5 Simple Things To Do Before You Hire An Outsourced Support Service

Outsourcing your web hosting support service is always the best option. There are a number of reasons, which we have discussed here: Why outsource? When you begin your search for the best outsourced support service, you will quickly realize that the number of options is high. Many support companies, however, belong to the lower tier in terms of quality, but there are simple ways for you to differentiate between low quality and high-class outsourced support services. You are obviously going to look for an outsourced support company that provides a high number of great features and is also cost efficient. Here are 5 steps given by customers who ignored them and had to pay the price:

Take Your Time

When your company is going live it may seem imperative to immediately hire an outsourced support service. But in the interest of ‘hiring quick’, you will definitely end up overlooking major flaws and losing out on benefits. So take your time, meet with as many support services as you have to, weigh the pros and cons and then make an informed decision. Better be late than sorry.

Ensure There Are No Communication Gaps

A common problem you are bound to face with outsourced support is a gap in communication. There are two aspects to look for, delays in response and language problems. For the former, make sure you set SLAs (Service Level Agreements) that define and stress quick response, via call, email and chat. For the latter, make sure the outsourced support service you opt for has technicians with a good grasp on at least the English language. You don’t want to waste critical time on translations and explanations during a crisis. Talk directly to the manager assigned to your company and ensure you are all on the same page.

Background Check

It’s important to know the support company that is going to cater to your valuable customers. You might want to go beyond their own website when it comes to a background check. Ask them for references or contact information of previous customers. Ask previous customers about their firsthand experience with the support service. Lastly, look for reviews and feedback submitted by other customers.

Be Technology and Area Specific

If your company hosts websites on Linux, you want an outsourced support company whose expertise is Linux systems. Before you pick a support service, outline all the technology and areas you are going to need outsourced support with. http://www.actsupport.com/5-simple-things-hire-outsourced-support-service/

Why outsource when you can build in-house?

Every business arrives at the critical juncture of establishing a customer support team sooner or later. You might be a product based company or a service provider, if you have a customer, you need customer support. This need becomes even more critical when your business deals with web hosting, because with the internet, it is all about uptime.

Then follows the important question “should we hire professionals and host the support team in-house, or outsource our hosting support needs?” Here are a couple of reasons why outsourcing is the better option:

Saves Time

Customer support is a critical component in any business. It is the first point of contact for every customer in your company and if not handled properly, could prove disastrous. Building a support team from scratch involves effort and time, and critical decisions like how many human and machine resources are needed, the level of expertise to expect etc.

Outsourced web hosting support companies employ professionals who are trained in the technology and have datacentres and hardware readily available. Thiscuts down your work to selecting the best package for your needs and saves you a lot of precious time.

Flexible use of Resources

If building a customer support team takes effort, running and maintaining one takes even more hard work.As your business grows, the need to upscale the support team crops up and you will find yourself going through the entire process of hiring and procuring all over again. Outsourced web hosting companies work on a quick upscale model, which means if your requirements are sporadic, http://www.actsupport.com/why-outsource/

What Does a Customer Consider Before Choosing Business Website Hosting

Every business today understands the importance of having an online presence. Digital marketing is the keyword for every business promoter and the best way to establish an online footprint is with a website. With the growing number of websites comes the need for a larger number of hosting providers. Gone are the days when the choice for web hosting providers were a few. Customers now have a plethora of choices to compare between before picking the best host for their website. But what exactly do customers look for in a web hosting service?

Price and Benefits

Yes, the cost for hosting is always the number one factor for selection. But it’s not just the price, it’s the services that come with the price. The server space offered, the traffic bandwidth, ease of access, ability to host third party platforms and more, each of which is explained in this post.

Server Space

Hosting’ is basically offering server space to upload files and documents that make the website. As a website grows, the data involved, which are generally both text and images also grow, and the space needed to accommodate the website increases. Offering a customer good amount of initial server space and additional space for expansion for a reasonable price will make your service extremely attractive to customers. Most website hosting companies now offer unlimited and unmetered server space

Bandwidth

Bandwidth is essentially the amount of transactions allowed over the network. Every time a personconnects to a server to access a website, there is data moving to and fro. This data constitutes the bandwidth. If the bandwidth is set to 10GB, when the total transaction over the network exceeds 10GB the connections are blocked. Most hosting providers now offer unlimited and unmetered bandwidth. When offering unlimited bandwidth http://www.actsupport.com/customer-consider-choosing-business-website-hosting/

4 Tips to choose the best outsourced web hosting technical support provider

It’s safe to say almost every business has a website, because every business owner knows the importance of having an online presence. It puts their business within the outreach of billions of online users. Some of these businesses use their websites to spread awareness of their brand, while some companies offer services, products and essentially their business itself through the website, for example by an e-commerce website.

Whatever the purpose of the website, if it crashes even for a minute it could spell disaster. The key for every website hosting provider to ensure their customers receive the utmost satisfaction is to employ a solid technical support team, and most of the times outsourcing is a beneficial idea. Here are 4 key features to look out for in any outsourced web hosting support solution.

Cross Technology Support

Web hosting is now a giant tree with branches in multiple technologies. Web hosts now come with multiple OS options, provisions for different coding languages and database options, various content management system hosting, admin login panels, e-mail solutions, antivirus and antispam options and much more. A web hosting company is also expected to be able to support its customers in each of these technologies and services. It is extremely important to pick an outsourced hosting support that has technicians who are experts in different OS systems like Linux and Windows, and are able to fix issues pertaining to CMS platforms and other services the web host is providing.

Real Time Monitoring

Prevention is better than cure. Server downtime could make a website unavailable and this could mean huge losses for business. While 100% uptime cannot be guaranteed, it can be made a possibility by constantly monitoring the hosting servers for issues and possible failures.

Picking an outsourced web hosting support who implements tools for real-time monitoring of servers, equipment and services is the best option. The outsourced web hosting support must go beyond monitoring hardware and physical devices. Constant monitoring for virus’, spam and hacks is also a must to maintain customer satisfaction.

High Availability and Data Restoration

Even with safety solutions like real-time monitoring, server downtime sometimes cannot be avoided. There are always newer virus’ that beat existing antivirus tools and unexpected hardware malfunctions. How the outsourced hosting support deals with downtime is a point to go over. http://www.actsupport.com/4-tips-choose-best-outsourced-web-hosting-technical-support-provider/