Importance Of Technical Support For Net Projects

An efficient web hosting service is one that can provide good technical support on a daily basis. This doesn’t just stop at hardware and software but also to other issues related to domain names such as integration with payment gateways, acquirement of SSL certificates, advice on newsletter software or RSS feeds.

Regrettably, very few of these web hosting services exist. Most of them only make tall claims but don’t actually invest enough on equipment and competent support staff. Some aren’t even hosting companies but just plain resellers, although they make huge promises. So it’s up to the webmaster to make the right choices.

The web master must make a sincere effort to find out how competent the technical and support staff employed by a web host are, because it is this staff that you will have to call, if there is anything faulty with your web site.

Hosting services are often quite happy to provide technical back-up 24 hours a day in their operation centers. Nevertheless, the truth is that most of them make a great effort to find staff trained in operating systems as well as network technology. Some companies however spend more on advertising and marketing than they do on customer support.

That is why you should try to call up customer support and enquire on their basic routines of maintenance, availability, training, certification, years of experience, years of working with the service provider, etc. Try to establish what their level of expertise is through asking pointed, technical questions about their skills as well as the hardware and software which is used in their offices.

You can also ask the support staff where you can find them and where the office of the hosting service provider is. You can also directly enquire to find out if the staff is employed by the host or if he is working on a contract. This will contribute to help you find out if the customer support services have been outsourced or not. If the customer support technicians tend to very often put you on hold, this might show that their presence is only to convey service requests to others.

Usually, a hosting service can give you a hard copy of its technical back-up documentation. It might also enable you to download a PDF file with all the relevant details presented in a style which is highly professional. But don’t let such documents mislead you. Make sure you do your own research first before you sign on the dotted line. Remember that you need some good technical support to succeed in your endeavours.


Michael Beattie is contributing editor at WebDesignArticles.net. This article may be reproduced provided that its complete content, links and author byline are kept intact and unchanged. No additional links permitted. Hyperlinks and/or URLs must remain both human clickable and search engine spiderable.