Phone support - yes or no?

[irishblue]

What are your views on giving phone support?
How common is it in local hosting companies?

[royong]

Phone support is a double-edge sword.

Having phone support allows the end-users to be comfortable and reassured that there will also be someone to talk to ...

however, do remember that with easy access comes the headache of abuse .... what happens when users start calling you when they have the slighest problem ...

IMO, unless you are ready, have a reasonable pool of customers and support crew. providing phone support would be best left aside as a start ....

[irishblue]

That's true. I find that when calls come in very often over the most trivial matters, we aren't able to effectively serve all customers support requests. The thing I found from several end-users is that, to them having phone support = good service. But I believe if you aren't able to do it well, then its best not to provide it for now and to concentrate your efforts on the mediums (email, helpdesk, forums) that you are able to. Agree?

[polarbear]

I suppose phone brings you one more step closer to your customers.

[junyi]

You could start offering them to the customers who are currently on more expensive hosting plans.

[Hostings]

junyi : hey! that's a very good idea!

[jeremy]

But won't other customers feel that they are treated as inferior? Might be good or bad depending on how you see it. I don't personally like to have phone support. Imagine you asking your client to hold while you look through a log file to find errors or SSH into your server.

For email or a helpdesk, you can take time to ensure that you have solved the problem and maybe even get to test it thoroughly before replying to your customer and say - 'Problem Solved!'

[ksstudio]

Personally I don't like to provide phone support.

Why?

When we request a sample URL or email address from client, it will take for ever for client to spell out the correct domain name or email.

:(


Chan

[Hostings]

True, but a small token per month from customer to have phone support?

If not, will LiveChat support be workable? Email seems slow. It'll take minutes to get his problem, and another minutes to solve all.

[khimhong]

A definite NO to phone support. Some customers got hold of my hp number and started dialing non-stop. Scary incident.

[Hostings]

But somehow, i'll feel if you allow a number for sole SMS from customer, it'll be great. If in case there's anything big happen, your customer could leave you a note and hurry you back.

[chin]

Yah a starhub line might be a better choice for phone support.

[khimhong]

Nowadays customers would want you to REPLY THEM WITH SMS instead of you hurrying back for them