Decent technical support?

Customer service should always be an important consideration when choosing a web hosting provider. It is important to determine if the technical support is reliable, because if something goes wrong with your website, who can you turn to for help?

Numerous hosting companies claim to have technicians working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year in their operations centers, maintaining mission-critical systems. While this may be true, there will always be unqualified people working in support call centers.

This happens more than “quite often,” as companies may spend so much money on advertising and marketing that technical support becomes secondary in priority, or companies may outsource their support centers as cost-cutting measures.

There are several ways to put them to the test:

▸ By calling their support center and asking them a question. This can be anything from basic routines to specific details.

▸ Listen to them and assess their tone of voice – do they sound confident, professional?

▸ Do they often put you on hold?

▸ Ask them where they are located.

▸ If you already have an account with them, or know someone who does, ask the technician for account information.

▸ What preventative measures do you take before disclosing account information?

▸ How sophisticated is your billing and customer tracking system?

▸ Check with support staff to see if they have an online knowledge base or help desk with tutorials and other materials. You will then be able to refer to their support documentation.

▸ Send them an email inquiry to see how long it takes for them to get back to you – do they leave more questions in response?

▸ What are the communication channels they offer?

▸ What hours do they offer technical assistance?