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04-23-2005, 09:54 PM #1Web Hosting Guru
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Having A Seperate Billing/Support Site
Looking for opinions . . .
What do you guys think about having a support/billing site seperate from your main company web site. Basically a seperate site where clients log in to do billing and get support.
i ask, because the solutions I want to use for support and billing are PHP and my company site is in PHP.
Thanks for your input.No Signature Required
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04-23-2005, 10:02 PM #2Invented the Internet
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I think it could get confusing for customers.
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04-23-2005, 10:12 PM #3Junior Guru Wannabe
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I think its a great idea and more and more companies are doing this. If, for example, you have downtime on your main site or server and have your billing/support site elsewhere then customers still have a way to get in touch with you. I would make sure the domain is very close to the original though so that it would be easy to remember in the event that they can't reach your main site. I'm in the process of doing this with my support site as well (though the domain has NOTHING to do with my main company name - ugh)
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04-23-2005, 10:13 PM #4Web Hosting Guru
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My main site is MyNameSolutions.com
I was thinking of using mnssupport.com for billing and support.
I also have a seperate domain site set up at mnsdomains.com
Thanks for all your input.No Signature Required
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04-23-2005, 10:14 PM #5Invented the Internet
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Yeah, but you could have http://support.yourdomain.com hosted someplace other than your main site.
We did the domainname.info thing for awhile, for sales/support. It caused alot of confusion. We also did the supportdomain.com for awhile - got some complaints from customers thinking we were outsourcing our tech support because it was a separate domain name.
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04-23-2005, 10:23 PM #6Web Hosting Guru
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If I did do a second site, what would be a better domain to use?
mnssupport.com
or
mynamesolutions.info
thanksNo Signature Required
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04-23-2005, 11:00 PM #7Web Hosting Master
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Why would you want to go to the 2nd site? I'm sure you'd be losing some visitors.
If they go to site 1 for information and realize they have to go to a different site for support & billing, they might just say forget the hassle.
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04-23-2005, 11:18 PM #8Web Hosting Master
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I don't know about using this method for the everyday but having a back up support area and client management solution on a different network is a good idea.
Dana aka Laci My Alter Ego
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04-23-2005, 11:42 PM #9Junior Guru Wannabe
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another thing to consider is to set a 3rd NS and setup a clone site on the 2nd server. Then if your main site goes down the clients will fail maybe once or twice but will get to your site even using the main domain. With the cloned site available then they'd never notice a difference except when one of them was down, and even then it would be only momentary? Just an idea...
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04-24-2005, 01:24 AM #10Web Hosting Guru
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I was thinking of keeping the design the same, so the transition would be almost transparent.
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04-24-2005, 01:37 AM #11Web Hosting Master
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Originally posted by Laci
I don't know about using this method for the everyday but having a back up support area and client management solution on a different network is a good idea.
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04-24-2005, 01:53 AM #12Junior Guru
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Re: Having A Seperate Billing/Support Site
Originally posted by MyNameSolutions
What do you guys think about having a support/billing site seperate from your main company web site. Basically a seperate site where clients log in to do billing and get support.• IceStorm.com - Top Provider of Web Hosting, Reseller Hosting, and Cloud VPS Plans.
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04-24-2005, 01:57 AM #13Web Hosting Guru
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ok - as i am thinking through this . . . i am thinking seperate sites as in hosted on different servers. BUT keeping the same design so it integrates and looks like one site.
My company site is all CF, but my billing and support is PHP. And I would rather run the PHP on a Linux than Windows.
that being said which domain would be better:
mynamesolutions.info
or
mnssupport.comNo Signature Required
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04-24-2005, 07:56 AM #14Invented the Internet
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You can host a subdomain of your primary domain on a different network, you know?
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04-24-2005, 09:22 AM #15Web Hosting Master
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Re: Having A Seperate Billing/Support Site
Originally posted by MyNameSolutions
What do you guys think about having a support/billing site seperate from your main company web site. Basically a seperate site where clients log in to do billing and get support.• WLVPN.com • NetProtect owned White Label VPN provider •
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04-24-2005, 09:31 AM #16WHT Addict
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Originally posted by MyNameSolutions
that being said which domain would be better:
mynamesolutions.info
or
mnssupport.com
mynamesolutions.com as your main website and
support.mynamesolutions.com as your support/billing website
Why make it complicated when it can be so simple
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04-24-2005, 05:16 PM #17Web Hosting Guru
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I think the point is being glossed over here.
My company site is in ColdFusion, so it is on a Windows Server. My billing and support solutions are in PHP, which would run better on Linux. That is the only reason I want to seperate them. It's not to make anything harder.No Signature Required
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04-24-2005, 05:20 PM #18Retired Moderator
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We know that you want two different OSes, but mynamesolutions.com can point to a Windows box so CF can run, and support.mynamesolutions.com can point to a Linux box to run the PHP.
They can be in different datacenters, whatever, it doesn't matter.
Heck, they can be in different countries for all it matters.
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04-24-2005, 07:07 PM #19Too smart for her own good.
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I think a separate domain works just fine. We've been doing it for years, and nobody's become "confused." Whether you do a subdomain or a separate domain is an issue of semantics, in my experience. So long as you tell people how to reach you, and communicate it consistently, people will find you...
- Be sure to include detailed information in your welcome e-mail on how exactly people can get support.
- Include the support & billing URL on all your invoices, ticket response templates, etc.
- Put direct links to your support URL on your main website.
We also have a separate off-network site for reporting network status and server problems, and have installed a copy of Cerberus over there as a back-up helpdesk so that if the main support site is down, they can just send an e-mail to our Support Team address. The e-mail will get logged into our back-up desk and paged straight-away to the tech pager.
Layers of redundancy makes it work. Communication is the key.
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