I am thinking about hiring an outsourced support company for my new web hosting business but I thought I would ask a few questions here first. Just wondering about the following:

1) How have your experiences been with an outsourced support company?

2) Do your customers notice that your support is outsourced?

3) Do you have any suggestions for a good outsourced support company?

Thanks for taking your time in answering to this thread :).

Thanks,
Luke

Good Questions, im interested in the answers as well!

For an new business I really don't recommend outsourced support. You should be able to handle any new customers for a while without having to fork out money for outsourced support.

There are some reputable companies here, however I haven't run into one yet where I couldn't tell they were outsourced. I would definetly hold off until your business warrents the hiring of additional support reps. The only exception here is if you don't plan on providing support yourself.

For an new business I really don't recommend outsourced support. You should be able to handle any new customers for a while without having to fork out money for outsourced support.


I would have to somewhat disagree with this. If you intend on being a serious webhost; you need to be able to provide true 24x7 support. No one person is able to do this.

So you either need outsourced support OR you need to hire ATLEAST one other support member and thats even stretching it thin. Too thin IMHO.

A good outsourced webhosting support company is Bobcares (http://bobcares.com/). If you are big enough so that you are not in the position to provide a quality 24x7 support because of lack of time then this company is the way to go.

However, if you are just starting your company it would be better for you and your team to do the support in the first place, get to know how it's done, what problems your customers face each day and so on. It is always better to know every process from the product creation to its support and maintenance I think. This will give you a better view of who you really are and help you improve your image among your consumers. That's just me. Hope this helps!

1) How have your experiences been with an outsourced support company?
As a customer, very negative and I'll avoid companies that do so if its possible. My view on them is they're cutting corners and outsourced support is inferior to home grown support. If you go that route expect to lose some customers because of this.


2) Do your customers notice that your support is outsourced?

Yes and the quality is typically less then if you supply the support yourself.

There's been recent articles online (msnbc I think) about the affects of outsourcing and how many consumers will avoid businesses that use them and how the quality of that support is seemingly less then if you had not outsourced it.

However, if you are just starting your company it would be better for you and your team to do the support in the first place, get to know how it's done, what problems your customers face each day and so on. It is always better to know every process from the product creation to its support and maintenance I think. This will give you a better view of who you really are and help you improve your image among your consumers. That's just me. Hope this helps!

I full heartedly agree with these statements, this is why I have not put an Outsourced Company in my plans.

However they obviously have their place and I am extremely interested in people who have used them and their answers to the questions the OP stated.

I am using a reseller hosting, and offer support from the reseller. It makes life easier if you can get someone else to handle all the tricky coding type questions, so you can spend more time doing what you enjoy.

myvym im wondering exactly how much experience you actually have with this industry? Im just guessing but it doesnt sound like much.

I would have to somewhat disagree with this. If you intend on being a serious webhost; you need to be able to provide true 24x7 support. No one person is able to do this.

So you either need outsourced support OR you need to hire ATLEAST one other support member and thats even stretching it thin. Too thin IMHO.
The OP never stated wether he was a one man band, or if he has other people who know what they're doing. It also depends on what he is selling, shared, reseller, VPS, Dedicated with management. If you're running a shared/reseller/VPS host, then there's no need to get an outsourced support team IMO in such early stages, as most of the questions asked are just general questions regarding their websites functionality, or even the control Panel they are using.

Also, it depends on where it's outsourced. You'd need at least (in early stages) 1 person in each continent, to cover all time zones.

My view on the matter would be, don't get an outsourced company. Just hire a credable amount of people in each continent to cover the majority of the timezones, and morning/evening/night times. It'd be cheaper too, and then you can say you don't use an outsourced company for your support team. (Which seems to be a low-blow for most)

I do not agree with outsourcing support. I recently tried it -- the idea failed miserably. I've now hired enough people so that we are staffed 24/7. :)

"2) Do your customers notice that your support is outsourced?"

I hate to stereotype this question, but I would have to say at least 70% of the outsource companies are from India. You can easily just check the IP of who lasted logged onto the server (Client Perspective) and tell its an India based IP address.

You can also tell from the client side by the grammar that is used during the support tickets. I think the most obvious answer to this question is if they go above and beyond. I personally do not see outsource companies going the extra mile to satisfy clients. They'll fix what is broken, but will not fix the other thing they noticed if its not mentioned.

You can also tell from the client side by the grammar that is used during the support tickets.

Some outsourcing companies use better grammar than others, but what I have noticed most is the fact that they tend to type fast responses (I'm not talking about response times, I'm talking about how quickly they type it) and get words backwards, misspell things, etc.

Some outsourcing companies use better grammar than others, but what I have noticed most is the fact that they tend to type fast responses (I'm not talking about response times, I'm talking about how quickly they type it) and get words backwards, misspell things, etc.

Yes, I should rephrased my post and agree with your statement.

For an new business I really don't recommend outsourced support. You should be able to handle any new customers for a while without having to fork out money for outsourced support.

There are some reputable companies here, however I haven't run into one yet where I couldn't tell they were outsourced. I would definetly hold off until your business warrents the hiring of additional support reps. The only exception here is if you don't plan on providing support yourself.

Outsourcing is good, when your business is moving well and you can devote time in marketing and further development.

Initially if you plan such things, it may too end in disaster. First let your business grow where you manage the support or handle it through your in house team of members.

"2) Do your customers notice that your support is outsourced?"

I hate to stereotype this question, but I would have to say at least 70% of the outsource companies are from India. You can easily just check the IP of who lasted logged onto the server (Client Perspective) and tell its an India based IP address.

You can also tell from the client side by the grammar that is used during the support tickets. I think the most obvious answer to this question is if they go above and beyond. I personally do not see outsource companies going the extra mile to satisfy clients. They'll fix what is broken, but will not fix the other thing they noticed if its not mentioned.

That's purely on individuals and more over people in india work for more than what you pay. Its odd when companies keep on hitting them back.

If you want a high quality work for low priced, then why not hire in your state or country. More over you can't find people working here so hard and more than their fixed time of work.

We can't entirely blame the outsourcing companies, some times it also happens because of poor management.

Support issues give a lot of information about what customers want, what problems they have, what they don't like etc. Seems like a good reason to stick with in-house support to me.

Bottom line about customer support is this. You need to take care of your customers. How do you do it is up to you. They need help 24/7 by the very nature of hosting. If you do not sleep and you can support your clients round the clock nothing beats it. Second option is to have a 24/7 team in the office. it would need 5-6 capable admins to cover all shifts. If your balance sheet support it go for it. Third option is to have an outsourced team. I don't like the idea of having a dispersed team. It takes too much management. you need to understand your core competency. If its customer support do it in House. If your core competency is growing the business, outsource it. Its that simple. If you are outsourcing check SupportPro.com we had good results.

Some outsourcing companies use better grammar than others, but what I have noticed most is the fact that they tend to type fast responses (I'm not talking about response times, I'm talking about how quickly they type it) and get words backwards, misspell things, etc.

Yes, that is very much the case.