Do you think LiveChat is a must have for web hosting services?

[Danlucy]

Do you think LiveChat is a must have for a web hosting service or you can accept supports via tickets?

Any comments?

 

[ulterios]

I think it all depends on the person. Some people like to use live chat support and other prefer ticket support. Most of the hosts that I have used have had both but I rarely used live chat.

It's definitely a plus if they do but in many cases it might not be a requirement. I think it will also depend on how fast their ticket support is. If it's fast, then it might not really be needed.

 

[RDO Servers]

RDO Servers

I agree. We have customers who seem to jump on live chat for every question, others seem to never use chat and only open a ticket, even for quick/easy needs. It all depends on the person.

 

[ulterios]

ulterios

If I have a question that is basic or something that I am sure other people have wanted/needed to know I usually just do a Google search and usually find the answer I need. I only contact support if I can't find the answer on the web somewhere. I can usually find stuff in a minute or 2 just by doing a search, so live support or tickets aren't needed.

 

[Ron Killian]

Ron Killian

Exactly. If tickets are fast I'd rather stay with tickets. No time sitting there on live chat.

 

[ulterios]

ulterios

For sure Ron. I have been on live chat before that had taken over an hour to resolve what should have taken minutes.

I think many hosting companies use live chat employees that aren't trained as well, if at all, as the people who handle tickets.

I have dealt with live chat at some host where the person I was dealing with was COMPLETELY worthless and didn't know hardly anything at all. One time a live chat person for a domain registrar didn't know what ICANN was or how to do a whois check for a domain. That's crazy.

 

[Ron Killian]

Ron Killian

Yep. We kind of talked about that in the other thread. Funny that live chat can be very time consuming. Plus you need to sit there at your computer, even while they put you on hold. And oh yes, the worthless operators.

Something I just thought about though. Live chat might be a good sales tool on the front on, for potential customers. We know how important hosting is, so it can be difficult to choose one. Talking to some might might seal the deal. Thinking out loud.

 

[ioZoom]

Depends on how urgent the issue is. If it's low priority and not urgent submit a ticket. If something is urgent having a live chat option really calms the nerve of a customer because there is nothing worst than feeling helpless in time of need. Waiting minutes for a response to a ticket can feel like hours...

 

[ulterios]

Yep. We kind of talked about that in the other thread. Funny that live chat can be very time consuming. Plus you need to sit there at your computer, even while they put you on hold. And oh yes, the worthless operators.

Yeah, that's another thing. Having to stay on/at your computer while you are dealing with them. Not everyone can sit by their computer for sometimes long periods, just to fix something that the user isn't really needed except to report the issue.

Something I just thought about though. Live chat might be a good sales tool on the front on, for potential customers. We know how important hosting is, so it can be difficult to choose one. Talking to some might might seal the deal. Thinking out loud.

Yes, it's used a lot for that. One friend of mine has a son who was working for a hosting company's support when he was away at college and he told me that about 75% of live chat was potential customers who wanted to know something before they bought.

 

[Ron Killian]

I do have to say, it does make me slightly nervous when there is no live chat when my sites go down. Hard to wait even a short time for a ticket system. Or it's just me.

 

[Percentage]

Why not both? They can choose between both. I have some friends who use both, some people like faster responses. It can be a pain waiting hours for a simple answer.

 

[ulterios]

ulterios

Oh yeah, both is definitely better to have. It's just that some hosts don't have live chat and only have ticket support/help. This is probably because of the added cost they have with live support. Definitely better to have both to cover the different needs of different people and situations.

 

[khalid-farhan]

According to me, this is a must. There are ton of companies who will get more customers if they introduce live chat. For example, think about Namecheap or vpswebserver, they are getting millions only because they have a great live chat feature.

 

[belinda]

Live chat can be used for quick and basic support queries. So it can be an important and useful feature for web hosting companies to have.

 

[malikshahid3232]

Hosting services - any way here always have some urgent questions and issues to solve quickly.
More over some customers like services with live chat and solve there issue.
So, my opinion live chat must have with hosting services.

 

[michaelswengel]

Well, I personally like to be able to chat with support online instead of calling, and I don't like waiting for emails back and forth with a service rep.

In my opinion it's a must-have, but as others said, it depends on the person.

 

[ProxyRadar]

My experience shows that it's a must-have, many peoples wants to get answers right here and right now

 

[hostslim]

It's quite the good thing to have a Live Chat. It's good to have an easy contact point for your clients and prospects.

 

[newsdeals]

In my opinion as a customer, I would love to use live chat everytime when I have a problem with my hosting account or need any assistance. It's very quick and a helpful way to solve my problem.

 

[SenseiSteve]

Do I think Live Chat is a must? No. There are plenty of very successful web hosting providers that don't offer Live Chat. On the other, I do believe it helps, but not so much to resolve support issues (tickets should be used to provide a secure audit trail). Pre-sales questions? Absolutely.

 

[LowEndXeon]

You'd find, it's a great addition to costumers.

 

[vps9]

Well you will find both options for most of the hosting companies. Some will solve the technical issues immediately or will assist you to resolve the problem so that you can help yourself next time. Some will provide their knowledge base to manage the VPS by client itself. support ticket takes time, at least few minutes.

 

[radwebhosting]

It is probably not a bad thing to have. If someone is manning it while a visitor of your site is having some trouble making a decision, you might find that it increases conversions.

 

[vishwa]

Live chat is not a mandatory option for a web hosting company. However it is more convenient for a web hosting company to solve customer queries quickly and instantly. For example sales support. For technical support I prefer phone or ticket system.

 

[projectpop]

Its not a must, however it makes yourself more trustworthy in comparison to a "dead" site with no live agents. You can also get some clients by triggering chats with them I believe as they will be impressed by your service.

 

[ElixantTechnology]

Surprising enough, with both LiveChat and Toll-Free support available to our customers, we have only used either or a handful of times over the past 2 years. Customers seemingly like to utilize our ticketing system more, which is understandable as it is means to tracking progress..