hello is there any hosts that offer Skype as a way to contact them like for support as i know most of them have toll fee numbers and stuff but what about the hosts who can't afford to pay a monthly bill for a toll fee number?

I have a Skype line for business purposes and tie a Kall8 800 number into it. I only offer sales info over the phone and no support, unless I make an outgoing call to speak to a client.

Kall8 gives you a toll free number for $2 a month and then 6.9 cents per minute. That's 100 minutes for $6.90 a month. If your business can afford that, then you have a few options.

- Don't offer phone support.
- Offer phone support with a local number and have clients pay phone call costs.
- Rethink your business plan to allow for necessary business expenses.

Good luck.

Moved to Running a Web Hosting Business.

A limitation of Skype is that people have to have a program from the Skype site installed on their computers to be able to use it. That's probably OK for clients who expect to be calling you more than once although it wouldn't work as well for sales.

Who knows, maybe Skype will become so common that a large percentage of people will have and use it. It looks like it's been around for a couple of years, but I only noticed it recently.

Lois

Well, with Ebay purchasing them, I suspect that they will become more widely used. I purchased a SkypeIn package so I have an actuall phone number people can call from their regular phone.

Skype can be a good communication tool - but the only limitation is both parties should have the application installed.

Not sure if skype has a web based version too ? if yes then that would make it more easier :)

StanaPhone is a free and simple internet telephone that uses a real US phone number and enables user to make and receive free calls to and from any phone ...

www.stanaphone.com

Yeah,

StanaPhone is great. I actually use it to tie in with my toll free number that way I just have to pay for the minutes with the toll free number, no cell phone costs, plus you can have your employees get StanaPhone and have the calls route to each number (depending on your toll free # setup).

Like svdorr said, SkypeIn allows you to recieve calls to your skype number with people using a normal phone. The only issue there is the cost of the call, however you can have many numbers on your account, for example one in the UK and one in USA, so if that is where most of the customed are based, then they only pay local rates.

To be honest I believe you would be making a mistake to offer Skype as support for the time being. It certainly has potential, and it would be a unique feature about your company, but I don't believe it is ready and neither do I believe we are ready.

I do believe though eventually Skype will be a popular medium for support.

Using skype sounds like a good idea. Cheap too for your customer to call you for free within the skype community.

I think that a hosting company providing support thru Skype, MSN or AIM has a constant headache :) only if those methods of support are for real emergencies, but customers will msg you even if they only need to know how to configure an emai address!

So, unless the company has a group of people dedicated to online messenger support it then can replace a phone call.

Skype with skype in and one of the new duel phones or usb deskphones and ur own number is a great way of adding telephonic support, its inexpesive and can be local to any geographic region thus keeping prices low.