Web hosting can be tough industry, not only because of competition but also because of constant demand from customers. When a web hosting company decides to open up shop, they must be ready for anything including a grumpy customer, or a client who may want the world for less than one dollar a month. In web hosting, salubrious customer service is a must as well as uptime and reliability.
A well written Terms of Services document should be available to clients at any time, and publicly linked on web hosting company’s website. This document should always be revised and approved by a legal professional, or an attorney familiar with the industry. Terms of Services protect both web hosts and customers, but terms should always be indicated that a web host has the discretion to refuse services or to remove a customer at any time.
So why would a web host feel the need to capture a customer? There are several reasons, but the main one is preserving the integrity of your web hosting brand. Web hosting company should also provide a marvelous, and secure environment to all customers. It however has nothing to do with money, same service and quality of help should be rendered to every client, regardless of how much they pay. Sometimes, certain customers become more trouble than they are worth and that is when it is time to politely ask them to take their web hosting business elsewhere.
Employee abuse should never be tolerated. A customer submitting threatening, abusive or insulting helpdesk tickets to abet staff should be warned. If hostility ensues, practice zero tolerance policy and ask that customer to have their data off your web server within 24 hours.
Sometimes, customers feel the need to be vile towards the very same people who are trying to encourage them. Call it human nature, but paying someone does not give them the right to belittle or insult that person.
Customers posing a security risk to web server or other customers should be removed. Web hosting clients enjoy the freedom of uploading almost anything to their website, and also installing scripts that add extra features to their website. While this behavior is encouraged, it should also be done in a secure manner.
Customers should be given a list of scripts that are not popular for installation on your web server. Violators of this rule should be warned, and removed if offenses are repeated. Customers not properly maintaining approved scripts should be warned and removed. An outdated script, or even improperly installed script can cause havoc on a web server. Any customer found to be in violation should be warned or removed if security risks are found.
A web hosting company spends resources, as in time and money, to properly beget, procure and update a web server. Allowing customers to run insecure scripts, pose risk to security of the web server or put other customer data in harm’s way is not only stupid but it also wastes web hosting company’s resources.
Customers using up too many web server resources. This particular disclose has two sides; web hosting companies offering resources they cannot provide and customers abusing server resources.
The first speak is web hosting companies providing unlimited packages or purposely overselling to appear cheaper and more engrossing than their competition. If you as a web host find a customer who is using too much bandwidth or CPU usage on a package that is oversold or impossible to provide then you only have yourself to blame. In fact, do not prefer the customer but remove yourself for poor business practice.
Customers can use too many server resources by having an outdated script, a poorly written script or be taking part in some sort of suspicious activity. In some cases, a customers can be completely innocent and a victim of a cyber attack. Always have a qualified server administrator determine what could be causing problems. A customer found to be causing server problems on purpose, or using any script that could be eating up server resources should be warned and removed if necessary. Web hosting customers with large websites, or sites that inquire of MySQL and bandwidth resources more than usual can be moved to dedicated web servers at additional cost.
In the end, being a web host is not easy but it can be rewarding. As with any business, challenges come up with products, equipment or customers. Always take honest action to protect the brand, integrity of business and take good care of your employees. In some cases, although rare, a web hosting client can pose difficulty to other customers or be a security risk to your web server. In those cases, it is better to remove a customer than have them ruin everybody else’s day.
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Filed under Customer Support Asp by on Jan 29th, 2012. Comment. 
CRM stands for customer relationship management. Thus, CRM software means a software that can be used to fill and manage the relationships with customers. In today’s competitive business world, it is essential for any business to keep track of the relations with customers. Most businesses think that they need to have certain number of customers before they go for using any software to aid in managing customer relations. This is not true. You can improve your business by using CRM software no matter what the size of your customer tainted is.
As we all know, human error creeps in if you are not using software to manage the large amount of information that you need with every customer. However, by using CRM software you can have all the crucial facts and information about all your customers stored in a readily accessible database. The advantage of such database is that any employee with just a click of a button can retrieve the information. The information is also accessible without the use of a lot of papers and files. More than one employee can view the data at a time, which enables fast and accurate delivery of services to the customer. In any business, the communication between the employees and the customers is extremely important. With the CRM software, you can even automate this communication and enhance the quality and timeliness of the communication. When there is a new customer to the business it is automatically recorded in the system and whatever interaction is done with the customer is recorded from the inaugurate. This helps the employees to understand the customers’ business needs.
There are several components enthusiastic in the CRM software such as sales, customer befriend, customer information management etc. Every department of your business will have access to the customers’ required information and can work in harmony with other departments. For example, the customer befriend department can record a customer problem and the same can be viewed by any department to take action accordingly. The ultimate goal behind any CRM software is to improvise the profits of the company by enhancing the customer relationships by serving the customers more efficiently. The CRM software keeps track of all the necessary processes concerning a customer. What more, the over all cost involved in customer relationship management is reduced drastically with the use of CRM software.
