Hello
I am just thinking aloud here really, but what if:

You hired "freelance" staff to handle out of business hours support calls (say 10pm-8am local time), using people based in countries in other time zones so they were awake when you were asleep.

They would set up new accounts and handle initial support enquiries.

How much would that be worth?

I am not looking for work or anything like that.
Just wondering if the small amounts of money involved would make it worthwhile for anyone to take it on?

There's also the security issue.
Would you let someone else have your root password!?

Is this idea sheer madness or is it like the crazy idea I once had (back in the 80's) for putting ads on rental video tapes that my marketing lecturer told me was really stupid and then someone else made a fortune from it.....

Gordon

I think its a good idea... It would work.. and it would be good pocket money for anyone :) Also, the host would be able to provide very good support to.

You can pay me to do that and we'll see how good that works. :) I can even use my own number too.

But in real life, why would cliens call you in the middle of the night. Why would you pay someone if only he/she recieves 1-2 calls a night? What a sinecure position!

Perhaps customers are from different time zones, and to fulfill the 24/7 support you promise to your clients.

Originally posted by fweikeong
Perhaps customers are from different time zones, and to fulfill the 24/7 support you promise to your clients.

Thats it....

I get support calls at 11pm EST which is 4am here....

Gordon

GordonH:
Looks like you are seriously in need for sombody to take care of your phone calls while you were sleeping, I bet you don't want your customers to find out you're supporting them in your pajamas. :D

reiterating the point above. It's always daytime somewhere in the world and though most customers are usually US or UK based someone's always going to need support somewhere..

.. oh and is this strange.. sleep.. thing you're talking about....

Greg Moore :)

Originally posted by GordonH
Is this idea sheer madness or is it like the crazy idea I once had (back in the 80's) for putting ads on rental video tapes that my marketing lecturer told me was really stupid and then someone else made a fortune from it.....

Gordon, that's too funny! DOH! Really, the issue (to me) is the root password deal... hire those who you trust for sure, and when dealing with someone you don't know, that's not easy.

Duhhh, almost forgot my suggestion! Have them just do things like answer emails at first. You know, how do I set up OutlookExpress, etc., and have *them* call you only when 100% needed. You can set up new accounts in the morning.

This way they don't hear the covered feet p.j.'s noise on the wood floor. You do still wear those covered feet p.j's right?

[Edited by Chicken on 01-15-2001 at 04:17 PM]

Why not team up with a reseller/minihost at the other end of the world who is in your same position? Is the 27/7 support realy necessary?

When it's a 11pm EST, it's 8pm WST where I am here in Perth :)

unless your talking about EST US, which I think I'm on a 12 hour difference of which I'm starting my own host and becoming a resller.

If your in the US you might be able to make some arrangement with say someone in Australia, or elsewhere in an opposite timezone and maybe offer support for each others hosts?

There are pros and cons in engaging someone unknown/faraway to help running the business while you're not available, or perhaps in other words 'put your office on the internet', you know what I mean. The daily monitoring process, the effectiveness of executing company objectives...etc. can be a little tricky.

From what I gathered here in the forums, Futurequest.com has somewhat proven this methodology to be workable, though.

Maybe if you need to look at a general support center of your own you may want to look at (yeah you guessed it) http://www.hotscripts.com

There is a selection of free 'Groupware' scripts available. Essentially they let you set up an email center where members of your 'team' can log in and go through the tickets. This way they can close the ones they know the answers to, leaving only the sticky ones for you (stuff needing root access etc).

Greg Moore

An automated office is a must for any virtual/semi-virtual office, you need a system inplace to handle task assignments and monitoring process. You can't live without it these days.

But human is still human, we are all emotionally driven somtimes, and every human is a unique individual, there is no one human that can read others mind.

If you have a superb system installed but no one is following/using it, the system will never going to help.


I wonder if there are office politics in a virtual office..
:D

Office Politics are everywhere!! I have seen people fight over how much memory space, there emails etc take. How much bandwidth they consume when they are uploading or downloading.. its funny really.. the cyber world is no different then the real one..

I wonder if the tricks/tips to handle real life office politics work on the virtual office...

If not..perhaps we can compile a site of tricks/tips to handle virtual office politics, and hey maybe we can make a fortune out of it.. LOL.

:D

hehe.. it would sure be a good idea :)

Hello
Yes its a pyjama job.
I stay up late most nights which means very few calls go unanswered for long.
I get up early as well, which is one reason I have so many customers in Hawaii.
They can e-mail me late at night and get an instant response while I am eating my corn flakes!

Yes, the reseller thing makes sense.
We have a reseller plan now thats quite generous.
Maybe somebody in the US will take it and run with it the way we did when we were resellers.

Gordon

Originally posted by Haakon
Why not team up with a reseller/minihost at the other end of the world who is in your same position?
I thought of that myself... but what's to keep them from stealing your customers?

Intelligenthost.com ; :-) hey I thought your thought to myself before I posted. But I know that thought came from some SCARY news about the internet. I personally don`t think it`s very hard to pick out those I like and trust on the internet..... do you? There`s not very difficult to find out if you have doubts either, just ask the costumer.

It's a good idea if you can find someone you trust and respect. That's the key!

Hello,

In the UK, you can use a "telephone answering service". I am quite an expert at them because I needed one for my business (I am 17 yrs old and still in school!). You need to pay for each call, however i found one that only charges for messages taken, not calls answered.

Goto: http://www.answerlink.co.uk/ fo more info.

The guys there are soo cool. Not only did they answer my questions quickly, they also went through the whole process in a clear manner. They were concerned that i would utilse the service fully!

There are a lot more in uk.

Use: http://uk.yell.com/home.html and search for "telephone answering service".

Hope it helps.