When a client asks you why you don't offer phone support, what do you reply with? It costs too much? :rolleyes:

We are looking into offering this as a technical support and sales feature in the future.

There are many good reasons

- too keep costs and thus the end price down
- because the internet is not made in one time zone or place and thus phones are not logical
- because with email you can provide far more beneficial answers that would be hard to "show" on a phone

in the end i think most people dont do it because of the cost and the requirement of having set hours and of course having a polite, knowladgeable person pick up every time.

Another good reason:


The customers wouldnt understand my accent.

Originally posted by TedS
There are many good reasons

- too keep costs and thus the end price down
- because the internet is not made in one time zone or place and thus phones are not logical
- because with email you can provide far more beneficial answers that would be hard to "show" on a phone

in the end i think most people dont do it because of the cost and the requirement of having set hours and of course having a polite, knowladgeable person pick up every time.
I have to agree.

Originally posted by SplashHost.com
Another good reason:


The customers wouldnt understand my accent.


Alan,

We are in the West Midlands....do you think anyone will understand us? :stickout

Originally posted by SplashHost.com
Another good reason:


The customers wouldnt understand my accent.


Is it that bad ? :D

Greetings:

We battled that issue back in 1996, and decided that the only way to really differentiate yourself was to provide telephone support.

As much as we love email, we do find a large number of clients just want to pick up the phone to talk with some one.

We've found offering toll free sales and support both increased sales and customer retention.

We do have clients that would not be with us still if they could not call us on the phone.

Thank you.

We have a toll-free number for sales... but encourage customers to use our helpdesk system for customer support requests.

If they call the toll-free number after hours they get a machine anyway :D

Hello
Customers want telephone support and if you can't provide it you will be seriously handicapped.

It is our BIGGEST weakness.

However, there are 2 kinds of telephone support:

1. Someone types the issue into the ticket system and it gets dealt with as and when.

2. Someone actually fixes the problem while the person is on the phone.


#2 might appear to be better but is pretty unprofessional in practice because you have to put the phone down and all the person is going to hear is breathing and keyboaring.

#1 is what our telephone company and most organisations we deal with do.

The biggest problem with phone support is that you need to provide it TOLL FREE in EVERY country you operate in.
The bottom line is that we simply can't do that.
Routing toll free international calls is expensive and we would need to provide it in various languagaes which is impossible.

At the end of the day telephone support is not the best way.
Written tickets force people to explain the problem fully.

Of 100 calls received here about "support" issues only one or two will actually be within the boundaries of reasonable support.

Its a real dilemma because if we provided toll free phone support we would get more customers but we would have to increase prices and our prices are already high enough compared to others to cause us to leak customers at a terrifying rate.

SO, phone support is a must but you will need substantial amounts of capital to do it at a level which will satisfy your customers.

Gordon

We offer toll free phone support in the U.S. It makes a huge difference to our customers. Being able to call someone up and get an issue solved over the phone is so much more convenient fro customers than sending an email or filling out a trouble ticket and sometimes having to wait hours. Our techs don't need to put down the phone and type, they can actually talk on the phone, breathe and type on the keyboard at the same time!

Yes, but what do they say while they are fixing the problems.
Take evena simple password problem.
That could take 5 to 10 minutes to fix and test.
Its a long time for silence.

Originally posted by GordonH
Yes, but what do they say while they are fixing the problems.
Take evena simple password problem.
That could take 5 to 10 minutes to fix and test.
Its a long time for silence.

I guess I'm not understanding you here. Haven't you ever talked to a tech support person on the phone like for your ISP or something? Trained, courteous, professional support staff can carry on a conversation while they are typing on their keyboards etc. Sometimes our techs will make small talk while fixing a problem for a minute or two. It's never an issue and certainly far from unprofessional. In my experience, our customers are really happy to be able to reach someone on the phone to solve a technical support issue and having that person be friendly and even make small talk while helping the customer is just a plus. Now we offer both phone support and email/ticket based support, but I personally wouldn't host with anyone that I couldn't talk to on the phone when I'm having a problem, so I don't expect my customers to. I realize I may be in the minority on this board...

Futurequest offers an explanation for this right on their web site. I think their reasoning is pretty close to what most companies face: phone support is not very practical unless everyone is working out of the same office.

http://www.futurequest.net/Support/

Offering phone support is helpful, but offering it via a 800 toll free number is not recommended nor necessary.

