How do hosts support levels vary so much?

[webmasterchecks]

id like to know more about how some hosts have amazing support and how others (charging the same price or more for service) have inferior support.

now i know with the hosting business model, many clients are price conscious, especially now, and while you want to pay your support guys a ton of money, you may only be able to pay $12/hr.(im guessing) for support and im not sure how easy it would be to manage people at that level to cover 24/7 while still making sure your clients at their various levels of support need are taken care of 100%

I don?t know how hosts like techniemedia, nationalnet, and even smaller ones like way3 have such good reputations for support

But I would really like to know how the good ones set their systems up

[Moose]

Support techs for $12 an hour? maybe for someone who can only push a button and reboot a server.

[webmasterchecks]

Originally Posted by Moose

Support techs for $12 an hour? maybe for someone who can only push a button and reboot a server.

see, thats what i dont understand


lets say you have a hosting company where you want 99% of your responses answered (or completed) in 20 min or less and you have 400 clients (or servers), and your support department runs 24/7 and offers telephone and email support.

you need at least 1+ warm body on shift at all times, so lets say you need at least 5 tech support staff minimum just to cover the hours, plus 1 manager. and then additional staff for scalability during times when you likely need more than 1 support person, (other than midnight shift)

im trying to figure that model out

[SweetT]

The biggest thing is to make sure that you have systems in place that are constantly interrogating your network. Most hosting companies will not spend the money to write something in-house, they simply rely on what is available over the counter to monitor, trouble shoot and interrogate the network....and trust me from experience, they all suck. We have custom written software that will tell me any time a server as much as hiccups...in fact, it will predict that the server is going to hiccup and will alert my guys before the actual hiccup occurs so that we can be proactive and correct a problem before the client ever notices. By doing this we cut down on our phone calls....less phone calls means faster response.

Second, we hire high level people that can get the job done quickly and completely so that someone else is not having to waste their time correcting others mistakes. So many hosting companies hire $12/hr people to be their "lackeys" and they have 1 or sometimes 2 people who really know what they are doing....the problem is that the 1 or 2 spend all of their time cleaning up after the lackeys and cant get the job done timely....plus occasionally they want to take a day off. We have our guys divided up into Classes and Teams. Each team has AT LEAST a Shift Supervisor (who is classified as a Senior System Administrator...it means that he can handle 100% of everything that happens on his shift) and at least an SA2 (System Administrator, Second Level...it means that he can handle 85% of everything but can escalate it to the Shift Supervisor if there is a problem). Some teams will have an additional SA1 that is "in training" but the SA1 is not allowed to interact with clients....he just observes and learns. Some teams also have an SA3 which is the last stop before someone is promoted to Shift Supervisor...it means that he can handle anything that comes along but he just does not have his own team yet. Of course, in addition we have a Director and Assistant Director of Technical Services that work during the day and deal with pushing forth policy changes and such but they will absolutely get involved with a customer when it is necessary.

So....in two words what sets us apart?? Systems and People.


--T

[RyuLion]

Its been 2-3 years since I last had to call (phone) Webair..
I usually only have to email support to setup stuff.

[webmasterchecks]

Originally Posted by SweetT

The biggest thing is to make sure that you have systems in place that are constantly interrogating your network. Most hosting companies will not spend the money to write something in-house, they simply rely on what is available over the counter to monitor, trouble shoot and interrogate the network....and trust me from experience, they all suck. We have custom written software that will tell me any time a server as much as hiccups...in fact, it will predict that the server is going to hiccup and will alert my guys before the actual hiccup occurs so that we can be proactive and correct a problem before the client ever notices. By doing this we cut down on our phone calls....less phone calls means faster response.

