Tackling the Challenges of Offering Customer Support for your Web Hosting Business
If you’re running a web hosting reseller business, you will, without doubt, come across a variety of people. You will be catering to people who are setting up a website about blockchain, and those who like uploading funny cat pictures. Some of these people might be amazing at technology, while some may not understand the very basics of how a website works.
Irrespective of your customers’ technical prowess, as a hosting company, the onus is on you to make sure your customers have a pleasant experience. A big part of ensuring customer satisfaction is customer support. Customer support might entail anything from explaining your plans and services to helping with occasional queries.
The channel of support will vary too. While some offer telephonic support, others rely entirely on text (emails, live chats, chatbots, etc.) support. No matter how you’re providing support, challenges are inherent. From technical challenges to lack of a professional support crew, challenges are varied too.
Finally, if you’re in the hosting business, bad reviews can drive potential businesses away. So, great customer support is quite important for a hosting business. With this being the case, let’s look at a few possible solutions for common challenges of offering customer support.
- In-House Vs Outsourced Support
Once you decide to implement a customer support service, this is the first decision that you’ll have to take. Are you going to hire people in-house and train them or are you simply going to outsource it?
There are advantages to both these options. While in house support will give you maximum control, outsourced support from helpdesk companies usually come with facilities like 24x7 guaranteed support.
On the other hand, there are disadvantages to consider as well. Helpdesk services aren’t cheap by any means, and you will have to make sure that the quality of service is maintained at all times. On the other hand, if you have in-house customer support, the onus and cost of training are on you.
So, which is better? The simple answer, it depends. So, if you’re a new company with few customers, do not engage helpdesk services. One, you don’t need it, and two, you cannot afford it. It’s best to start small. So, you could personally handle calls. No one knows the business better than you do. The next step is to offer Live Chat and phone support during peak times of any day. Make sure that you very clearly state the timings so that you can maximize the productivity of your time. Again, make sure that your clients know exactly when to call. No one likes calling a dead phone.
As your company grows and you have more customers, engage the services of a helpdesk company. When all’s said and done, they are trained professionals who know exactly how to deal with a customer. Reseller Club, for example, provides 24 x 7 free support to their customers!
2. Dealing With Frivolous Calls
It is indeed true that the customer is king. But what’s also true is that frivolous calls bring down the productivity of your service. Simple issues like deciding which plan is the best for a customer should not require a call. So, how do you bring down the number of frivolous calls?
Empower your customers with knowledge. If your customer knows everything, there’s no need to call at all in the first place. One way to empower your customers is by adding as much relevant information as possible at key sections of your website. So, make sure that your site features an extensive and exhaustive FAQ section and a knowledge base. Personally go through your website and look at it from a customer’s point of view. Identify places where there’s ambiguity.
Resolve it by using illustrations, diagrams, pictures, information boxes, etc. You can also add quick search functionality for easy navigation. Not only will this reduce the stress on your customer service team, but it also sends a message to your customer that you’ve put a lot of thought and effort into building this website. It conveys professionalism.
3. Providing Customer Support Through Multiple Channels.
Even after doing all the things mentioned above, you will have calls — lots of them. One common complaint across industries, including the web hosting industry, is that getting support isn’t simple. One important reason for this is that there’s usually just one channel for customer support. Most often, this is a call center. And call centers are stressed.
So, how do you make it easy for customers to get support? Multi-channel customer support is the answer. If you’re thinking of emails, then you’re thinking wrong. While emails were great in the 1990s and early 2000s, people customers now demand practical, actionable answers instantly.
For modern multi-channel support setup, you can use Chatbots and Live Chat. Apart from answering people via phone calls, you can also have people answer messages instantly. The advantage here, of course, is that one customer support employee can handle multiple chats at once. If this is still quite expensive for your purposes, consider having a simple Chatbot on your website. Chatbots, over the years, have become very good at solving customer problems. Will they solve every single problem or complaint?
Of course not. They have their limitations. But, they do solve a whole lot of them, and more often than not, they’ll reduce the stress of your customer support agents.
4. Use of Social Media as a Customer Engagement Tool
Social media has widely evolved through the years — from being used primarily for social connections to being an effective and valuable tool for business development and customer service. Everyone is on social media these days, and support through social channels can be a vital element for a brand’s success. Customer support through social media is appreciated by the customers due to the convenience, ease of access and promptness. It can be used not only for providing quick and real-time redressal through multiple channels but also as a seamless consumer engagement platform. Brands can use social media to launch multiple campaigns, get instant customer feedback, create consumer polls, as well as offer real-time chat support for grievance redressal. With the ability to interact with the brand directly and get involved with the processes, customers feel connected and invested with the brand. This, in turn, promotes consumer retention and brand loyalty.
Conclusion:
Quality customer support, in this day and age, is a must for any web hosting business. From multiple points of contact to a professional, knowledgeable crew, make sure that you leverage the advantage of as many solutions as possible.
Websites and online content are usually the sole points of contact with customers for web hosting companies. Make sure that your customers and potential customers have only good things to say about your customer service.
If your business is still in its nascent stage, it’s ideal to make sure that you personally monitor everything. Or if it’s too much to oversee individually, hire a professional team to do it for you. Yes, bad customer service stories can break a company’s reputation, but remember, they can also make one.
