Outsourcing Online Technical and Customer Support vs. Doing it Yourself

depotgang · 05-04-2011, 01:52 PM

As in Internet marketer your business may start out as a ‘bootstrapped,’ one-person, but as your products and services become more popular and sales increase so will your need to provide both technical and customer support. In fact, if you do not provide adequate support to your customer base your business will not grow and your reputation in the marketplace will become more and more negative as your unhappy customers begin to complain to their networks about how your company does not support its products.

Basically you’ve got two options: outsourcing support or trying to do it yourself. Let’s look at both options.

Do it yourself support
With this model you would include an email address such as, ‘support@yourwebsite.com,’ where customers could email you with questions and concerns. In the beginning this might work, but the more products and services that you offer and the larger your customer base grows the greater amount of resources you will need to dedicate to handling support.

When the single email address is no longer adequate, you might set up a customer support ticket system where your customers can create a profile using their name and email address. They would then be able to open a support ticket. But soon it becomes clear that if you continue to field technical and customer support tickets yourself you will not have time to work with your clients or produce more products. You must decide if handling customer support is the best, most productive use of your time.

Outsourcing support
When outsourcing your technical and customer support needs, you can start by hiring a virtual assistant and training that person to focus on handling support. You will most likely need one person with the technical knowledge and skill to field technical support tickets and another one with customer support skills. But these team members will need to be managed, and if one is out sick or takes vacation time you will have to arrange backup coverage. All of this takes your time and attention away from your primary business functions.

The next option is to hire an outsourcing company that has its own support staff. They hire and manage the people who will be handling your support needs. This is an almost completely hands-off option, which gives you the freedom to handle all of the other pressing needs of running a company. You can feel confident that your customer and technical support needs are being handled professionally.

When you try to juggle running a business, caring for clients, coming up with new products and services while also trying to resolve customer complaints, or solving technical issues you are spreading yourself too thin. You did not launch an Internet business to be working three or more jobs at a time. When you outsource your technical and customer support needs you free up your time to work on growing your business and creating new products.

Internet marketers can find lots more information about providing customer support online when you visit, http://www.mcreasite.com/blog. Come and discover how you can make money online while saving time and effort by using proven systems and productivity tools.

05-04-2011, 01:52 PM	#1
depotgang Laser Traffic Pro War Room Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: San Diego, Ca , USA. Posts: 1,253 Thanks: 12 Thanked 154 Times in 69 Posts Contact Info	Outsourcing Online Technical and Customer Support vs. Doing it Yourself As in Internet marketer your business may start out as a ‘bootstrapped,’ one-person, but as your products and services become more popular and sales increase so will your need to provide both technical and customer support. In fact, if you do not provide adequate support to your customer base your business will not grow and your reputation in the marketplace will become more and more negative as your unhappy customers begin to complain to their networks about how your company does not support its products. Basically you’ve got two options: outsourcing support or trying to do it yourself. Let’s look at both options. Do it yourself support With this model you would include an email address such as, ‘support@yourwebsite.com,’ where customers could email you with questions and concerns. In the beginning this might work, but the more products and services that you offer and the larger your customer base grows the greater amount of resources you will need to dedicate to handling support. When the single email address is no longer adequate, you might set up a customer support ticket system where your customers can create a profile using their name and email address. They would then be able to open a support ticket. But soon it becomes clear that if you continue to field technical and customer support tickets yourself you will not have time to work with your clients or produce more products. You must decide if handling customer support is the best, most productive use of your time. Outsourcing support When outsourcing your technical and customer support needs, you can start by hiring a virtual assistant and training that person to focus on handling support. You will most likely need one person with the technical knowledge and skill to field technical support tickets and another one with customer support skills. But these team members will need to be managed, and if one is out sick or takes vacation time you will have to arrange backup coverage. All of this takes your time and attention away from your primary business functions. The next option is to hire an outsourcing company that has its own support staff. They hire and manage the people who will be handling your support needs. This is an almost completely hands-off option, which gives you the freedom to handle all of the other pressing needs of running a company. You can feel confident that your customer and technical support needs are being handled professionally. When you try to juggle running a business, caring for clients, coming up with new products and services while also trying to resolve customer complaints, or solving technical issues you are spreading yourself too thin. You did not launch an Internet business to be working three or more jobs at a time. When you outsource your technical and customer support needs you free up your time to work on growing your business and creating new products. Internet marketers can find lots more information about providing customer support online when you visit, http://www.mcreasite.com/blog. Come and discover how you can make money online while saving time and effort by using proven systems and productivity tools.
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