Customers views

[instanthosting]

Hello are there any people receiving webhosting around if so please vote what you prefer to use as i am doing a survey to improve my contact services!

We will soon offer a free text service.

Currently we offer, ticket, phone, email and and livesupport will be added soon as we are perfecting a new system!

[Taylor]

Hello are there any people receiving webhosting around if so please vote what you prefer to use as i am doing a survey to improve my contact services!

We will soon offer a free text service.

Currently we offer, ticket, phone, email and and livesupport will be added soon as we are perfecting a new system!

It seems like you have your bases covered with your offerings. I'd imagine that email and live support will be your most widely used tools.

Phone is great for sales, as it equates to wonderful conversions (even better than all of the others if you have no previous sales experience). My experience has been when they are calling in, they are ready to get things started (for the most part).

[ThinkSupport]

Yes Emails and Chat system are the most important and most used at present..Then comes is phone support.

But max 24x7x365 days is chat and email.

[James-A]

Yeah, thats true phone is great for sales. Currently emails/tickets/chats are mostly prefered so all these services should be included in the support system to provide fast, stable and reliable services.

[icestorm]

Email support is probably the most preferred method in the industry. Mobile text support is a nice feature to have for your clients and is great for emergencies.

[theheavenly]

CONTACTS TO BE USED

Live Chat - In case of enquiries about a plan, they're the one to be approached as they are not too technical but know all features about the plans.

Phone Support - In case of some technical informations to be obtained, they're the one to be approached as there would be a better understanding over the issue while we speak over in direct than in chat.

Ticket - When there arises a technical problem, they're the one to be approached with a detailed brief over the problem as already the techs may be solving with more issues, the more information they get the easier they handle with the issue.

E-Mail - If you like to get something in document, they're the one to be approached so the documents can be opened up in case of problems.

Mobile Texting - May be helpful at the weekends.

[WestHost]

It does depend on the reason for contacting.

I work in a Sales Department and I prefer talking to clients on the phone. Not just to 'make the sale' but to be able to handle any question that pops up.

When it comes for things more technical in nature, I do prefer an e-mail/ticket. That way more information can be updated and reviewed later if needed.

All forms of communication have its advantages and disadvantages and you will have clients that have a preferred way of contacting you. It is nice to have as many options as you can.

[webhosters4u]

I Think it depends on if the reason for contacting them is urgent or is a complicated problem in which case Live support would be preferred, whoever emails/tickets are good for basic support as long as there dealt with quickly.

[graham barnes]

From a webhost point of view we prefer to use tickets, we dont send emails to individual clients as we see that to be unprofessional as anyone can do that, however we will mass email clients if there is expected downtime or a change to the service they are recieving, we dont contact them by telephone unless there is a billing/AUP/Fraud Checking issue.

Live support, hum im unsure about that its good from a point of view if you want a really fast reply or need to know something before you purchase the service, other than that I dont think its needed. So this is why we use tickets.

From a client point of view I would expect to see live support and tickets, i wouldn't be too bothered about them contacting me via email or me to contact them via email.

[JordanT]

We offer e-mail, ticket, AIM, YIM, MSN, and LiveSupport. It seems to be that MSN is most popular when contacting us. It's a close race between MSN and tickets though I suppose

Jordan

[XSI-Larry]

Email/Ticket can also apply to phone support as we open a ticket everytime a customer calls in order to keep track of what is going on.

The advantages are the tracking and accountability.

[flashweb]

Most of the support through helpdesk, some chat and phone calls too.

[Linux-Dan]

I voted for phone support. In reality, I prefer supoprt via ticket, but with the reliability problems spam filters pose for email today, I feel phone is a far more effective (and quicker) way of getting support.

[ReliableServers]

Ticket system, that way everything is tracked in case there are disputes in the future.

[smarthost123]

Livechat is a good way of providing support to your clients, much faster than tickets or email

[streambox]

EMail is far prefered.

The fact that their is audit trail also is often useful at times of confusion or disagreement. :)

[Peter Verrill]

Ticket based / email is often best for most support issues. Mainly because most things will take 5-10 minutes to action and a ticket / email can be updated and costs virtually nothing to operate.

Phone support is good for urgent things and will likely be unaffected if the network is down (providing its not VoIP).

Out of our customers (mainly because many are abroad), 95% of support comes through Email/Tickets.

[viratshah]

I vote for LIVE CHAT
though i like the mobile text messaging idea too:D

[jBud]

Well i guess it all depends on your customer base.
I find that majority of customers (so called generation D) is geared more towards email, ticket, live chat. While the old timers prefer a phone conversation.
But you should have a bit of everything to keep everyone happy.

[nman14]

I say that phone support is the best way to get your customers trust. The most important part of phone support is always be there to answer the phone. I am always frustrated when I get a answering service.

[EWH-Chris]

I prefer email, tickets, or AIM myself. I do have a few clients who requested direct phone access, which I do provide on request, though I rather stick with email/tickets over any other support method.

[sourcesouth]

I have worked with hosts that, up to a certain complexity will continue to work the issue in chat. However if it looks like it is going to be a long one to ask the customer to open a ticket instead.

[rainboy]

Believe ticket support is the way to go, for the following reasons;

- Everything is logged (for phone support, this is much harder, same counts for live chat however easier to log).

for both sides the ticket information is logged, easier to be looked back at, and easier to transfer between shifts (our people do not work in 24h shifts ;))

Agreed that sometimes phone-support or chat-support can make things easier, especially when you get into a cat and mouse kinda ticket, but it costs us twice the time as we would need to make a ticket of each incident. We sometimes decide to just call the customer and solve the issue at hand.

Well thats my preference..... glad you asked ;)

[kjmcculloch]

For me, LiveChat is the key. I don't particularly like telephone support. And hate waiting for email and ticket replies.

[ayesh]

This's a nice thread.Keep going.

[HostingFuze]

Most people want live feedback and direction from support such as chat or phone, since it's much faster for both parties to resolve an issue. However, the most cost effective way would be ticket or email based since you don't need on demand 24/7 reps especially multiples of them.