Greetings:

All of our staff work out of the same office. We have enough staff that rarely is anyone put on hold.

We don't use an automated telephone system except for after hours.

We do find a toll free number (US and Canada) to be helpful for sales and support.

Thank you.

Originally posted by R Doherty
When a client asks you why you don't offer phone support, what do you reply with? It costs too much? :rolleyes:

I tell them the truth: It's too hard to keep track of phone messages, and it's a pain to have people spell their account names/domains/etc out over the phone.

Originally posted by TedS
There are many good reasons

- too keep costs and thus the end price down
- because the internet is not made in one time zone or place and thus phones are not logical
- because with email you can provide far more beneficial answers that would be hard to "show" on a phone

in the end i think most people dont do it because of the cost and the requirement of having set hours and of course having a polite, knowladgeable person pick up every time. Awesome responces...

Greetings:

With approximately $12,000 per year we have 12 telephone lines, toll free service through the US and Canada, and a 768K dedicatd connection to the Net.

Our telecommunication costs are around 1.5% of current revenue.

We are currently working on an ongoing project that will pring in $7,500 per month; and it would not have been possible with just email and web-based support.

I guess if you operate in the "people only buy based on price" world, you have to keep all of your costs down so you can be the next Shlitz beer (don't know about Shiltz, then read their story and find out why you don't know about them).

Or you can try to keep your world in the area where price is but a small concern to the entire picture. Then you want to provide as much for the client as they need realizing the costs of such will only be a small part of the overall picture.

Thank you.

Greetings:

Nice ad.

Thank you.

:rolleyes:

Small talk is definantly important,

I once talked to the @home guy for 30 mins about windows XP, although most consider the level of their techs to me less than competant I allways got the good ones.

Originally posted by Skeptical
Offering phone support is helpful, but offering it via a 800 toll free number is not recommended nor necessary.

I don't understand. Why?:confused: I'm sorry, but I just don't buy all these arguments about pronouncing domain names over the phone and such. The only reason I can think of for not offering phone support is that you can't afford it, or don't want to spend the money on it. I don't think you'll find customers that prefer email support to phone support. I realize that this board is dominated by smaller hosts, but it sounds like you're looking for something to say to customers that ask why you don't offer phone support instead of being honest with yourselves. Phone support can only be a good thing as far as I can tell....

You know after re-reading this thread, maybe I'm missing the orginal poster's intent. Maybe he's trying to find out what reason hosts give to their customers for not having phone support as opposed to the real reasons hosts don't offer phone support. I suppose those can be 2 different things.

Originally posted by dynamicnet
Greetings:

We battled that issue back in 1996, and decided that the only way to really differentiate yourself was to provide telephone support.

As much as we love email, we do find a large number of clients just want to pick up the phone to talk with some one.

We've found offering toll free sales and support both increased sales and customer retention.

We do have clients that would not be with us still if they could not call us on the phone.

Thank you.

he is right on the money, tel support will retain the clients over a longer period of time.

for example liquid web offers is, and they retain a large percentage of there client base ( 7000+ domains as of my last industry research ) and that has been constant with a simular percentage growth.

Mike

p.s. I don't offer tel support. but I call my clients when the problem surpases 1 support ticket item. get a real good calling plan that you can use and you will surprise your clients by the ton load every time you call and say

" Hi it's Mike, do you have a minute for me to help you "

Client : I thought you offered no tel support

Me : that's correct, I don't, But I want to call you anyway to help you.

Client : well ok, .....

Originally posted by ADEhost

I don't offer tel support. but I call my clients when the problem surpases 1 support ticket item. get a real good calling plan that you can use and you will surprise your clients by the ton load every time you call and say

" Hi it's Mike, do you have a minute for me to help you "

Client : I thought you offered no tel support

Me : that's correct, I don't, But I want to call you anyway to help you.

Client : well ok, .....

In that case your better off just telling users on your site that you have call-back support, you call them when they submit a ticket...people would probably be compelled to sign with you over "no we do not have phone support"

Originally posted by smacx


In that case your better off just telling users on your site that you have call-back support, you call them when they submit a ticket...people would probably be compelled to sign with you over "no we do not have phone support"

I would like to iffer something like that, but to be truthful, then I think every customer would demand it. I would rather have the option to call then, than to have the option avalible as a known item.

besides, I like to call my clients and get that good surprise feeling from them. plus it adds a small level of a personal touch that I enjoy doing.

mike

Offering phone support does raise sales and makes clients feel more at ease knowing they can call in. Most feel that e-mails are too easy to ignore, phone calls are not plus it's real time so no waiting for a reply.

