Live chat software and web hosting Industry
A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their own website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosters are companies that provide space on a server they own or lease for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center. Web hosts can also provide data center space and connectivity to the Internet for servers they do not own to be located in their data center, called colocation.
Type of hosting available in the Market
Shared Hosting - Cost Effective, Easy to Use and Feature Rich
Dedicated Hosting - The Utmost in Control, Flexibility, and Responsibility
VPS Hosting - Immense Power and Great Performance
Managed Hosting - Hassle-Free But Costly
Reseller Hosting - Substantial Profit Potential
Importance of 24X7 customer Support in the Web Hosting Industry
Customer service and technical support are considered the foundation of any web hosting provider. Both are vital for running a successful hosting business as they reflect the credibility and reliability of the company. They also encourage confidence in potential customers because in the event of technical issues or extensive downtime, the consumer can rely on the hosting provider’s support system to have their questions and concerns addressed.
We will use an example to validate the importance of web hosing support. Let’s say you run an online gift shop and Christmas Eve is the time your business generates the most revenue. Your site starts to experience technical difficulties on December 23 and eventually goes down. With customers having no way to access your store, you begin to miss out on sale after sale. Now imagine if you had no support team to contact during this time. Though most companies keep downtime to a minimum, these instances occur often and can deliver a crucial blow to your online business. Because 100% availability is hard to guarantee, all web hosting companies should put major emphasis on their support services.
When hosting your website on the web you will need to make sure that the company providing the server environment and the related hosting services will also offer customer support round the clock. This way you will receive technical assistance anytime you need to avoid any possible downtime for your websites.
Why a 24/7 customer support service?
When hosting your website on the web you will need to make sure that the company providing the server environment and the related hosting services will also offer customer support round the clock. This way you will receive technical assistance anytime you need to avoid any possible downtime for your websites.
Customer Support Channels for web hostings
There are many different methods for providing support to consumers of Internet related services. The customer support service provided by web hosting companies, in particular, is characterized by a really great diversity of support channels. The hosting providers are competing to offer the most fully-featured support package to make their services more accessible to the customer
Self-help support services:
The specific nature of the web hosting services, where managing web server resources like disk space and traffic through a Control Panel and setting up websites via integrated online site builders is something typical, determines the availability of helpful self-training support options. Using them, customers can easily get into web hosting on their own without bothering to contact the support team every time they find something unclear.
Online Documentation (on-screen help)
Most web hosting services offered online feature special on-screen help areas (online documentation), integrated into each section of the Control Panel they come with. Their main purpose is to provide on-the-fly information about the features of a particular section and helpful tips on how to work with them. This way, while working inside a particular section of the Control Panel, the customer can instantly find the necessary helpful tips, without needing to search for any external information. For instance, in the Email Manager section of the NTC Hosting Control Panel you will find details about how to create an email account, set up SPF protection, configure your own mailing list, etc.
Video Tutorials
The video tutorials are a much preferred self-training support option for many customers. The YouTube style of communicating tips and ideas to the user have become an important part of the services of hosting providers due to its clarity and informativeness. Along with the common static online documentation option, most hosts also try their best to integrate user-friendly how-to-video tutorials to help their customers better understand their services. The video tutorials may present all kinds of operations from setting up an email account to getting a free domain name with your hosting plan.
Regular support services
When the customer cannot find an answer to their question or problem using the self-training support channels, they can contact the support team of their host. There are some basic ways to do that 24/7/365:
Integrated Ticketing System
The ticketing system integrated into the web hosting Control Panel is the basic method of providing technical support to the customer round the clock. It has an email like interface, allowing for a certain problem to be discussed in a single thread and for a lot of additional information to be exchanged in the form of attachments. Depending on the complexity of the problem, a ticket can stretch from two posts to a hundred posts. This creates a history of the issue and allows for the support team and the customer to track it from its occurrence to its final resolution. Usually, a post in a ticket is given response to within a few hours’ time, depending on the response-time guarantee policy of the host.
Live Chat Support
A growing number of hosts include the Live Chat Support option in their support service package. It represents an easy to use online application for real time communication between customers and the support team of the host. To check whether your potential host offers a live chat service, look for a live chat button on their site. The application opens in a pop-up window, so you can still see the site while chatting with a member of the support team. The live shat support option is usually recommended for non-technical questions including pre-sale, billing queries, etc.
Phone Support
The phone support service remains one of the most preferred customer support methods. Most customers like to contact the support team over the phone line and get a personal real time assistance concerning their issue. However, the inflexibilities of the phone communication in transferring information about a particular issue, and the time consuming nature of most technical problems make this support method more applicable to pre-sale questions and the resolution of less complicated billing and technical issues.
Live chat support advantages
- A real-time support service – through the live chat functionality enabled on their website, the hosting provider ensures their customers an option to get in real-time contact with their customers. The user just needs to click the button and initiate an ICQ/Messenger like chat session with a representative of the company. It is really quick and easy.
- Creates an image of reliability - the presence of a live chat button on a hosts' website is a sign that the hosting provider cares for their customers and is ready to provide immediate assistance using real person chat operators. Knowing that there is somebody ready to help them out in real time, the customers feel safer and more confident in their host.
Cuts costs for users from distant parts of the world - in contrast to the phone support option, the other real time support service, the Live Chat service is usually provided absolutely free to the customer. Since web hosting services are offered on a global basis, using multiple local phone lines at a time to offer all customers from around the world a cheap phone support service is just not physically possible for hosts. This is why, the chat service comes as a free real time support option alternative to the generally more preferred phone support service.
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