Tech support employees over the net! Trusted?

[iiPanel]

Hello,

I have been trying to assign technical support to work for me but offcourse a tech support need to have access to your server in order to provide support to the clients and therefore you need to have trusted employees to be in that position. Many people were very glad to work as a tech support but I mean its very hard to trust anyone over the net.

So what is the solution? specially if your company is getting much bigger everyday and you will start consuming all your time on supporting your clients without anytime on promoting your services.

I wish there was some management companies for hosting companies email and ticketing system service.


All comments are appreciated :-)


Thanks.

[NetCafe]

Try outsourcing. We are going to outsource to http://365daysonline.com given our sales now.

[iiPanel]

Good service there, are you now with them?

[Craig]

Good service there, are you now with them?

There are many more that are cheaper & still have the same quality, look on WHT, you will find loads of outsource companies there.

[NetCafe]

Good service there, are you now with them?

A few of their staff is now on "probation" with us. We are still deciding on whether to "absorb" them or "partner" them and offer such services ourselves.

Nothing concrete is in the making thou.

[iiPanel]

lol :P so you probably highly recommend them ....

[NetCafe]

lol :P so you probably highly recommend them ....

At the moment,RTG has NO vested interest in them :-)

We recommended them because they are good and we have used their services.

[iiPanel]

There are many more that are cheaper & still have the same quality, look on WHT, you will find loads of outsource companies there.

I went there but didnt find any. Would be appreciated if you can provide some links to companies that you may think they're cheaper.

[JewlzK]

http://www.platinumservermanagement.com/

we don't personally use them, but I've read good reviews on them on WHT. There are plenty of other companies though. I'll see if I can dig some others up.

Hope this helps.

[iiPanel]

PSM is mainly specialising in server management not web hosting tech support.

[daylightnetworks]

if you are saying about administrators that will manage your server yes, obviusly theres always a risk but i have just used servaxnet.com just once yet since i dont need much of administrating my server untill now and i was really satisfied with there service.

[Yellowmc]

http://www.touchsupport.com/ also has a great reputation over at WHT!

[1986]

I know all these services from comming supporting you staff are good but also costy, you can give your mates the job or give someone a 30 say trail how they do and if they are good hire them.

[B-Z-M]

We have plenty of techs and we also do 24/7 support for other companies.
Here are our prices:
100 Tickets/Chats Combined: $250/Month (24/7 tech availabilty and maximum 1 hour response)

200 Tickets/Chats Combined: $325/Month (24/7 Tech availability and 50 min. maximum response)

300 Tickets/Chats COmbined: $600/Month (24/7 Tech availability and 40 min maximum response.

You can purchase an additional ticket/chat for $2.50 each

Please pm me if you are interested

[1986]

Like i said costy but they really are good.

[Lipsofgrace]

there are plenty of outsourced support that are very reliable, try searching the board, you'll find lots of thread i'm sure.

[utcrazy]

Try outsourcing. We are going to outsource to http://365daysonline.com given our sales now.

Oh, is that why your staff can barely speak english?

[DarkmoonMike]

When hiring a tech support i would advise you to have them send in 2 papers of identity.This way just incase you have a problem you know who they are.

[DarkmoonMike]

Oh, is that why your staff can barely speak english?
I'm part of his staff and i can speak great english.

[jasontd101]

ACT Support (http://www.actsupport.com) is a great company i knew. They know both Unix and Windows. Another option is to get a reseller account from the company you are interested and ask them directly if they could work out some sort of support plan with you. Even though some companies do not offer support plans on their sites, asking may not hurt.

[iiPanel]

When hiring a tech support i would advise you to have them send in 2 papers of identity.This way just incase you have a problem you know who they are.

Thanks for the advise there actually.

And thanks to all you guys for the advices. :-)

[daylightnetworks]

also rack911.com is good

[Craig]

also rack911.com is good

You should look in WHT for reviews on them, Steven likes to take his time.

[iiPanel]

also rack911.com is good

really expensive.

PlatinumServerManagement have all those features + Unlimited admin time for $29.99

[utcrazy]

I'm part of his staff and i can speak great english.

Maybe decent english, I wouldn't say great english. At least add a few capitals and comma's there, if you want to impress me.

