Host Planet Hero

Utility of Support in Web Hosting Business

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Introduction:

The importance of support can be explained in form of a small example as depicted here, imagine one is in a business of running a small-medium sized online store that concentrates on affordably prized gift items, and now lets say, it’s Christmas time. Now it is sure that everybody is busy in shopping and the use him/her self will be waiting for this day to come, as it is the time of the year when his/her business really blooms, and with which he/she will get revenue to plan next event or business.

Now imaging a biggest trouble came, say his/her site goes down due to some sort of problems associated with server on 23rd of December, or on Christmas Eve. To make the things worst user is not able to get hosting company as well. Now what will happen? How he/she would react when he/she won’t get such support at this moment of time? Now this explains why prompt support required is.

The above example is just a small example and believe it or not things can even go worst that this. It is a true fact that the quality of support builds the foundation of hosting company. It is the foundation on which the whole building of hosting firm rests. The features like speedy and accurate customer service are rare to be seen, but they are the things, which make one company successful. Along with these features one should take care for performance, Space, Traffic allowed, Features, Cost, and most importantly Customer support.

In order to check the credibility of a hosting company, customer support is considered as a main factor. If a company wants to prove its credibility it has to take care of its technical support at any cost. For a user it’s really important to know if technical support is dependable or not as if anything goes wrong with his/her site, then he/she has to contact the company and cure is only possible if it is directly provided by the hosting company itself.

There are several or rather say almost all companies to claim to offer services like techs working round the clock in their organizations, managing their state-of-the art systems etc. But in reality we know that it is mere a fake trap. Due to excess demand of information technology professionals now days, many web-hosting companies are unable to find employees who are well trained in OS concepts, network technology and control panel specifications

In this article we are giving the brief outlines of the hosting support considerations for the beginners as well as any host who have got high regards for the quality standards of their company.

Right support:

It’s really quite difficult to find perfect support for one’s company. For every web host who gives serious thought to hosting support would be having certain expectation levels regarding the quality of support. It is only if one’s support is marvelous that one can feel relaxed as his/her customers are also going to feel relaxed due to this.

In this context the most important thing to consider is how to provide round the clock support and that too whole year. It is quite often seen that every web host just promises to provide support 24 / 7 and even promises to offer money back guarantee in case he/she is not able to provide that. But in reality such things are rare. So, one should take care to have best support team to offer support round the clock through out the year. One should ensure proper administration and supervision to check the quality as well as the working style of support people.

Cost:

Next parameter to consider is cost. One should consider this point as well, for maintaining cost it is better to have own team of technical experts, or outsourcing to an outsourced hosting support company. One should select support wisely with efficient computations of his/her expenses and profit margin. It is advisable to do calculations in such a way that the quality of support can be kept and simultaneously good profit can also be earned even in the long run. One should keep in mind that due to intense competition in the beginning profits are not much but keeping quality will benefit in the long run as all will be out from the market offering poor services.

In order to control cost, it is not only possible to control it via controlling technical factors but also non technical aspects like sales / billing support and timely administration of servers etc. In order to save cost one can manage the sales / billing issues by his/her own or he/she can avail the services of a fresher. For the server administration, one requires the service of a good system administrator to perform the timely software upgrades, and the other fine tuning aspects of the server in order to make it run smooth. It’s always considered an additional utility to maintain a team of technical experts who are able to perform technical support as well as server administration instead of employing separate teams for the same. Thus the above things can easily reduce cost and no doubt without compromising quality.

What to choose? In-House or Outsourced

Now next important thing to consider is whether it is required to have an in-house team of technicians, or one can outsource support to a support company? There are several people with different opinions on this matter; therefore we are taking both the pros and cons to conclude which one is better.

Pros:

In-House

1) It is possible to have direct interaction with the support staff in person.

2) It is possible to recruit directly the support staff by own.

3) Also local market knowledge and expertise can be known well when it comes to sales and marketing

4) In case of emergency, ready availability-upon-call of in house team.

Outsourced

1) It is cost effective as compared to above.

2) One can concentrate better on his/her own business marketing as anyone else is taking care of technical aspect.

3) Biggest advantage is availability of expertise in specific fields.

4) No problems with the planning of shifts or personnel to manage the 24 / 7 support, as it is now headache of the outsource company.

5) No training cost.

Cons:

In-House

1) Its quite expensive as compared to Outsourced.

2) Burden of personnel management in maintaining an in-house team for support

3) Requirement of dynamism as remedies is to be taken immediately.

Outsourced

1) It is not possible to have direct interaction in person with the support staff.

2) Its important to have accustomed with own support people, as they might keep on changing according to the outsource company’s internal policies.

3) Needs perfection of language (spoken or written)

Conclusion:

To conclude, it is always better to select a good outsourced support firm, that maintains it’s promises and does not comprise on quality instead of employing own separate staff to handle the technical support, sales / billing and server administration.