I'm thinking about becoming a reseller part time. I've been wondering how do you guys provide support? Do you spell out the terms in your contact? Do you indicate that its just you? Do you specify some sla on turn around time?

Thanks in advance

By memory there are companies that outsource support for about $30 a month they will provide your customers support on a 6 hour response time by memory, I would personally tell the truth with your customers and let them know that you are paying for what you get, obvisouly if your not providing good support you shouldnt be charging them as much.

I forward all help support requests by phone number and email piping to my PDA if I am away from my computer. In my town (and I am certain most are like this) I can use my laptop to pick up an open wireless connection or quickly stop by starbucks and use theirs.

I think the saddest part of this industry is that if you can manage a 12 hour turn around time you are doing quite well when compared to a lot of hosts. At least from what I've seen.

If you find a host that offers end user support then things become easy for part time resellers :)

If you find a host that offers end user support then things become easy for part time resellers :)

Exactly..
A lot of resellers are part time, or even students that don't have the time to operate a hosting company round the clock, but still care for their customers. Choosing a host that offers end-user support allows them to free up a huge deal of time while still ensuring their customers are still being taken care of...

Can you think of the name of the company that resellers can out source their support to? I can probably manage 6 to 12 hour response time myself.

It becomes a lot easier, I agree, but there are advantages to assisting clients directly. You're making your service less generic and more personal--and if you get to know your clients well, you can help them meet their objectives while also building your business.

Perhaps that's just my opinion but I believe that resellers are there, in part, because they offer another valuable layer of support, another layer of knowledge and assistance.

My goal is to start small, learn and then try to grow. I do want to provide good service. I'm currenly hosted with dailyrazor cause I do java development and needed a host that knows how to support it. I would like to stay with them cause I can leverage my java skills to offer custom applications and other solutions where I combine java open source, with php, and custom apps.

Can you think of the name of the company that resellers can out source their support to? I can probably manage 6 to 12 hour response time myself.

For a reseller, you don't really need 10 to 30 minute response times. Providing a response within 24 hours is enough as long as you are hosting with a reputable & reliable provider. So if you are managing 6 to 12 hour response time and are managing it well, then you don't need to change any part of your support infrastructure... Keep it as it is :)

I personally think that fast support is very important but I am 100% sure that quality support is way more important. Outsourcing support to a third party company can't be any good if you really want to provide your customers with quality support. If you don't have the resources to provide FAST and QUALITY support, don't compromise with the quality. That's what I think anyway...

I personally think that fast support is very important but I am 100% sure that quality support is way more important. Outsourcing support to a third party company can't be any good if you really want to provide your customers with quality support. If you don't have the resources to provide FAST and QUALITY support, don't compromise with the quality. That's what I think anyway...

I disagree..
How do you know quality will be lacking if you outsource support? What if the company you are outsourcing to happens to have a lot of industry experience in the sales department? What if the outsourcing company can provide fast & quality support? You can't have possibly tried them all, because then you would realise that good companies do actually exist that can provide better support than the actual reseller thought possible...