Why Offer Support?

[Collabora]

It's demonstrably cheaper to keep customers than churn them.

I have yet to see a demonstration as it applies to hosting in general and the small host in particular.

Even you then go on to say that you cannot say that.....

....you have to start making assumptions about customer decision drivers and the model becomes bogged down with subjectivity. i.e. did that customer leave because they found a better deal? Was the better deal including support or not... or just better support? Did support even matter? What did it cost me to support this customer incoming... then what outgoing? Was it the same "team" who provided onboarding support? What does reputation cost and what does potential damage to reputation for bad support cost? etc etc etc.

Your cost drivers are going to be all over the place and not really consistent between any two customers so you'd have to deal with them in aggregate then assume what the costs of a departing customer are and what factors you can link them to.

This would necessarly disqualify your intitial statement in addition to the ability to answer to my question, since the truthfulness of your statement does depend on the ability to answer the question.

But the gist of my pondering is one in the long run. Given that it is true -- that it costs more to acquire a new customer than to keep a current one -- and given the cost of keeping the current one is the cost of support, how do you demonstrate that?

If you do get the question answered, let me know because I have other burning questions that will probably share an answer. At top of mind,"how long is a piece of string"?

Try a ruler

 

[bigboxhost]

Fast response to customers query resulting to generate trust in the market which will be great for your business future. That is why support is important factor for running any business successfully.

 

[wh-coach]

I have yet to see a demonstration as it applies to hosting in general and the small host in particular.

And you won't see mine There are just some things that are know how and show how that are particular to me but let's just say that

This would necessarly disqualify your intitial statement...

Not at all. What I'm saying is that you uncouple the drivers and either assume your way through a cost model or you prove your way through a cost model.

At some point the decision to provide support or not is a product decision.

given the cost of keeping the current one is the cost of support

I don't think I agree. There are other measurable costs to maintaining a customer over and above support. If you haven't accounted for that you have a flawed business model (unless you consider keeping your server powered, rent, licenses fees, accounting, legal fees, etc as 'support' functions). It doesn't cost any of those things if you don't have any customers.

Customer service is important but its not charity either.

No kidding.

 

[wh-coach]

I came across a website in another forum and it immediately made me think of this thread. It's an interesting way of positioning having NO support. I have never used this company and have no idea about any of their claims so please don't take this as promotional in any way; however, I thought the approach was novel.

http://www.nosupportlinuxhosting.com/

 

[easyhostmedia]

I came across a website in another forum and it immediately made me think of this thread. It's an interesting way of positioning having NO support. I have never used this company and have no idea about any of their claims so please don't take this as promotional in any way; however, I thought the approach was novel.

http://www.nosupportlinuxhosting.com/

basically they are providing a basic cPanel hosting package for $12 a year, but they dont tell you the package size and you get no support unless you pay for it i suppose.

i like their page 'Amateur Questions That We Ignore' some of the questions they ignore are genuine, so to me they are taking $12 from you for something that may not be any good for what you need and they take the mick out of you if your are a newbie ( Amateur).