This is aimed at anyone and everyone.

Well, hi! I just wanted to ask my question: "Are you scared?". I wanted to know if there are people out there that are scared of what their clients might say during support.

Do you ever get afraid that they might ask you a question you do not understand? That could be a techi question to something you do not understand and theres no one else to ask that same question to?

I just wanted to ask because it seems good to own a web hosting company because you want to test what its like. You proberly can help your customers and give them a great time on your servers, but if your not a techincal person and you dont know what "TomCat" is, should you really be in the web hosting industry and own your own company?

Just want some feedback maybe even stories of your fears and thoughts when you first came to launch your company!

DeDo~

Originally posted by dedo
. . . but if your not a techincal person and you dont know what "TomCat" is, should you really be in the web hosting industry and own your own company? . . Not every server admin is a web host.

Not every web host is a server admin.

However, every web host needs access to someone with server admin skills. Whether that's you, the host, or someone on retainer.

Very well said Dennis

I don't administer my own servers, I'm fairly knowledgable so I can usually answer questions, but if I can't, I'm just honest with my customers and I tell them that I'll need to ask a tech and I get back to them as soon as possible.

I've not have any complaints.

I really think if you are a 'webhost' and don't have a server administrator on your payroll, you are asking for trouble. Seriously, it is not very hard to take the time to learn how your server works. And that in turn will allow you to answer questions quicker and fix small problems quick, improving your rep. For more complicated issues you can't handle, either have someone on staff, or hire a server admin per hour to do the work.

There is absolutely no excuse for not being able to answer a clients question. If you don't know anything about servers you shouldn't be running a webhosting company as far as I'm concerned.

Originally posted by dedo
This is aimed at anyone and everyone.

Well, hi! I just wanted to ask my question: "Are you scared?". I wanted to know if there are people out there that are scared of what their clients might say during support.

Do you ever get afraid that they might ask you a question you do not understand? That could be a techi question to something you do not understand and theres no one else to ask that same question to?

I just wanted to ask because it seems good to own a web hosting company because you want to test what its like. You proberly can help your customers and give them a great time on your servers, but if your not a techincal person and you dont know what "TomCat" is, should you really be in the web hosting industry and own your own company?

Just want some feedback maybe even stories of your fears and thoughts when you first came to launch your company!

DeDo~ Research solves everything. When I used to work for a company that sold servers and shared hosting, if we got a request to install or tweak something we weren't familiar with, we'd search for it. We'd then install/tweak it on a test box (either our own server, or our old 350Mhz test machine in the office), and then deploy it, or tell the user that their request could not be done.

Joshua's all up in this thread.

I get asked questions all the time I can't answer, questions I can't understand (for various reasons) are also common. Google is my friend and protector in all things techy and mysterious.

Originally posted by dedo
This is aimed at anyone and everyone.

Well, hi! I just wanted to ask my question: "Are you scared?". I wanted to know if there are people out there that are scared of what their clients might say during support.

Do you ever get afraid that they might ask you a question you do not understand? That could be a techi question to something you do not understand and theres no one else to ask that same question to?

I just wanted to ask because it seems good to own a web hosting company because you want to test what its like. You proberly can help your customers and give them a great time on your servers, but if your not a techincal person and you dont know what "TomCat" is, should you really be in the web hosting industry and own your own company?

Just want some feedback maybe even stories of your fears and thoughts when you first came to launch your company!

DeDo~

Simple: If you can afford to employ staff to take care of things you don`t understand it is no problem. Otherwise it depends on how much you do actually understand and how much you are able to learn new things. When I started I didn't know what Tomcat was either. I think if you know what Apache is and know how perl and php works and know the basic Linux commands and how to resolve problems with overloaded servers etc. you may be able to get into the hosting business. That is if you also know all the other stuff about having a business etc. (which is usually the more difficult part for most people).

Thanks for the words of wisdom. :D

I wouldn't be afraid if you look at all the bigger companies and even things like ISP's the people they have doing TechSupport don't know the correct info, They look it up on a computer and if they still cant find it they ask a supervisor.

Many big companies have a layered support, you always talk to 1st level support who records all suppor requests and can deal with the simple ones. For more difficult ones, they forward your ticket to 2nd level support who will give the answer to the 1st level tech who will in turn contact the user and tell him the solution. At least this is how all big companies should operate their support departments...

As for the techs not being able to answer the client's questions, it sadly happens quite a lot, I've experienced it myself many times in different technical areas, talking to a tech supporter on phone or in mail who obviously had way less knowledge of the subject than I did.