Why are we so support centric?

[thebyp2]

It has occured to me that we, as an industry, are seriously support centric.

If you look at any other industry or indeed most companies out there including for the actual hardware we use, we provide much greater response times and support levels.

as an example, if i respond to something 6 hours later, i'm having a bad response day. If i get a response from any other company within 6 hours outsde the industry then i'm extactic.

have we set the bar a little high here folks?

[blue27]

I think the problem is in the priority of responses.
There are some issues that are very time sensitive in this business and need to be dealt with immediately.

Unfortunately, we are judged on response time for non critical issues, which is a little unfair. But that is where the market is.

Quick and accurated responses are one of the few ways to differentiate from other companies who all offer essentially the same service.

[Website Rob]

I think it's just a matter of perceived expectations. Anyone who expects a <insert minutes> response time and doesn't receive it might be upset. Best to let Clients know ahead of time what to expect.

[silverfreak]

Yeah, here you have to weight the level of support with the time it takes for the support. If your responces take a while longer, I'd push the notion that it's supirior help than others would or could provide.

[thebyp2]

i agree that certain instances require quick responses, such as server failures. having said that i wouldn't class that as support.

it just seems strange that it is really expected these days for a response of 6 hours with most quoting first response within an hour. why? can people no longer wait?

[meirhosting]

Its nice to deal with support requests fast...makes our job easier and also pleases the client who may be waiting on your response before progresssing with their work.

Having said that, having staff waiting around for the tickets to come in can be expensive and an inefficient way of managing their time.

I've found that this industry has high support standards and a lot of committment is required to succeed. It's upto each host to balance all their services... support, sales, admin, technical, management, business planning and cooking the books ;-) I mean preparing the tax returns. :-)

[thebyp2]

quite right. which is probably why remote services are becoming more popular

[dynamicnet]

Greetings:

Yes, I believe we are very support and service centric as an industry; though not all in the industry deliver within the same parameters.

My wife often chastises me stating we are doing so much for free or why are we rushing to help a client so fast – that can wait until another day.

Yet, for us, we seize the moment and know that our support and service is what keeps us alive.

Thank you.

[thebyp2]

it is certainly very true that we as people have to be inclined to help, otherwise we would not be in this industry. It is also true that we are a dynamic industry that constatly pushes the boundries in terms of support and technology. I just wonder if we've set our sights to high in that we provide an unneeded level of support.

[tranz]

What everybody is forgetting is very simple, and I have figured it out over the years.

Time.. Time? huh?

There are two refrences of time that those of us in the "internet or technology" industries deal with.

Let me explain...

Internet or Technology based time:
With slower computers and dialup we were willing to wait for what we wanted to accomplish. As the pipes got larger, i.e. broadband for the home. And, as computers got faster we were now getting what we wanted FASTER. Thus, our perception of time reduces or speeds up depending on how you look at it. Since machines kept getting faster and data was now arriving faster your willingness to "wait" a little keeps getting smaller.

Standard Time:
When you get in your car and go from point A to B and you know it takes X minutes. You might be impatient but you are "willing" to wait. There is not much you can do about it. The roads might get wider, cars get nicer, but pretty much go about the same speed regardless. (please dont argue this point about how fast you can drive from a to b ect. Thanks)

So, now in some cases when your sitting down wathing a movie just after you have gotten off the computer for a bit, regular time seems to come to a crawl. yet, it hasnt changed at all but YOUR PERCEPTION of it has.

My point to all of this is is that in our world the perception of time and when things should get accomplished by a person living in "Real Time" is off, not by a little but a lot.

Thats why, most of us that spend most of our time infront of these boxes, cant just get off them at 3am and go to bed. We have to unwind. This unwinding, doesnt change time, but our perception from "internet / technology" time back to standard time.

So, where will it end? Dunno, think about it a little, I have and it's funny to watch yourself. Try using standard time while on the PC and it will seem to crawl.

[LiftNw8]

tranz you make a very good point and I agree with it 100% for sure, our perceptions are so totally off when it comes to time.

[tranz]

Thanks, I thought I had just shot myself in the foot with my observation of how my perception of time has changed over the year and it relates to the speed of my connection and my computer.

[LiftNw8]

Nope you didn't shoot yourself in the foot on that one, I relate to time the same way most of the time, a few days away from the PC and my internet connection brought me back to reality, but it also made me realize how I look at time in the same way once I got back to it.

[beley]

99% of my support calls are actually about email not website problems. Of course, 99% of those are ISP issues and not hosting related (or they're just user error). Anyway, people have become accustomed to getting their email by the second. If they have a delay for whatever reason they get upset.

Many of my clients even told me they didn't mind if their site went down here and there but it was imperative that their email work 24/7 with no interruption in service.

[vito]

I personally don't think you could ever overdo it when it comes to fast customer service. In fact, in spite of the increasing expectations that people have come to have when doing business on the Net, the positive effect of timely email replies is still under-appreciated by most site owners, web hosts included.

This holds true so much more with pre-sales enquiries. I can't tell you how many times a prospective customer is absolutely floored when they receive a reply from me within minutes of having been submitted. Particularly when it comes from Australia 5PM their time and they know that it's 1AM my time (OK, so I never sleep...). And more often than not, that enquiry quickly converts to a sale. ;)

Vito

[markblair]

I've seen this same effect outside of the hosting industry. I've worked for several companies over the coarse of the past 8-10 years where a response was required within an hour. Each of these companies are not webhosts. However, the customers that were supported were given a Service Level Agreement (SLA) which had to be met each time. This didn't mean the problem was resolved within an hour, just that they were contacted to let them know someone was looking into the issue. In many instances, even this type of contact isn't really that unreasonable.

However, what meirhosting stated about having staff around waiting for something to do is true. This can't happen if you only get a few support requests a day. The companies I briefly mentioned above averaged probably 150-300 support requests a day. These are big companies, by the way. ;)

[sonixi]

I think that the industry should be support centric. Why lower our expectations of ourselves to meet AT&T, WorldCom, IBM, GE, etc. Our industry is targeting support exactly as it should. Maybe, we should do more, even.

Also, support times and quality or customer service are where we can, as individual companies, compete with companies, that might be larger and better funded.