos pretty cheap. I don't think there's a real number you could use as a cutoff to get extra support, but I'd say do as much of it as you can yourself, and if possible, have someone in training to help out (family member maybe?), that way when the time comes that you need some help it'll be a smoother transition for everyone.

Thanks Jim. :)

I'm kind of embarrassed about putting this in the wrong forum :P (but I'm sure must of you get to see that noticed :)).

Well, I'm in Taiwan and most of my customers (in the beginning) will come from here. I'm lucky in that I have a friend back home (in the US) that's willing to help me out so that will give me a semi 24/7 thing going on (we're both pretty much online 24/7 already :P), he'll be my guy in training.

Things I plan on doing are: Having a Wiki with guides (that'll act as my FAQ)

A forum where clients can chat amongst themselves and help each other out.

A nice section of links to open source and free software that people would be interested in (with FAQs to support them as well).

I figured I'd write the FAQs as the Qs came in (won't really know what's FA until I get some Qs)

No hurry on any of that, just ideas. Funny, 200 is the number that kept popping in my head as to about the number of clients I'd be able to handle (without turning what hair I'd have left gray).

I did telephone support (a large ISP, dial-up :X) for a while back home, so I know what doing support is like.

Thanks again to everyone. This forum has been a gold mine of information for me.

I know how you feel. I myself am experiencing the wonders of this forum. :)

My service won't be cheap and I plan on giving people better customer care because of it.......If I can, I'd rather keep all support in house and still provide a level of support that keeps everyone happy (I'm not going to be going for volume).


You are definitely on the right track except for one thing. I often see small and medium sized hosts who claim they charge more for better support. That works fine for those in the business long enough to have a reputation but its a losing strategy if you are new and don't have a widely known reputation

A) Everyone claims to have superior support. its not a convincing selling point unless you have that reputation.

B) Support is an intangible. Serious long term cutomers have set needs for their site and will go with the hosts that gets them where they want to go. You have to do something tangible to distinguish yourself - offer a service or product the whole hosting world doesn't offer standard as their sales pitch thereby creating a niche or a tangible difference between you and your competitors that proves that you offer more.

I think higher pricing is okay if you are aiming for your local as well as internet business.

To be quick: How long is a piece of string?

There is no answer, it depends on the complexity of the client's website, how internet-savvy they are and loads more factors.

I agree with the comments above.
Its more about you, and how much time you have got etc.
Id work on getting clients and a quality service, remember you can spend money but getting clients is by far the hardest
Good luck with your venture

Originally posted by will7
To be quick: How long is a piece of string?

There is no answer, it depends on the complexity of the client's website, how internet-savvy they are and loads more factors.

Hit the nail in the head! :)

I am handling 2000 clients now and had to stop my compaigns as I am running into problems... I will look for some outsourcing solution soon but right now I would say 2000 is too much to handle yourself.

Yea, I agree. With 2000 clients, you must be earning quite a lot. I think you should go with actsupport.com i this case. They handle Live, Phone & ticket support I guess.

No I am not making too much. My prices are low. I made like 10k in April (revenue). I am looking into support-resort.