24/7 Customer Support
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.
Table of Contents:
What is a 24/7 customer support service?
Each product or service sold on the market is supposed to be backed up by a customer service as a part of its quality guarantee. In the field of
Internet and
web hosting services, customer support is one of the most prioritized plan features. An
ISP may offer the fastest Internet connection or a
host may provide the most stable server configuration in their region. However, without a customer support option included the quality of their services may drop significantly, making them less attractive to the clientele.
Why a 24/7 customer support service?
The Internet and hosting services are delivered to the customer in real time on a continuous basis and the slightest problem with their quality will be immediately noticed by the customer. That’s why ISPs and hosts must ensure a 24/7/365 customer
support team working to quickly resolve any eventual problem the customer might experiences with the received services. The faster and more diverse the support service is, the better the chances are for the company to keep their customers.
Customer Support Channels
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. The
shared hosting support service is usually provided free of charge to customers, without any time limitations, while the
VPS and
dedicated hosting solutions offer some pre-defined managed service packages, priced according to their duration and the number of support operations included.
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.
24/7 Customer Support with NTC Hosting
All NTC Hosting plans offered on this website include a fully-featured customer support service package. In the first place, it includes Control Panel integrated on-screen help sections and how-to-video tutorials for easy reference regarding any practical questions about our services. The ways to contact the NTC Hosting support team include a 24/7 ticketing system, complemented by live chat and phone support lines open 16 hours a day.
