one man shows

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Posted by ionplex, 07-12-2001, 07:58 PM
Ok Hopefully I'll have my own hosting business by middle of August, but I'll only be a one man show because I can't really afford to hire people. With only 1 person I won't beable to claim to offer the "best support around" so how will I combat this problem? What is a good response time for a customer query? I know support is one of the things that makes or breaks a business and I am worried how I will beable to offer good support with only 1 person. How many resellers only have themselves as part of the "team"? I know people will say "how long is a ball of string" but just give me a rough estimate please.
Posted by freeva, 07-12-2001, 09:48 PM
I would suggest make a good list of FAQs in your website. This will minimize the amount of tech support needed. Generally, I say e-mail respond time within 24 hrs is acceptable. Of cause the faster the respond time is, the happier you customer will be.
Posted by WebSnail.net, 07-12-2001, 10:33 PM
I guess the other point to note is... make sure your customer understand this from the outset. A good rule of thumb though is... "promising what you know you can deliver and doing better is always more impressive than promising the world and hardly even coming through".
Posted by thereismore, 07-12-2001, 11:35 PM
And I might add, And if anybody in here with over 500 posts does post to this thread: Give a good listen. There is a lot of good knowledge and experience in this forum.
Posted by Brian Farkas, 07-13-2001, 12:17 AM
When I first started out, I was a one man show as well. When you're available, handling support usually isn't any problem- usually anything under 24 hours would be an "acceptable" response time. However, take this into consideration- if you ever go anywhere, on vacation, or are unavailable for some other reason... your customers will be waiting for a response until you return. Just make sure you take these situations into account so you don't get caught unprepared. Usually, when you're just starting out you're only going to have a couple of accounts anyway so it's not going to be a horrendously big load of support- but you do want to have SOMEONE there checking at least once a day so the customer gets a response in less than 24 hours. Also, the point brought up about having a good FAQ is a very good one; if customers are able to answer most questions themselves by looking up a page on your site, that just means less work for you as support. Good luck, Brian
Posted by Annette, 07-13-2001, 12:33 AM
I'm not sure that "best support around" is a quantifiable goal, but it is a worthy aim. What I would focus on, were I in your shoes, is providing the best support that fits the types of things you offer to clients. Every host is different, and every support type is different. Those who strive to treat every client like their first one - whether it be in support, or billing, or just casual conversation - are the ones who in the end are still standing while others drop like flies. One only has to look at some of the complaints right here, or some of the hosts that fold up with no notice to understand that it doesn't matter if you're a one person operation. It matters if you are consistently providing the best service, overall, that you possibly can, and making an honest effort when you do so. If you manage yourself properly, and understand that reason must overrule the "quick buck" mentality (best exhibited lately by hosts whose ads reflect a particular disregard for basic economic principles), then you will also understand that reasonable growth with great service will always beat out untamed growth and consistently degrading performance. If you don't engage in the near zero profit margins that some hosts do, you'll find that you will be able to hire someone when the time comes - and that way, both you and your clients will be served in the best manner possible. Above all, remember that it's really a fun business, if you've a mind for it. My only regret is that we did not start sooner than we did, because now I can't imagine doing anything else.
Posted by Walter, 07-13-2001, 06:36 AM
Annette, personally I find that your comment is one of the best I could think off. One thing I want to ask: how long are you in this business? I ask because I am wondering about your "only regret is that we did not start sooner than we did, because now I can't imagine doing anything else"...
Posted by Marty, 07-13-2001, 09:34 AM
It is not that difficult in the beginning to provide good support as a one man operation. I should know. I have made sure that no customer waits more than 8 hours for an answer, even if that answer is "I am not sure what the problem is, but I did recieve your inquiry. Rest assured that I am working on it and will keep you posted" 9 out of 10 complaints posted on this board about webhost support would never have been posted if the customer had recieved a simply email stating that the host was working on the problem. It is silence that annoys most customers. I, personally, invested in a low end laptop so that I could answer support from anywhere that I can find a phone line. Checking my email is a routine thing, throughout the day. It is also the last thing I do before going to bed (when I ever get the chance to go to bed) and the first thing I do when I wake up. I would advise you to answer emails as soon as you see them, to let them know you got the email, then you can follow up with a resolution when you have it. In those instances where it takes more than 24 hours to come to a resolution (I haven't had one of these yet), I would advise that you follow up with an email at least once every 24 hours to let the customer know that you have not forgotten them. Good luck with your business. Last edited by Marty; 07-13-2001 at 02:03 PM.
Posted by ckizer, 07-13-2001, 10:11 AM
Actually you could run a one-man show offer excellent tech support. It would just require a Cell Phone/PDA Laptop. You could have your cellphone email you whenever you got new messages. Then you would jump online and fix the issue. Sounds like a pain, but it might be something to look into. We currently have a staff of 4, but even when we have technical staff working on support I always have my cellphone send me notices of new support issues. I also recommend Yahoo's phone/email services which lets you call and have your email read to you on the phone. Good-Luck.
