Ensuring Support from your web hosting service

There are a number of issues that you will consider while choosing a cheap web hosting provider. One of the most important of these considerations is the level of support that the cheap web hosting provider is able to give. Hostinfo uses the latest Kayako Supportsuite, which is recognised as the best hosting trouble ticket software. This includes the online chat interface to provide our customers with the very best support. It is very important that you ensure that the cheap web hosting solution that you choose can give you the desired level of support.

Don’t pay for the problems of the hosting company

Every cheap web hosting company in the ultimate analysis would like to ensure the maximum customer satisfaction, and to this end would certainly try to provide best web hosting services including the maximum level of support. Even though intentions may be good, many companies may fail to live up to them because of the cost of providing the desired level of support. Although well-managed cheap web hosting services can circumvent these problems by better efficiency of its operations and higher volumes, all cheap web hosting companies may not be able to do so. You certainly don’t want to, and should not, pay for the inefficiencies of the cheap web hosting company that you choose. For these reasons you should ensure that you get a proper level of support. How can you ensure this?

Understanding why companies fail to provide adequate support

In order to ensure that a cheap web hosting provider gives you the adequate level of support, it is first of all important for you to understand why companies fail to provide the desired level of support. You might have noticed that we have been using the word cheap web hosting many times. This is because a cheap web hosting service is more likely to fail to provide the desired level of support than a costlier one. This does not, by any means, imply that all costly services provide support and all cheap web hosting solutions fail to provide support. However, one of the major reasons that companies fail to provide adequate support lies in the need to cut costs, which is more pressing in the case of cheap web hosting providers. That brings us to the reasons why support is often less than adequate – because it helps in lowering costs, and is the least visible factor. So companies can get away by lowering the level of support (or so they think). Some of the ways in which this might happen are:

• Employing less skilled or less qualified people. Highly qualified people may cost the company more. For most of the tasks, lower skilled people may prove to be adequate. However, this strategy will affect you if are faced with a more serious problem for which you need an immediate solution.
• Employing a lower number of people than required: This will mean that you will have to wait indefinitely for an answer, or may not be able to get support at all times.
• Outsourcing: Outsourcing is in fact a good solution that might help in lowering costs, but if the agency to which the work is outsourced has not been selected carefully, and has been chosen for its lower quotation alone, it might in turn reflect on the service that outsourced agency is able to provide. Another possible problem with outsourcing is that the agency may not have full facts or authority to give answers to all problems.

The above are just a few of the possible reasons why companies may not provide the required level of support. Understanding these problems helps in ensuring that you get the level of support that you are looking for.

Ensuring support

Once you know the source of the problems, you can take some steps to ensure that you are not affected by them. Here’s what you can do.

• Check with the cheap web hosting company about the support infrastructure that they have. Check to see if there are an adequate number of qualified people to do the job.
• The proof of the pudding is in the eating. If possible take references from existing users about their experience with the cheap web hosting provider that you are considering.
• Find out the type of support that is offered by the cheap web hosting service that you are considering. Find out the answers to the following questions
• Is the support available on a 24x7 basis?
• Does it cover operational only operational problems or does it extend to providing you with professional advice?
• What are the means of communication? Does it cover online support, chat facility, telephonic support and email?