Outsourced web hosting support
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What is outsourced web hosting support?
Outsourced web hosting support is support for web hosts' clients provided by an outside company. Companies providing outsourced technical support for web hosts offer support via helpdesk/email (all or almost all companies), phone (some companies), and/or chat (some companies). The outsourced support may be part-time with the web hosting provider providing support in-house the rest of the time, or the web host might outsource full-time support with the outside company providing all of the technical support.
Advantages of outsourced support
- Someone else is handling support. The web host can focus on sales and other aspects of running a web hosting business.
- The web hosting company staff can work normal office hours and know that their clients' needs are being met throughout the day, night, weekends, and holidays.
- Outsourced web hosting support companies can usually provide support at rates less than the web host would pay in-house staff.
Disadvantages of outsourced support
- Someone else is handling support. As with any service, some outsourced tech support companies are better than others. You risk having unhappy clients and losing business if the outsourced support isn't as good as what you want to provide.
- If the staff members providing outsourced support are in a different country, some clients may complain that they have difficulty understanding the support providers if phone or chat support is used.
- You and your clients will have fewer opportunities to interact and to create personal connections.
Factors to consider when choosing an outsourced web hosting support provider
- How many staff members do they have? Is their staff large enough to provide 24/7 support if that's what you require?
- What response times do they promise?
- How good are their testimonials? Can you contact some of their clients to check that the testimonials are real?
- If you want to provide phone or chat support, how well can you understand the staff members who will be providing support? They may be easy to understand even if English isn't their first language. On the other hand, if you are in Australia and the staff members are from the US, or vice versa, your clients may have difficulty understanding the accent of the support staff.
- What are the staff qualifications? Ask the same questions you would ask in-house tech support applicants.
- What type of infrastructure does the company have? Are they prepared to continue business for hours or days at a time if a power outage occurs?
See also
Web Hosting Wiki article text shared under a Creative Commons License.
