How to Select Correct support channel?

• 23 September 2013
• by: Kenny
• in: Tutorial & Guides
• note: no comments

When choosing a web hosting service, there're many points to check about like server uptime, disk storage and multiple domain hosting opportunity etc. However, support availability is more and more concerned by people nowadays, sometimes it's even primary consideration regardless any other great features provided. Why is that? Because every service comes with problems. The point is how people will handle various problems instead bamboozling customer.

There're total of 4 situations when problem occurs with your hosting service.

1. Rapid response with explanation and solutions, then provide compensation to make you happy
2. Ignore you at the first, find problems and solutions then broadcast explanation
3. Completely ignore your requests even after problem solved
4. They disappeared after problem occurs

There're thousands of hosting providers from the industry. You can't really tell how many people behind a specific service. Over half hosting companies are managed by one or three persons and they handle sales, billing, support and all stuff by their limited man power. It doesn't mean they're not good at all. Instead, they often perform better than giants because most such hosting brands are created by webmasters and they know how frustrate it is when you can't open a website. Most hosting companies provide multiple support channels for quick contact. But which line you should call in when problem occurs? Here we'll compare the leading support sources and how can you use the best one.

Hot line number. Over 99% hot lines are provided for sales purpose. Unless there's a specific phone number provided for tech support, you should never try it in case problem occurs with your hosting account.

Website live chat. The most popular support choice. Live chat is actually for multiple purpose but mainly used for sales to provide instant communication. Live chat operators are also trained to deal with basic issues like how to use control panel and service restart etc. Because most of them do not have server acces, so if there's server end configuration required with your account problem, they can not help much.

Knowledge base. Knowledge base is dead there but pretty helpful for common problems fixing. Hosting company has provided as many FAQs as possible with their experience. You should check out there first and see if one of the solutions match with your case. If you have contacted other support channels you might have found they frequently provide solutions in KB articles. Unless you need very urgent assistance, knowledge base should be your first try before contacting somebody.

Ticket support. Most helpful and professional support resource. Especially when you got a complex problem to work with, ticket support should be your only consideration because it will take time for support to check around. When you face the following issues you should contact ticket support: server end component installation, website global configuration, billing issues. All professionals including CTO will be available in ticket system for necessary assistance.

As we see, you must choose the correct support channel for fast solutions. Don't hurry up when problem occurs, you should have a basic judgement about where the problem is and try to solve it by yourself following available knowledge resources. It will save time for both ourselves and support technicians. For some big hosting groups, sometimes you might find it hard to call in because everybody is trying, they can not pick up all calls by limited support persons.

Support is crucial, but it's more crucial on how to use different support resources. Do not go wrong with no problem fixing possibility.