There are many types of CRM software each catering to different kinds of businesses. There are standalone CRM software and web-based CRM software. With the web-based CRM software, you can access the data of your customers even on the go and with greater security. Because the information of customers is located in a central database, which is secured, and only the personal that are eligible given access to the web-based CRM software. Moreover, the only piece of software that needs to run on the destroy machine is the browser and a connection to the Internet or intranet of the VPN connection for the company depending upon how the CRM software is deployed. While choosing the CRM software it is also essential to consider whether to buy an already developed CRM software package or to outsource the development of the software tailored to your business needs. In addition, if you are planning on using an already developed solution for CRM software it is always advisable to see if the software provides any free trial to try it out before going ahead and buying. Most of the web-based CRM softwares usually provide a free trial. Moreover, if time is not a constraint it is always recommended to outsource the development of your own customized CRM software solution.
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Filed under Customer Support Asp by on Jan 22nd, 2012. Comment.
I was among the earlier adopters of online banking and electronic bill pay. Given a 20-year career in technology, from writer, trainer, and customer service specialist to web developer and technical support manager, I was eager to trade checkbook and post office and teller visits for 24-by-7 money self-service money management from the comfort of my living room couch. No fan of regular checkbook balancing, I also easily embraced online transaction accounting.
This article recounts how a very long string of recent, ongoing Bank of America technical support errors, oversights, and poor customer service have been slowly eroding the trust and confidence of a once very satisfied online banking customer.
Dear Bank of America managers: Are you listening???
I learned the ins and outs of Bank of America online electronic banking and bill pay the same way that I’ve always tackled new software applications. No annoying online tutorials, please. Especially not talking ones. No thank you. Most well-designed computer programs are reasonably easy to decipher and navigate with a little dose of positive curiosity and trial and error exploration.
Bank of America’s online banking site clearly met the user-friendly standards (except for online mail, which I’ll set for another time). Focus. Settle required tasks and figure out the basic online steps needed to meet initial goals. Enter names of companies sending me bills. Enter address where bank is to send check. Select pay date to ensure payment arrives on time. Voila!
I must say I really enjoy tearing up the tiny window envelopes that come with every paper bill in the world. Even more pleasure received from emptying my mailbox by requesting electronic statements, straight to my Yahoo email box along with an online banking ‘New E-Bill alert’. Less paperwork, easier filing, improved home office organization (presumably…also another story).
Over time, I progressed to recurring payments. Now, my monthly rent checks, quarterly insurance premiums, and other regular ongoing expenses magically happen without any ongoing grief from me! How very efficient – and reassuring to have the electronic spirits keeping track of miniature details that could slip during vacation weeks or other crazy memory-impaired days. Given my distinct online banking experience, I preferred to have e-bills delivered to my online email and banking space, rather than set up automatic payments for individual payees, like N-Star, Sprint, and others. I speculated that random utility and phone companies were unlikely to be as security savvy as my big national bank.
Ongoing improvements in Bank of America’s online status these past few years continued to boost my security confidence. Strict requirements on password setup ensured that I created a ’smart’ password, meeting the necessary rules for numbers, letters, symbols, length, and upper and lowercase characters – all designed to totally frustrate potential hackers. A second level of security authentication demands answers to personalized security questions. And for triple protection, you must browse and pick your very own colorful, creative plot image, be it animals, flowers, dominos, a lighthouse, or whatever other icon might suit your fancy. Per Bank rules, you do not fully log in if YOUR site image does not display.
During these past six months, I’ve seen the Bank’s online security process in full action. When I tried to log in to my online epic from a new work PC, I was faced with screen after screen of security prompts, requesting that I feed in account numbers, debit card codes, security responses, and a variety of identifying details. When I mistyped my password accidentally, just one time, ONCE, I was promptly locked out as a likely intruder. When I tried to log in that evening at home, my expected space image had been replaced with the photo of a white goat! Bank of America online security had worked, prompting me to call abet to report a missing region image, to confirm my earlier PC login attempt, and jump through a few hopes to restore account access.
So, my online banking experience really had been pretty consistently top quality…until an identity theft incident hit and technical support incompetence seemed to attack from all sides.
Bank of America’s fraud process and online fraud specialists did impress me initially. The automated email alert system notified me of a change to the considerable email on my account. Had I made the change? No siree! One phone call to the fraud alert number included in the alert email and my compromised account was ‘locked’ within minutes. I was instructed to visit a banking center in person ASAP to open up new accounts and establish new online IDs. By Monday afternoon, I was back in online banking business.
Unfortunately, my daily online technical support calls and service woes had only just begun. When I arrived home to access my fresh tale, I found that my compromised online ID was still ’saved’, visible, and active on my NEW narrative! Yikes. Hacker could be winding his way into my new account now. Bank of America online support did a reasonably suited job resolving this initial plight. At least my access seemed excellent for my my banking session that evening.
