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Do you aprecieted if you hosting provider give you a free number to call if you need help ?
Hello Let Users , today we need a simple answer from YOU to a simple question:
Do you aprecieted if you hosting provider give you a free number to call (a toll free number for each country and suport in 6 lenguages) if you need help ?
Asking to a "custom product" "custom needs" etc etc
Comments
I prefer responsive support via ticket, where everything is logged.
I have done and will call a host though if ticket responses aren't getting me anywhere.
EDIT: Saying that, any decent hosts will open a ticket to summarise the call and actions being taken.
I prefer a ticket if there is an issue that needs to be solved. It's often easier to explain something via text, and I like things to be in writing.
Yes. It is for the first time i've got one from a hosting company. I got 2 calls from @cociu and his hostingsolutions.ro offering his help in solving my issues and the mistakes I've done.
I was really impressed to receive a call from support for the 8.99 euros I paid for a VPS. - not per month but at each 3 months.
Really nice.
Not really, i prefer if my providers don't call me and i don't have to call them.
Yes, I would really appreciate that. For some things tickets are better - but for others, a call is always faster and also gives more confidence during the order process (looks more like a "real life" business).
I'm fine with just support tickets - most of the hosting providers I'm with right now usually answer tickets within 2-10 minutes which is great.
It makes me feel better if the provider decides to share their phone number, whenever I need it.
For dedicated servers or anything "Mission Critical" yes, because generally they just do what you need them to do on the phone and its handled there and then with no delays. For anything other than that im not fussed but just through whats offered with the hosts I use it ends up being ticket or e-mail support.
Each customer prefers different methods of communication, so if you can, do offer phone support. I recommend against toll free phones, as it just increases the duration of each call. As long as the customer is paying for the call, he will atleast try to keep it short. With toll free, some customers might ask you to remain on hold till they try out something or till you resolve the issue.
I agree with you, if this is a LET host, not if it's a "premium host".
From the perspective of the costumer a free number is allways great. But I don't know if it would be smart from your site of view: More costs (free number + support staff) and more headaches.
Personally I would prefer a fast ticket support than a free number. And if I really had to call you I would use VOIP to cut the costs anyway.
Quoting costum products is done in writing form by me. For evidence if I need it.
I usually prefer to open support ticket, phones can be annoying, have to wait for them to check on things and hard to multitask when on the phone. But for some reason with OVH I always like to call, maybe it's just because their BHS support is great (also their phone response time faster than ticket).
Yes. Or what would be even cooler: being available on Skype or so. But be sure to put nice people on the phone. SoYouStart has some really rude employees on the phone. :-))
Probably from Quebec.
Can't confirm this. At least the staff from their german branch is really nice on the phone.
That's easy to prevent. Record all calls and screen a small % of them. Everyone will be behave properly
Like we have for our Akamai and Limelight contacts, we have a phone support for P1 issues that are production outages with multiple users. We generally use tickets for tracking and they're always receptive. For non-mission critical applications, we use tickets for everything like others have said, for tracking purposes.
Dafuq. I get better support from BHS than EU staff. At least in BHS they want to help to fix the issue fast and not wait until another member answer the ticket the day after....
No. The Netherlands.
Yea, i never said OVHs French staff was good, both are fairly horrible compared to others like QuadraNet.
You got a point Sir
I don't like to speak on the phone. I like Live Chat, and Ticket system.
It depends:
How much does it cost compared with a comparable service that does not include phone support?
Are there sufficient resources where I can be confident that the call will be directed to a live person in a reasonable period of time?
Is the person who answers the phone proficient in my language? I prefer English, but obviously other customers might prefer a different language.
Does the phone connection have sufficient quality to enable good communications?
Is the person who answers the phone competent?
Is the person who answers the phone empowered to make decisions and implement fixes to my problems?
All too often, I encounter phone support situations where:
I wait for a very long time. After wasting my time on hold for a long interval, I get a recording that informs me that all support people are helping other customers, and instructs me to leave a message (that is never returned). Many many times there is no message; the connection is simply dropped after the long wait.
The support person is courteous and nice, but was not a native English speaker, and the language deficiencies prevented effective communications.
The phone connection itself is so bad that effective communications are impossible. This happens most often when the support person is on the other side of an ocean from me.
The support person understands far far less about the product or the situation than I do. I waste my time training the support person just so they can understand the problem, instead of finding a solution to my problem. The worst are the situations where the support person forces me to run all kinds of meaningless or unrelated "fixes" and "tests" from their support script (most of which I already did before calling, but they don't trust me). If my car won't start, why does the support person insist that I must disconnect the television set in the living room?
The support person is intelligent, and understands what needs to be done to fix the problem, but does not have the authority to do it. That sucks.
I view a support call as the last resort, because I would be embarrassed to admit that I had not read the manual, searched online, asked in the forums, and done everything reasonable to solve the problem on my own first. Only after that would I call. In general, if the problem is easy to solve, I would not be calling. I expect the person on the other end of the line to be at least technically (or business-wise) as competent as me regarding their product or company operations. If not, they should at least be able to recognize quickly that the problem requires escalation to a higher level of support.
I get it that many people call support first in lieu of helping themselves first. That's why companies get away with so many incompetent support people. The customers do not realize that the support person is incompetent, and that they got bad advice and bad solutions that are doomed to fail.
Some companies are willing to invest in very good support, and their customers are willing to pay a significant premium to have that support available. It pays off handsomely for the company and the customer. In my opinion, if you are going to offer phone support, you must do it right, or don't bother at all.
much rather live chat
You'll have to deal with english and non english speak customers. A minus will be if you are not familiar with the native speaking english language.
Live chat or skype should do much better than phone talking. Live chatting can be multitasking the same time that a telephone call needs a dedicated conversation with the client. It is hard to solve a problem in a minute, so, the calls will be long enough to block the entire support department of your company.
But the telephone option should be there, as a last resort, for sales and for your customers that you have been chatting with them, you are kindly know them and you want a more friendly approach.
Have to mention that, till now, your approach to your customers is very good, and IMHO this will get you more and more clients and will save you, even if you face any problems in your infrastructure. If your clients feel that you are a friend, those clients will never leave you, even if the service has ups and downs.
I don't know if it's still true, but Netflix for a while did not offer email or contact form support - only via phone.
Personally I found it a deterrant to calling. If I could fill out a ticket or send an email, that was something I could do while watching TV, etc. To phone I had to devote 100% of my attention and the one or two times I had non-urgent support needs...I just didn't bother. May have been part of their psychology.
When I called RackSpace via Skype for verification, I think Americans are speaking too fast... I am not a native English speaker so I always apologize and ask them to speak slowly...
I prefer tickets...
Not interested in using phone support. If the problem requires a lot of questions/replies to resolve, then I may consider it, but generally prefer tickets or live chat, to save a transcript for future reference.
I'd only need a phone number for providers who I host production stuff with....so not from LET providers.
I certainly wouldn't value a phone number as part of a purchasing decision, if that's where the question is going; a quality reputable host with no phone number would be remain preferable to a mediocre one with free-phone number.
If the support is in your mother tongue, support calls are everytime good.
But somehow, i can't imagine paying for it when there is a free ticketsystem.
The Provider should call a customer if its necessary or "better".