Another great question some people may be wondering is:

-1. What's the best method to pay your support ticket staff (Level 1/2 Staff)? Do you pay them on an hourly salary base, or do you pay them a certain amount per ticket they answer?

-2. What software/script do you use to manage your staff if you do pay them per ticket they answer?

-3. What is the average payout you should give to your support ticket staff if they do answer on a per ticket base, and hourly salary?

Great questions there, so hopefully some others can find these of some use. :agree::)

We pay our support guys a weekly salary. They either do their job and can keep working for us...or they don't and they get fired.

--Tina

We pay our support guys a weekly salary. They either do their job and can keep working for us...or they don't and they get fired.

--Tina

If you were a small company/new company like most in this category of the forum are, what would you charge for a per ticket base, or in your case, since you pay per week, how much would you pay someone per week?

It depends on how many tickets you are getting really to determine really which way to go with this, either on salary or per ticket, but considering if the person was a small company with very few tickets or in most cases none, what would you pay your staff and which method?

While it does depend on the size and resources of the business, I think paying by support request inherently causes a reduction in service. Where possible, I believe staff should be paid a set salary.

While it does depend on the size and resources of the business, I think paying by support request inherently causes a reduction in service. Where possible, I believe staff should be paid a set salary.

It is the best route to go.

Instead of technical support people, you should hire someone to check your entire site for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors.

EEESH! :eek:

Our two support guys are on a monthly salary.. They do more then hosting support, they support my whole client base, and are very good IT guys straight out of uni and college.

I pay well, they a laugh, they do a great job because they enjoy what they do..

We go out allot socially, and this year Im taking them+partners on a christmas shopping weekend to Paris (short trip across the water) because its cheaper then a bonus.. lol

We're different from most hosting companies in the sence that hosting isn't all we do, so we don't pay our staff in the same way as many other hosters do.

IMO this pay-per-ticket only works if you don't have enough money to take someone on full time, because your too small..

I think if you expect your support staff to act and treat you seriously, make them a serious offer and make it in their interest to give 110%.

If you are a small company and are on a budget I would recommend outsourcing your support to a quality provider.

If you are a small company and are on a budget I would recommend outsourcing your support to a quality provider.

Don't you offer outsourcing solutions? :rolleyes:

Don't you offer outsourcing solutions? :rolleyes:

There's nothing in his post or signature that implies that.

--Tina

There's nothing in his post or signature that implies that.

--Tina

Website Design - Application Development - IP PBX Systems - Call Center Services

Nope, nothing at all.

Nope, nothing at all.

It's not hosting call center. Did you actually check their website?

It's not hosting call center. Did you actually check their website?

As a matter of fact, yes.

Our call center services include both traditional and web based order entry, customer care, technical support, scheduling services and reservations.

Perhaps I was stupid enough to assume that technical support or customer care are somewhat related to the hosting industry.

... that technical support or customer care are somewhat related to the hosting industry.

Grammatically yes, practically no. Technical support and technical hosting support are different things. From the rest of the content, it is clear that what they provide is not technical hosting support, but support for non-virtual goods or advertising campaings etc.

Then why is that user on this site? I guess because they provide web design services.

Anyway, this is extremely off topic and I see little reason pursuing this dicussion, do we agree on that?

You will never get the same standards of work by paying per ticket, as opposed to salary. If you think about it long enough you will understand why.

We currently only have one member on staff that is outside of our family.

The user works remotely for $10/hr. Basically covers weekends for us and it works out absolutely amazing.

In the company where i used to work, they paid us every 15 days. Regardless on how many support tickets we have answered.

I think it depends on a number of factors. First of all, is your support staff local, or remote based? IMO Remote based staff should be working on a 1099 basis, because it does a number of things. First of all, it removes Tax and other liability.:D

Lets say, for the sake of argument, your remote guy goes to the bathroom and slips and falls down his own stairs and injures himself. If the employee was not under a 1099 or independent contractor basis, then the company would technically be liable since he was on the clock. I know it sounds stupid, but its possible. :eek:

So in that respect, a contracted employee should be paid by ticket, or some other set agreed upon method, as opposed to hourly or salary

If the employee is local and in-house, then yes, a salary our hourly wage should be paid, because he is being paid to be away from his home/family etc..

My .02

In our case, its salary. Everything else just gets too messy to audit, control and manage.

In the long run it is usually better to have salary based employees, if possible. Also usually serious and skilled employees look for the salary rather than paid per ticket agreement. Not that guys who are working per ticket are not skilled, but I think you can put more out of an employee with a hourly/weekly/monthly set payouts.

If you are paying per ticket, you also should keep in mind that various companies pay employees differently depending on whether ticket was just escalated to the concerned department/person or some work was performed on it by an employee etc. All of this could result in get things a bit complicated and time consuming.

Personally was never attracted to pay per ticket and commissioned payouts. Imho most of us who are actually paying the bills and living of work in this industry are looking for a serious long term commitment with regular fixed payouts. At least thats what works for me.

It pretty much all depends on your budget and how large your client base is at the moment.

In most cases salary does work out better for paying support staff. Generally it is a good idea to start a new staff member off on a pay per ticket basis to see their performance/reliability etc.

Then some sort of salary agreement can be introduced, there are always quotas written into a contract which are always good to keep performance at an agreeable rate.

The basic rule of thumb in my opinion is that for smaller companies go for a pay per ticket model, and when your company grows you can possibly change to a salary base contract.

We go by a fixed salary and incentives if the issue (complicated) is sorted within a time frame (say 6 hours max). Its helped us retain our team (2 years and counting), and has kept everyone happy and motivated to work.