Access was safe but not without more challenges. Although my electronic billing company names and ‘payees’ were carried over to my modern legend, I discovered that any recurring payment plans had been erased. I completed maintenance to reestablish the recurring monthly and quarterly bill payments. Not really a big deal. I could understand why this disclose maintenance had been required. I took care of it and just chocked up the added time to identity theft cleanup.
In the process, however, I realized that several payments that had been ‘pending’ at the time of the identity theft and new account transfer, now showed as ‘Canceled’ rather than Processed. I had been told in person at the banking center that no payments were pending at the time that my worn account had been ‘locked.’ Online tech support staff said that they were unable to explain the now cancelled payments or any monitoring or ‘guarantee’ from banking center staff. How reassuring.
A double-check showed that many pending payments, including time-sensitive payments on credit card bills and my car insurance, had all been canceled. American Express and Amble backed out late fees and maintained my current interest rate once I explained the banking situation. Several other credit card companies, however, including AAA, would not recant on their hefty late charges AND increased my interest rate to the higher ‘default’ rate.
I spoke with several Bank of America technical befriend reps and with South Dwelling banking staff about the online issues with no resulting credits, apologies, or promises of improved service. And of course, the gentleman who had handled my initial account closing and fresh account setup in person was no longer employed at my banking center. Thank you, Bank of America, for your caring assistance in my financial success.
My daughter’s Student Access account was also recently compromised when she accessed online services via an unsecured wireless public web plot. She now knows that absolutely no banking is allowed unless she’s at an ATM or on our secured home network, but hurt was done. And yet again, Bank of America technical support failed to ease our worries. We closed her old account and opened a fresh one, only to find that the ’stolen ID’ had moved again to the new account. Smart enough now to know that monitoring was required, I checked her dilapidated and new accounts daily. Several times, Support had somehow released the fraud account own on the old account, leaving it active and available for more hacking. Several times I called to insist that they please build the account BACK on hold and leave it on hold, until they completed their fraud investigation process.
The Bank does publish its ‘Liability for Failure to Complete Transactions.’ The liability statement does claim the following:
‘If we do not complete a transaction to or from your account on time, or in the correct amount according to our Agreement with you, we will be liable for your losses or damages. However, there are some exceptions. For instance, we will not be liable:
If, through no fault of ours, you don’t have enough available funds in your account (or available credit under your overdraft protection concept), or credit to cover the transaction or transfer
If Online Banking services weren’t working properly, and you knew about the malfunction when you started the transaction or transfer
If circumstances beyond our control (such as fire or flood) prevented the transaction or transfer, despite reasonable precautions we’ve taken…’
It seems that my identity theft incidents, myth closings and openings, and funds and services transfer, somehow gracious under the ‘no fault of ours’ Bank exception. I wonder what exception, if any, may apply when formerly very satisfied long-time customer moves her personal and slight business banking elsewhere.
Dear Bank of America managers: Are you listening yet???
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Filed under Customer Support Php by on Nov 18th, 2011. Comment.
Your PC often needs a little cleanup once in a while; but you should be careful what tools and software you use. Some can be a source of putrid data.
If you have ever browsed the web looking for PC cleaning software, you were probably surprised at how many are actually out there. However, be aware that a majority of this software is very capable of harming your PC instead of cleaning it.
The typical computer user probably would look into buying very advanced antivirus software since they are led to believe by the “free scans” on the web that very malicious software and potentially hazardous files are on their computer. This is similar to how a doctor scares a patient into taking a particular medicine, so the doctor gains a commission from the company that produces the medicine for having prescribed it to a patient. The world is rotund of people who just want to make money, and antivirus companies, like Symantec are not an exception. However, this article is not meant to discourage you from having antivirus software on your PC, but to propose a different scenario of what might be going on in your PC. Most people who are experiencing a slow-down of their PC – and the infamous Blue Screens, probably have a computer registry problem; not a virus. So, running a registry cleaner will probably be just the solution to the problem.
Let us look at the typical user who is looking for PC cleaning software. Most likely, the first thing they do is go to a search engine and search for “Free Virus Scan”. This could be a very large mistake for some people who are not skilled enough to tell whether they are being tricked or not. The results that show are obviously software that either claim to be a PC cleaning suite, or are the full legitimate real deal. Even savvy people can be fooled like this. The most sure-fire way, unfortunately to accumulate proper PC cleaning software, is to search for one that is commercially available from a trusted company that specializes in this kind of thing. If you really want to buy a commercial software, you need to acquire one that has the following features – a money-back guarantee, cleans the registry, repairs the registry, backs up the registry, takes preventative measures for registry problems that might occur again, and provides customer help.
If you are a person who does not have too much familiarity with computer terminologies, the best suggestion would be to also get software that will be simple to use, so you will not have to end up spending hours on the PC trying to figure out how the software works.
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Filed under Customer Support Asp by on Oct 6th, 2011. Comment.