If you are a reseller, would you prefer to have end user support from the reseller provider or not?

If Yes - the drawback, you might never gain any significant knowledge on managing your own customers. But you can just focus on getting customers (marketing)

if No - the drawback, well you need to learn everything there is to know about doing web hosting so you can do your own support. The advantage is you will gain knowledge - in time.

Or alternatively, a reseller provider who provides end user support BUT also gives you/show you a step by step solution to every ticket which they have solved.

I am not sure if the last one exists in the market today. I am thinking to create a WHMCS plugin which will allow reseller provider just that.

So they can provide end user support to their reseller's end users while also showing their reseller how every case is being solved, at the same time.

What do you think?

Whilst it sounds like a good idea, many resellers who offer to do your customer support for you will not be budgeting the extra time to also hand hold you through the solution as well.
I would guess they would have to increase their costs to compensate for the extra time taken per resolution, and I'm not sure how many peolpe will think the extra cost is worthwile (depends what extra cost it added though I guess).
Still sounds like an interesting project though and I would be interested to see how you are thinking of implementing your solution.

I've never been a fan of the "watch and learn" education method - I think most people learn better by doing it themselves, with help available on request. And not all resellers lack knowledge - they may want end-user support (if they want it at all) only as a backup service for overnight or vacation cover. Still, resellers are a diverse bunch and there may well be some who'd be interested in a service like your proposal. It'll be interesting to see how your vote goes... :agree:

Hmm... if I want to know how something is done I could just contact support. Resellers after all are supported too. So, a provider that has end user support and lets me see the tickets, would quite likely be enough.

The added cost of adding detailed explanations of every single step could become an issue too, for both the provider and the reseller. At some point, the reseller will want to stop paying for explanations he no longer needs. :)

Yes i think regular end user support would be nice. The step by step just seems excessive

Seems very less customers who opt a reseller plan, request for end user support. Most of the others are doing it themselves.

Having reseller plans with end user support is a bonus. With this all you would need is a billing system for automation, a domain reseller account and you're good to go.

Playing devil's advocate here, the real question to be asking is can you trust your host in providing end user support. There are chances of them contacting your clients directly and offering a deal to switch. Although this is something that would happen rarely if anything, it still is a concern at least to me.

the real question to be asking is can you trust your host in providing end user support. There are chances of them contacting your clients directly and offering a deal to switch. Although this is something that would happen rarely if anything, it still is a concern at least to me.

I think if you can't trust your host to not contact your clients, then you shouldn't trust them to host your sites.

Fair enough statement there Cats-Computing. Just brought that up because it actually happened to me by a well known host who I'm not going to name and it took me a while to find out as well. The way I found out was I created an account for a family member and they were contacted with a special price to move over. After I came to know about this I packed and left immediately.

I don't have the time to sit and learn so I don't want/need to know how it's fixed. As long as it's fixed and working that's good enough for me.

One important consideration is the cost. A lot of companies include it for free with their reseller plans, whether you actually use it or not. Even if you do not use it, you are still paying for it.

I am not in the market for a reseller package, but if I was, I would rather have end user support as an additional paid option. I could use it starting out, but as I became more confident I could opt for a lower monthly fee to my provider in exchange for handling my own support. It just seems like that would be more fair. I am not aware of any hosts who do this, however.

Most providers that offer end user support allow the resellers access to their support Qs in the helpdesk.

I am not sure any company would or should spend the time to teach a reseller how everything is done, but, a reseller having access to the helpdesk and with the ability to review tickets and responses seems like a reasonable middle ground

There would probably be a market for an end user support model that comes along with a support university type of service - but, I imagine the entry point for such a solution would be pretty high..