I've been informally looking at starting a hosting company for a while now, and I've already lined up a good reseller account and pretty much everything else I need. But the one thing I can't seem to solve is the best way to handle support. I would ideally like to offer 24/7 support with 10-20 minute response times, but at the moment I am just one person. (IE: I have to sleep, go to college, etc) What would everyone recommend? Should I outsource the support, get some friends to join in with me, or is there something I havent thought of?

If I am going to do this, I want to do it right, not be another 5$ a month, poor / going to die when summer is over host...

I would get a few friends to help you out that would not mind working for hosting and just to be a nice person. They have to know their way around hosting of course, but it would be a lot cheaper than outsourcing support.

Dersursine,

I would advise outsourcing support to a respectable company, the likes of TouchSupport may be just what you need
http://www.touchsupport.com

Originally posted by Equentity - Jamie
I would advise outsourcing support to a respectable company, the likes of TouchSupport may be just what you need
http://www.touchsupport.com

They look good, but a bit expensive to start. Maybe once I get more customers I will sign up with them. (Not that I like outsourcing support, but it seems better then the alternative.)

do a search for a list of various available outsourced support companies posted by thelinuxguy and boochan few days ago.

You will get a list of various companies and a choice to select them as per your budget requirements.

Do a co-op with another hosting company that's based in another timezone and share your support tech work. Get a non-compete agreement in place first. It's better than outsourcing your support to a company that *will not* care about your customers because you aren't paying them as much as their other clients are. ;-)

Roj

Originally posted by niyogi
Do a co-op with another hosting company that's based in another timezone and share your support tech work. Get a non-compete agreement in place first. It's better than outsourcing your support to a company that *will not* care about your customers because you aren't paying them as much as their other clients are. ;-)

Roj

Lol, is this you who is telling this.

If I am not wrong, you used to run Outsourced Support company - Tripod support earlier.

LOL, Business demands - marketing your own product :emlaugh:

All that laughing, is your tummy sore? I did and many others know how it goes when you pay for outsourcing on a shoestring budget. ;-)

Dersursine, I suggest the route of finding another "partner" to share support load with. If you're in the US, find somebody in UK and Oz and I think you'll be fine to *start*.

Roj

Originally posted by niyogi
All that laughing, is your tummy sore? I did and many others know how it goes when you pay for outsourcing on a shoestring budget. ;-)


lol, wondering why my laughing is annoying you ;)

I agree many know how it goes when paying for outsourcing on a shoestring budget. This was the reason, I suggested to search for the various outsourced support companies (you will find tons of them). Different support companies offer different support rates.

Ticket based rates can be the best if there are few tickets (and if the hosting company is new, generally the tickets are less) and even give round the clock support. Many companies offer ticket based support and I am sure this will be helpful on a shoestring budget.

Originally posted by Dersursine
I've been informally looking at starting a hosting company for a while now, and I've already lined up a good reseller account and pretty much everything else I need. But the one thing I can't seem to solve is the best way to handle support. I would ideally like to offer 24/7 support with 10-20 minute response times, but at the moment I am just one person. (IE: I have to sleep, go to college, etc) What would everyone recommend? Should I outsource the support, get some friends to join in with me, or is there something I havent thought of?

If I am going to do this, I want to do it right, not be another 5$ a month, poor / going to die when summer is over host... It might be a better idea to try to just provide business hours support while you are growing, most customers should not have a problem with this and enjoy the more personal attention they will receive from a small company....

But if you don't Touch Support is very nice, there is a Canadian firm that I highly recommend too, but they are both expensive.

I agree with that theres no need to provide 24x7 support to start with, If you did as mentioned above things like TouchSupport Etc, But id just keep it small to start with.
Regards

Well, I probably don't need 24/7 support, but most of my customers (At least to start) will be located in Ca. with me. However, I want to be able to have customer support when I am in class (usualy in 3 hour blocks sometime between 8am and 9pm). Plus, just doing business hours won't work out well since I am working with a lot of teachers that are teaching durring most of those times.

At the moment, I figure that I might have a friend help out, and I am talking with the company I am working with as well.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far.

Considering to his small requirement and budget, Outsourcing is not a solution for him.

He should hire a competent person for support locally or can train his one of existing staff to handle the support.

You should determine hours of the day that you will be able to offer support. I think this is better than 24/7, especially if you can't offer it. Just make sure that during those hours you are ALWAYS avaliable to offer support/help. I think you will do well by doing that rather than offering 24/7 support, not being online the whole day, or having a staff member online, YOUR clients will get angry and maybe leave you!

Probably its possible to hire any "starter" admin from "job offers and requests" - they are not expensive. But anyway, i think you'll have 10x more expenses the profit, because you dont have partners and have to do everything by yourself: you're busy and in this case it will cost you money.