Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : Question about support

[ElementNetwork]

I'm thinking of starting a web hosting company and I was curious if people prefer support over cheaper hosting? I understand that there could be a mix of both, but which do you believe is more profitable. I'm considering hiring support personnel as my linux experience is next to null, would it be worth my while?

Thanks.

[NoneExistence]

Good support = Good reputation.
This will aid you in giving trust to your clients and boost your sales.

[ElementNetwork]

Ok, so people generally don't mind about paying extra if they get a good support system?

In that case do you know of any good data centers that would be good for reselling from? I was thinking Ezzi.net but my current webhost is with them and they seem to have troubles quite often. But if I was to have greater support would small problems be easier to fix?

[NoneExistence]

Yes,but not over-charged.
Go with better support with trouble tickets.This will help you alot.

[superprogram]

Good support is must for a business like host especially when most of the customers don't have much knowledge about whm/cpanel nameservers etc.

[NickTooms]

Support is one the main point in hosting!

[Araunah]

If you do not have a good support, your customers leave and you go down pretty fast. Service is not an option.

[ldcdc]

And yet some people ask: "I'm looking for uptime and stability. I don't care for support much."

There are also hosts who offer support but make it clear that they're not doing any hand holding in order to keep prices at lower levels. Just make it clear your customers know what they're buying.

Personally I'm all for quality support, but I'm not everybody.

[Martie]

My two cents.
Research your upstream provider well and know who they are.
Its very easy to become part of that chain of a "reseller of a reseller of a reseller" (not good, IMO)
Your upstream would be your point of contact for support if you have a reseller account and need support for your clients. Of course the other option is to go straight through the data center yourself with a dedicated server and go from there. Again though, check out your upstream. :-)

[PogiWeb]

Having Great support is one of the many things you need to run a good hosting company. Clients wont be to worried about pricing if they see the support is their. Dont consider outsourcing and instead hire a few people with some tech and sales experience. This might seem like a whole lot of money to be spending, however if you want to be the best you have to provide the best service for you clients. Starting a Hosting Company isnt the cheapest thing to do.

[janims]

Good support - I mean a really good one = it is not possible to maintain it without having a good support team! Most of "newbies" think it is easy to run a hosting company - to build up a webpage and establish their new dedi-colo server or just go reselling .. Later on they will come to a "must" point - they will have to to hire "support oriented" people for serving thier clients.. Do not think you would be able to run a GOOD and RELIABLE webhosting company just by yourself! I know many people do - but that kind of business - that's just a living on the edge..
Anyways, I wish good luck..

[DDT]

Originally posted by Martie
My two cents.
Research your upstream provider well and know who they are.
Its very easy to become part of that chain of a "reseller of a reseller of a reseller" (not good, IMO)...

So very true. I agree support is everything to most people. If they don't need support they probably already have a $49 dedicated of their own and wouldn't be your customer.
Most of our support is like one previous post mentioned "hand holding". Customers who can't figure out how to add an e-mail account or get Spam Assassin working right or whatever. We are there no matter how "simplistic" the problem might be.
On the other end our hardware costs us more than some people's but is "fully managed" including monitoring so we can devote support time to our customers without having to worry about some issue with a server.
I know large hosts who have the luxury of both or must have both because they also offer dedicated servers & such but for a smaller host like us we concentrate on supporting our customers & pay a bit more to have someone else worrying about our hardware.

If you are going in as a reseller I agree with the above. Make sure you are a reseller of a direct provider, not a reseller from a reseller on a VPS or such. Your reputation will be depending on your supplier whether it's a dedicated server or a reseller plan. After all, if the hardware or network is down, everybody is down...and your support can't fix what is beyond their control.

Of course I think you were asking what customer's want, and basically it seems that is: unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, 24/7 5-minute support and for about $2 a month or less

[Captian_Spike]

The reality is theres a million different types of people out there. Everyone is looking for something else. If you offered me an account that had perfect uptime/speed I would probally never contact you. I've had an account with a company for nearly 2 years and have contacted support twice. I never need support, I take care of everything myself. Theres alot of others out there like me as well. But theres alot of other people who do need support, they want really quick help with problems.

Its the same deal with pricing. I've had people tell me they won't choose my company because it sounds to cheap, then others saying I was to expensive. You simply have to choose the type of customer you want and target that group of people.

[DediZoneSales]

You should definatly offer good support. Id rather pay more for a company with support then a company with none.

[internext]

I'd never buy something "cheap"... besides, who wants to be seen as cheap? Offer great support at fair prices and build a sound business.