Here's the brilliant idea for today. Why don't the hosting companies let the right representatives answer their customers' questions, instead of letting customers waste time with their less trained agents? I've been helping a friend setup a site on one of the nationally known web hosting sites, and I must say getting the right answer is an exercise in extreme patience.
My own site (the one carrying this blog) is hosted with one of the smaller outfits and I've been able to get my technical questions promptly and correctly answered most of the time. That doesn't seem to be the case with the larger companies. I don't even think they read the emails. I ask for something to be disabled, they send instructions back on how to enable it. Even worse, after dealing with so many newbies mindlessly spouting techie jargon, they have developed resistance to anyone trying to get technical with them.
It's only after several tries that an issue is escalated to the more knowledgeable staff who can finally help resolve the issue. I'm not sure whom is to blame here. Web hosting must be a cut-throat business and these outfits are just holding the line on expenses. The front-end positions are generally low-paying jobs, so I assume new people are brought in, trained quickly on the web hosting's interface, and then dumped in the call center pool. I wish I could get a sample of the questions these guys field. I can only imagine what absurdities customers throw at them.
The front-end agents are probably fine for the amateur callers, but it’s the back-end guys I really need when I call or email for something. I presume I never quite make it to the back, but I would be quite content with the middle-layer without being hassled by the front guys a few times. People tend to note that smaller hosting companies have more informed support personnel. That's certainly true with my hosting service. Perhaps the bigger guys can learn something from their smaller counterparts.
web hosting,tech support,call centers,customer serviceLabels: customer service, web
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Web Hosting Customer Service>
// posted by rh
2 Comments:
By Jean, at
20/11/07 3:28 PM
Just yesterday I spent 45 minutes on the phone with a web hosting company that had me speaking to someone that did not know what they were doing. He kept putting me on hold as if he had to go ask someone for the answers. The good thing is that my problem was resolved but it took to long.
The request was first made by e-mail and I never got an answer. How hard is it for someone to enable PHP and install MySQL on a server that should of came with it?
Well this weekend I will test my code and hopefully have no problems with anything else.
The Web Hosting that I have are very good when it comes to customer service. Let me know if you ever need a better hosting company.
By , at
21/11/07 10:34 PM
I worked as a customer service /technical support rep for a while at a hosting company in Phoenix. You would not believe the people who get trained. They seem like they only knew the front end. None of them knew DNS, what ports were used for what. How to login to SSH or FTP through command prompt.They had a difficult time managing a records mx records or other commonalities at a hosting company. I attempted to get a promotion there, but they moved all of their tier 2 to India. Iwas not willing to move there. There were some guys at the front ranks who knew quite a bit, but like me, they moved on because there is no place to go within. sad stuff, but this is really a management problem..it may cost a little more to go with a smaller company, but I HIGHLY recommend it. The larger co's are iknterested in upselling you things you don't need. These places are great for beginners who just want a presence- but that is it. RW
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