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It goes without saying that providing stellar customer service is critical to business growth. Research done by Genesys Global Survey in 2009 revealed that 40% of customers rated “Better Human Service” as the reason for successful resolution of their issues. Providing great customer service doesn’t need to be difficult or expensive, in fact, the 3 main reasons companies both large and small chose outsourced webhosting support are,

• Quality
• Efficiency
• Cost

If you are considering augmenting your support department and want to ensure the best possible outcome, you will want to consider partnering with a well-established support provider and keep the following points below in mind.

1. Years of Experience: Choose a support provider with years of experience, a deep understanding of customer service, and who knows how to deal with contingencies under strict timelines.

2. Breadth of knowledge: Breadth of knowledge: Relevant certifications from major IT giants such as Microsoft, Red Hat, VMWare, and Parallels ensure a proper foundation of knowledge required to properly support your organization.

3. Communication Skills: Communication is the critical part of customer support. Outsourcing support should not mean compromising the quality of communication with your customers. A great 24×7 Hosting Support team should be proficient in both written and spoken language. Interviews with support staff prior to engaging is a great way to ensure the proper personnel are in place to support your customers.

4. Qualitative Certifications: Service providers should be certified in ISO 9001:2008 Certification which focuses on service quality and ISO 27001:2005 (Information Security Management System) which focuses on data security and privacy.

5. Client References: The proof is the finished product. Quality vendors will be able to provide multiple references for your review.

6. Flexible Engagement Models: Flexibility is key. Each support client often has different support requirements due to timezone and business model variations. Vendors should offer several options for shift coverage, i.e. single shift, multiple shifts and 24×7 Hosting Support depending on your business needs.

7. Multiple Support Tiers: One size does not fit all. Multiple support options allow you to choose the best combination of support personnel to meet the demand of your clients. Optimally, having three levels of support – Basic (Level 1), Enhanced (Level 2) and Premium (Level 3) will allow you to handle the different call type volumes specific to your business. You choose the level of support and the combination that is right for your business needs.

8. Response Times and Resolution Times: 24×7 Hosting Support partners should offer proactive 24×7 server monitoring and administration. Expected response and resolution times should be clearly defined and communicated as part of your SLA (Service Level Agreement). Generally a Support team can guarantee a 30 minute response guarantee and one hour of resolution time.

9. Communication Channels: Efficient management includes direct communication with your team over instant messenger, phone or email as per the business needs and pre-defined processes. It also includes a 24×7 internal escalation team.

10. Account Management: A great support team will include an account manager who works with you to facilitate communication, which includes daily, weekly and monthly reporting and account status calls. Your account manager will work as your advocate to ensure quality and focus.

While the above is by no means a complete list, hopefully it helps to guide you through the process.

For more information, please see the information below:

Please email at (info@aress.support) to get a FREE consultation on how Aress can provide 24×7 Hosting Support for your company. Ask about our FREE no obligation support trial for your organization.

Aress typically supports up to 15,000 support instances per day and has 16 years of experience working with web hosting providers, cloud and software application providers as well as point of sale.