I'm curious how companies do 24x7 live support and tickets. What companies do you go with for this service?

Is it better to hire internally and have dedicated people? Is it truly 24x7 support if you hire internal people as you're fully dependent on them, what if they get sick?

I'm in the process of figuring it out and wanted to know what the "best practice" is and what companies to go with to start off as it's a "one man show" right now.

Thanks everybody!

We hire people as independent contractors. To date, every one of them has come from the CS department at a local university. They are normally online 20 hours a day anyway, so don't mind answering tickets on the side. I pay them per ticket and it's a lot cheaper than the outsourced companies you'll find here. If someone gets sick I normally cover their shift.

Relevant information that could help people interested in opening 24/7 support for their company would perhaps be how much you pay them per ticket - if you are willing to disclose that? Alternatively, how much is it common to pay for this in the country/countries you operate? :)

We prefer to have our own dedicated staff. It is very expensive, but it allows us to provide the best possible service to our clients. We also always have more then one person on duty, so in the event that someone is sick, there is still someone there. The size and resources of your company are going to determine whether or not this is an option.

Relevant information that could help people interested in opening 24/7 support for their company would perhaps be how much you pay them per ticket - if you are willing to disclose that? Alternatively, how much is it common to pay for this in the country/countries you operate? :)

We're in the U.S. and our staff are all in the same town as us. We pay them $1 to $1.50 per ticket and a monthly bonus (that I'd rather not disclose) based on the amount of tickets they answer and their customer satisfaction ratings.

We average anywhere from 150 to 300 tickets a month.

Hello,

You would be surprised at the number of outsourcing companies dedicated to web hosting. Here are a couple that I have used and recommend:
India - www.bobcares.com US - www.touchsupport.com

Well depends on ur business model, if u are staring with a few millions then u can have dedicated staff. And if u are a new startup with low budget u can find students or interns to do the job.

Try to get friends to help out that have knowledge in troubleshooting servers. This will help to drastically reduce costs.

Alternately, you could hire some support personnel out of India (not all of them are bad), they generally work hard and for lower rates than north american workers would.