How long is too long?...phone support

[KimberTech]

Here is one up for debate.

I have suggested that fifteen minutes on the phone with a client should be ample to determine if a service call is required or the client should bring in the unit. I don't set it in stone, but I also DO NOT agree with spending my whole day on the phone fixing people's computers for free either.

It would be faster for me to GO there and do it than to spend an hour saying....."ok now click @# and hit ok"

Please could members post opinions on this, or other options?

I really need some people to either agree with me, or not and tell me why not.

Thanks in advance....

The more I learn, the more I realize how much more there is to know!
Kimber

 

[CajunCenturion]

I tend to agree that 15 quality minutes should be long enough to determine what the best method for handling any given service call. I emphasize quality, because unfortunately, you have to deal with some "communication-challenged" customers who take 10 minutes giving you their life history to ask you how to start Excel.

The second problem is the "Infinte Follow-Up" situation. You know the ones - wow, that worked great, but now can you .... Yeah that worked, what about ... and so on.

There are several alternatives that other companies have used,

No Free Phone Support: Hi you've reach XYZ Customer Support - please enter your Credit Card Number and a Technician will be with your shortly.

Question Buying: When you buy the product, you are provided 5 free phone questions. Dialog goes something like this: Hi How Many Quesitons do I have left? Well, considering that one, now you have only 4 left

Time Buying: When you buy the products, you are provided 3 hours of customer support.

All require good record keeping, and good training of your Customer Support Reps. Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[sleipnir214]

Make the first x minutes of a call free, then charge by the minute for all time after that.

I've found that a lot of a client's seemingly untenable problem suddenly become something he can either live with or deal with when he discovers he'll have to pay for the help.
______________________________________________________________________
TANSTAAFL!

 

[edfair]

Too many intangibles for hard and fast rules. I'll spend 5 to 10 minutes max. More than that, any I find that customers can't follow what they are doing and are probably going to screw it up anyway.
Unix stuff I'll spend an hour on the phone rather than make a trip, but it is billable either way. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[DonQuichote]

I had another nice situation. The company I worked for sold a program that could integrate with NetMeeting. It was used as one of the advantages of the program when it came to selling it.
But we refused to use it for support purposes. We rather drove for two hours to just reset a PC than solve things remotely in 5 minutes.
I think a first contact (by telephone, netmeeting or whatever) is a good means to judge whether you should send someone over or not.

Best regards

 

[Zarcom]

Where I work we include 5 hours tech support with the product after that any call is a min of 15 mins (in the books) and charged at a standard hourly rate. Everything is entered into a database which billing can then look at to send out bills at month end. That'l do donkey, that'l do
Mark

 

[garwain]

Part time, I work as a technician, and I'll usually try to solve problems over the phone, and will offer telephone support for free, but if I detect that the person is having trouble following the instructions, or I realize that I can't solve the problem over the phone (or it will take longer) I'll tell them that I will probably be able to get to their site in X time, and fix it for $x.xx. I get very few complaints about this system, and most of my clients are just happy to get their machines working again (or to have me show them how to open excel again)

 

[Zarcom]

Sometimes I feel bad about charging people for simple things like how to open excel or restoring a shortcut or a gazillion other simple tasks.

Then again Time is Money and Knowledge is Power That'l do donkey, that'l do
Mark