Posted by GordonH, 07-13-2001, 11:03 AM
I got an IBM laptop for $500 and have one of those cellphones with the bonded channels (28K). Although I had people running the business while I was away on holiday this month I still handled all the billing problems - from a tent in France. I prefer to handle some things myself no matter what and modern technology makes that possible. I used to use a Nokia communicator but it wouldn't do the 28K access - still worth considering if you want a pocket sized solution. Gordon
Posted by ffeingol, 07-13-2001, 11:05 AM
In addition to a FAQ/How-To section, you might want to put up some sort of discussion forum. It works the same as your FAQ/How-To, but a bit more interactive. You might also find that your more knowledgeable customers helping the newbies. There are numerous free Forums/Discussion software out if you're not willing to pay for it. There are also good free/inexpensive trouble ticket software out there. Just some thoughts, Frank
Posted by WebSnail.net, 07-13-2001, 11:10 AM
Just beware of the effect that disgruntled customers (there's always someone) and unscrupulous competitors flaming your services... You could avoid that by giving users an automatic account for the forum when they sign up with your service. That at least would limit the competitor side quite significantly and instantly put them in contact with other users. Just a thought... Oh and yes, given my comments of late with regard to one certain service provider, I do find the advice I'm giving somewhat ironic...
Posted by GordonH, 07-13-2001, 11:20 AM
Make your manual searchable. http://www.hostroute.com/support.html Go to the middle of the page and you will see a search box where you can select the type of hosting plan you have and look for help instantly. This saves us huge amounts of support time. I rekon that every hour spent improving the manual saves 10 hours of support time. Gordon
Posted by Annette, 07-13-2001, 12:35 PM
Thanks, Walter. We started up in May 2000. Looking back on it, I wish we had started about five months earlier than we did, but so much of life is about timing that I then think things worked out pretty much as they should have, in the grander scheme of things.
Posted by davidb, 07-13-2001, 01:17 PM
Also one thing to add, make sure you make your FAQ's and stuff seen, post it before an option to email, say stuff like it has most answers in it. People tend to email first even if the quesion is answerd.
Posted by Marty, 07-13-2001, 02:03 PM
Duh!! That should have said, "I have made sure that no customer waits more than 8 hours for an answer, " I have corrected it in the original post. Thanks to the person that sent me a private message and pointed out my blunder.
Posted by Jordan, 07-14-2001, 06:27 AM
Although now we have a number of employees, I still like to check (even when taking a weekend off) the support desk and email a few times a day. If your in the UK I can wholeheartedly recommend the Nokia Cardphone 2.0 used on orange, 28k to the internet and exceeding reliable. It was the best investment I've made into hardware for ages, I can get on the internet anywhere using my laptop. We are also about to invest in them for our other staff as well, combined with IBM thinkpads A21m we believe they are unbeatable for working on the move.
Posted by GordonH, 07-14-2001, 08:14 AM
Hi Jordan For those in remote areas of the UK the Nokia 6210 with the cable (not infrared) is the best bet on orange because you can put the phone out of the window or in a location where you can get a signal. Its still 28K plus you get to use it as a normal phone. I had a 2m long lead made which lets me put the phone in a coffee mug on top of the caravan......guranteed signal almost anywhere. I agree though, its a huge advance. I spent 2 weeks on 9.6K in France and it was a real bind. I had to turn off the graphics to get anywhere. Gordon
Posted by akashik, 07-14-2001, 11:53 AM
Got to love those bleeding edge techonological advances Greg Moore
Posted by GordonH, 07-14-2001, 12:09 PM
Well If your in the Scottish Highlands there is not much mobile phone coverage so you have to make the most of any small signal you can find. I'm a radio ham - do you think it shows? Gordon
Posted by MikeM, 07-14-2001, 11:56 PM
sorry to move off topic, but Gordon, in re to:Make your manual searchable. Very nice.... very nice indeed
Posted by talash, 07-15-2001, 12:13 AM
Hi, I would love to share my experience with you. I started my company as a one man show and found it to be very nice to run and manage including support. The personal touch is something customers will love. Also a small company can have quick communication and better turnaround time than a large company. This was my personal experience. Last year, we expanded our team to have 17 people on board and we became very sluggish and just escaped from being non-profitable. I will always suggest to have a small and compact team and increase from step to step. Regards Abhishek
Posted by GordonH, 07-15-2001, 03:57 AM
Yes I don't particularly like not handling support myself. Doing it ourself gives you a real feel for how customers view the company and although I try and do a few support isues a day and monitor the rest its really not the same as handling everything yourself. Of course now I get sleep (which is very helpful) and there is no way that one person could handle the volume of accounts we have now. As for the manual, I just set it up with a seperate directory for each manual and got freefind to index them as seperate sites. We keep it up to date and freefind spiders it every week as well as sending us search reports. I also have an anonymous version of the main manual which we alias to manual.domain.com for resellers. Gordon

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