[AvailNetworks]

hiring outsourced staff is no different than hiring regular staff. I have outsourced support for Avail but I take the time to review all tickets that come in and make suggestions and comments to the company I deal with based on how I would like things to be run and worded to my clients. It seems to be working out quite nicely so far.

If you just turn over your keys and dont take the time to train your team then you are in for a wild ride.

[James]

I personally wouldn't use an outsourced support company for shared customers. I just wouldn't. Server administration is different however.

[DarkmoonMike]

Maybe decent english, I wouldn't say great english. At least add a few capitals and comma's there, if you want to impress me.
I'm from Longisland,Ny born and raised.

[heymrdj]

Maybe decent english, I wouldn't say great english. At least add a few capitals and comma's there, if you want to impress me.

I think its quite clear you just have a problem with RTG UT. Now when we say outsource, we don't mean to another country :lol:. There are American allternatives, you know that right?

[iiPanel]

hiring outsourced staff is no different than hiring regular staff. I have outsourced support for Avail but I take the time to review all tickets that come in and make suggestions and comments to the company I deal with based on how I would like things to be run and worded to my clients. It seems to be working out quite nicely so far.

If you just turn over your keys and dont take the time to train your team then you are in for a wild ride.

Yeah reviewing gotta be essential. But wouldn't that only be for the first month or so until they fully understand how you want things to run?

[iiPanel]

I personally wouldn't use an outsourced support company for shared customers. I just wouldn't. Server administration is different
however.

Why not?

[Craig]

I would NEVER outsource, I like to chat to our clients. Nothing better than getting to know who you host.

[James]

I would NEVER outsource, I like to chat to our clients. Nothing better than getting to know who you host.

That, precisely. To elaborate,

From the host's perspective, I believe in a personalized service with caring support, whether the company/business is huge, or lone self-employed. If you arn't giving support to your own clients, if you arn't looking after your hardware, if all you do is gaze at the screen, where is the merit? Counting money? Important yes, the only goal of your business? No. You are basically having other businesses run your own business, things are not totally under you control.

I have also come to learn that the host themselves know their server best, no other. A hired third party support team works on many many different servers each hour. This can cause problems. If you are not very good at technical administration, fair enough. But I don't like the thought of 50 web hosts using the same server administration company, same 24/7 support company. You know what it reminds me of? Resellerspanel. You figure out why.

Those who use these companies, don't be offended by my post. There are those who need/use it for personal and business reasons. But I'm simply expressing my concerns with this kind of support.

[James]

iipanel,

What I personally suggest in your situation is, find a web host like yourself, develop some trust, befriend him/her and exchange shifts. It's difficult days to find people suitable for this however, to entrust. But it may be worth a shot. I myself was think about this for some time with the increasing workload, who knows - a wonderful partner!

[AvailNetworks]

I agree you shouldn't have another company exclusively support your clients. My outsourced support staff handles the support after hours and whatever I cannot handle during the day. I prefer to know the clients but there is a point where there are too many and you simply cannot know everyone personally

[James]

Sure.

But I didn't mean personalized support in terms of getting to know each client personally. There are some huge providers I have used who were able to provide great personalized support without knowing/recognizing me personally. I don't think it's to do with numbers, but on what kind of support the individual or the huge company intends on giving..

Personalized, reliable, fast support is really something to achieve and each will have their own formula.. If one feels he has too many clients per staff, one should either find more staff or stop new signups - is my opinion.

[AvailNetworks]

yep, it's just like any other business "tool" if you use it properly you will get great results. I communicate all the time with the outsourced staff on whats going on with the company, anything special and if I have any updated procedures or changes they need to make. I think it is a huge mistake to just say "here you go, support my people!" but I imagine there are tons of people out there who do that.

I use them for the small things too like when I want to go out to dinner or a movie, I know I can trust the team and I can take 5 secs to unwind and me at the top of my game

[iiPanel]

Yes thanks for the advices but I actually didn't mean that I will be exclusively allowing the outsourcing company to take care of everything. Offcourse not, Craig was right and I truly enjoy supporting my own clients and interacting with them.

Outsourcing is needed for what Avail was saying for example if you are going out for a shortwhile or during your sleeping hours, outsourcing would be very helpful, making sure that you show them the exact road that you want them to go through by following your instructions and policies.

[Volt.Networks]

so does anyone know a good place that we can outsource our customer support to?