Second, we hire high level people that can get the job done quickly and completely so that someone else is not having to waste their time correcting others mistakes. So many hosting companies hire $12/hr people to be their "lackeys" and they have 1 or sometimes 2 people who really know what they are doing....the problem is that the 1 or 2 spend all of their time cleaning up after the lackeys and cant get the job done timely....plus occasionally they want to take a day off. We have our guys divided up into Classes and Teams. Each team has AT LEAST a Shift Supervisor (who is classified as a Senior System Administrator...it means that he can handle 100% of everything that happens on his shift) and at least an SA2 (System Administrator, Second Level...it means that he can handle 85% of everything but can escalate it to the Shift Supervisor if there is a problem). Some teams will have an additional SA1 that is "in training" but the SA1 is not allowed to interact with clients....he just observes and learns. Some teams also have an SA3 which is the last stop before someone is promoted to Shift Supervisor...it means that he can handle anything that comes along but he just does not have his own team yet. Of course, in addition we have a Director and Assistant Director of Technical Services that work during the day and deal with pushing forth policy changes and such but they will absolutely get involved with a customer when it is necessary.

So....in two words what sets us apart?? Systems and People.


--T

thats great to know, thanks for the response tony

[Thurbs]

leaving ISPRIME out of this description is a travesty

that being said, regardless of the host, you'll find a few people that you won't mesh with ( that's a fact, not everyone hired is right for the job )

the best hosts, know who to keep, and know who to fire. they are constantly improving their backends, their support systems, their monitoring, and their teams. ( They actively poll for feedback )

but in the end you really do get what you pay for. i don't think I'd get a box a host that pretended that they don't give more specialized support to their bigger clients.

[EscortBiz]

oxeo for example is max 2 minute response 24/7 this been going on 5+ years, and the guys there def making way more than 12 bucks an hour

[whatif_3]

id like to see the average ticket response/completion times for the following hosts

nation net
isprime
techeimedia
mojohost
cavecreek
webair
any others

it would be interesting, not just the talk, but who can put their money where their mouth is. like that thread where techiemedia was called out and able to back up their support

[Mr.Right - Banned For Life]

Is this thread about WEBAIR?

[seeandsee]

cyberwurz suppoprt rocks

[webmasterchecks]

Originally Posted by Mr.Right

Is this thread about WEBAIR?

not at all, i was thinking about as well as bw prices going down, youve also seen the level/standard to support go up. so if your just providing adequate support, your still behind in the game

[Net Money]

Originally Posted by whatif_3

id like to see the average ticket response/completion times for the following hosts

nation net
isprime
techeimedia
mojohost
cavecreek
webair
any others

it would be interesting, not just the talk, but who can put their money where their mouth is. like that thread where techiemedia was called out and able to back up their support

I have been with a few of the hosts on your list and I always seemed to not feel as if i was getting the best bang for the buck and was never quite impressed with the quality of their support. About a year ago I moved over to Techiemedia and all I can say is I finally found a company that backs up their claims. Their network has never been down for me, prices are very competitive, but Most important to me is the support is the absolute best i have ever experienced and i feel is a step above the rest. Their were a few other decent ones I tried but none really came close.

[LBBV]

Originally Posted by whatif_3

id like to see the average ticket response/completion times for the following hosts

nation net
isprime
techeimedia
mojohost
cavecreek
webair
any others

it would be interesting, not just the talk, but who can put their money where their mouth is. like that thread where techiemedia was called out and able to back up their support

You mean "NationalNet", not "nation net", right?

My rule is that all tickets are answered in 5 minutes and all calls in 3 rings or less.

Our culture is that if there's a ticket, that's a valuable customer that either has a problem or needs something done, and we don't ever want a customer to be waiting on US

-- Bill

[whatif_3]

Originally Posted by LBBV

You mean "NationalNet", not "nation net", right?

My rule is that all tickets are answered in 5 minutes and all calls in 3 rings or less.

Our culture is that if there's a ticket, that's a valuable customer that either has a problem or needs something done, and we don't ever want a customer to be waiting on US

-- Bill

sorry about the misspelling, sounds like a great standard

[jcsike]

i wonder where mojohost stands here

[LeRoy]

I'm at http://colo-cation.com/

Tickets get a reply very fast. Rarely need to submit a ticket anyway.

I havent had any problems in the 2 years I've been there.

My host for life

[jcsike]

Originally Posted by jcsike

i wonder where mojohost stands here

bet they are at the top, or close