I do not see the money reason for not accepting phone calls as a valid excuse. Come on now, it’s not necessary to have a toll free number or hire extra tech support people. If you have a local number on your site it’s not costing you anything at all. Nothing… you won’t even have to pay for extra staff. Just allocate some of your email tech support to handle both emails and phone support.

When I first started out as a reseller, I was a little hesitant about whether to accept phone calls. At the time I was quite a bit younger, so just based on my voice it was probably relatively easy for a customer to assume that I was a child. Another problem was that I was in school all day… ended up getting my mom to pretend to be a secretary.

Just another possible reason someone might not offer phone support :-)

Greetings KevlerS:

I agree on the money argument not holding a lot of water.

When we first started in June 1995 we didn't have toll free, and were paying approximately $20 to $50 per month for one phone line.

There are valid reasons operationaly that go beyond money:

* The company (usually a reseller) doesn't have full time staff.

* The company doesn't have technical skills and outsources this to either the true hosting provider or an outside firm.

* The company is small (1 person) and the person doesn't feel they have the verbal skills.

Thank you.

When a client asks you why you don't offer phone support, what do you reply with? It costs too much?

This is a joke, right?

This thread is very interesting, especially as we are considering putting in the infrastructure and resources necessary to offer telephone support in the near future.

At the moment, we do not offer phone support, though if someone calls our toll free sales line we are usually happy to provide support anyway and let them know (politely, of course), to please use our online helpdesk in the future wherever possible.

We have a few customers that call anytime they need ANYTHING. At first it was very annoying, but then I realized that most of our customers are fine using a help desk/email, so it's ok to babysit a few customers this way. I've also found that these guys are the first to recommend us to their friends because we don't mind them calling.

Think about it. Most hosts are customers as well; their colo, or data center, maybe their merchant account provider or online processor etc. Do you as a host prefer sending in an email support request to your colo/data center etc., or do you prefer talking to someone on the phone? I think it's a no brainer....

Originally posted by rbro
Do you as a host prefer sending in an email support request to your colo/data center etc., or do you prefer talking to someone on the phone? I think it's a no brainer.... I prefer e-mail/online ticket... Cuz english is not my primary language ;)

Originally posted by rbro
Think about it. Most hosts are customers as well; their colo, or data center, maybe their merchant account provider or online processor etc. Do you as a host prefer sending in an email support request to your colo/data center etc., or do you prefer talking to someone on the phone? I think it's a no brainer....

I certainly like having a phone # to call for sales & emergancy support but there's a big differance in spending a few thousand on co-lo space and spendig 10 bucks a month. With that said, I would gladly take email based sales to save 10% of my monthly bill on any service but I have a feeling the common client would feel otherwise. That is why I think phone support is a great idea if and when a company can actually run it right.

Originally posted by TedS
There are many good reasons

- too keep costs and thus the end price down
- because the internet is not made in one time zone or place and thus phones are not logical
- because with email you can provide far more beneficial answers that would be hard to "show" on a phone

in the end i think most people dont do it because of the cost and the requirement of having set hours and of course having a polite, knowladgeable person pick up every time.

Sounds good, may I copy your reason :rolleyes: :)

I'm a little late to this thread, but would be interested in what people think of our approach. Here's our game plan:

We'll offer tollfree emergency support. But before its utilized by a client, there are a number of posted steps a client is to complete. Calling the tollfree number for non-emergencies (most anything short of their site is down and it's NOT a network-wide outage) without first completing posted steps, means agreeing to a $65/hr (1/2 hr minimum fee) - and failure to pay the fee would result in account suspension until the fee has been paid (or cancellation ultimately if remaining unpaid).

So before we incur any per minute costs for tollfree telephone support, in theory the client has checked to make sure the issue is not already covered in our online information, FAQ and CPanel manual, opened a support ticket at the help desk and posted to the support forum (allowing a specific amount of time for response prior to a telephone call). If they don't want to bother taking all the necessary steps before calling us, we'll happily support them at the $65.00/hour rate.

We anticipate telephone support will be minimal because all these others forms of support are designed to and normally will take care of all but the most dire emergencies. We're using the Ureach.com executive plan service for our tollfree number, which is very inexpensive ($6.99/month plus per minute rate), with the ability to page you, email you, and/or forward directly to whatever telephone number (land lines or mobile) your on duty support employees are stationed at - scheduling can be fixed or based on time of day, day of week, etc., and you can designate multiple telephone numbers to be forwarded to in a particular sequence. Also if no one is available for some reason to take the call, the system will send the caller to your answering center and take a message - the message they hear you can record or use their system message to callers. All in all, Ureach provides much control, many options for handling calls, and we are very happy with the service.

As we grow and can afford it, we will probably loosen the restrictions in order to expand our tollfree customer support. We do feel giving "good phone" can be an important adjunct to growing a business if you can talk the talk and walk the walk. In the meantime, we feel potential customers are going to be more inclined to go with hosting where tollfree telephone support is at least an option in an emergency.

Personally, I prefer web hosts which offer 24/7 tech (phone and e-mail) support. Most of the How To guides for those looking for web hosts recommend this (at least those I've seen).

The only reason why I'm hesitant to sign up with one popular host now is that they don't offer phone support, since I've had a bad experience with a hosting company who did not have any address or phone no. listed on their site. Dunno why our former netadmin even signed up with them.:confused:

I think asking clients to look at FAQs and manuals online before contacting tech support either by e-mail or phone is reasonable. Hosts just need to make sure that their site is updated and user-friendly and that their Search feature is working properly and also allows searching in a particular section only.

Bottom line: customers want fast, efficient and friendly service even from hosting companies (think fast food/restaurant when you're extremely hungry!) :D

Just a regular newbie's thoughts...

Well put! :) Had some awful experiences also with sites down for prolonged periods (days) without any communication from two rather prominent web hosting companies, and "24-7" support turned out to be an empty promise. Very frustrating, but ultimately useful in clarifying what truly is needed to provide good support.

Those past experiences sure weighed heavily in deciding what forms of support we're going to offer.

Originally posted by Shauna
I'm a little late to this thread, but would be interested in what people think of our approach. Here's our game plan:

We'll offer tollfree emergency support. But before its utilized by a client, there are a number of posted steps a client is to complete. Calling the tollfree number for non-emergencies (most anything short of their site is down and it's NOT a network-wide outage) without first completing posted steps, means agreeing to a $65/hr (1/2 hr minimum fee) - and failure to pay the fee would result in account suspension until the fee has been paid (or cancellation ultimately if remaining unpaid).

So before we incur any per minute costs for tollfree telephone support, in theory the client has checked to make sure the issue is not already covered in our online information, FAQ and CPanel manual, opened a support ticket at the help desk and posted to the support forum (allowing a specific amount of time for response prior to a telephone call). If they don't want to bother taking all the necessary steps before calling us, we'll happily support them at the $65.00/hour rate.


YIKES!!! You scared the hell out of me, and I'm not even a customer.

Sorry to be so blunt, but it sounds like a very harsh policy, at least if I am looking at it from a customers perspective or even a newbie who wants to start a website and is glanceing over your site looking for a possible host...

to be real honest I wouldnt have phone support at all (and many hosts dont), before I would throw a $65 fee if I happened to miss a step in requesting support somewhere. Let alone a threat of haveing my account possibly cancelled if I didnt fork over the cash... It all just sounds very threatening which may be a way of deflecting phone calls, but it would also reflect on your company...

just my .02 cents

LOL - sorry you were scared. No doubt you're right, a certain number of people will be scared off, but offering SOME phone support until we can grow and afford to expand our coverage, we feel, is better than offering no phone support. And it's always easier to "loosen the reins" than to tighten them up later on.

there is no best way to run a hosting biz for every provider.
phone support is great and an anchor. are you better having it yes.

is it mandatory, no.

re friendly chit chat- nice to promote that warm feeling
we dont engage in it, too busy -- not my project not my problem

we keep you running we are not biz consultants too.

Originally posted by miami_g

re friendly chit chat- nice to promote that warm feeling
we dont engage in it, too busy -- not my project not my problem

we keep you running we are not biz consultants too.

We're busy too, but if you're on the phone with a customer and helping them, it's nice to be able to shoot the breeze while you're waiting for a page to load, or whatever else is going on. We find that the customers appreciate the little extra personal touches that you don't get with huge hosting operations.