OK so we all know about 24/7 support - some of us have it and some don't - but does anyone have or think they might eventually need 24/7 sales?

Cheers

24/7 email - yes (email support@agccworld.co.uk @ 1AM and hopefully you will get a reply )

phone/ fax and all that jazz - hell no

Well my customers seem to think i do 24/7 anyway as if they email me in the early hours im usually still online, as nearly all are in the UK they are asleep after that anyway LOL.
I think that if we moved more into the US and asia etc 24/7 sales may be a possibility as they will be emailing at all hours and if you have a policy of setting up new accounts in say 2 hours, someone will need to be available

We do 24/7 support, and probably 20 / 7 sales (there are just a few hours that aren't overlapped when we have just a tech guy on); its an investment setting it up, but it is definately worth it.

Matt

Matt what percentage of your sales would you say you get during non 9-5 hours?

We're interested in obtaining 24x7 support AND sales. However, we possibly not impliment this until mid october as our clients are ok with things :-)

For some strange reason ive got quite a few customers "after hours" when someone is on human click.
About a month back I spoke to a guy on HC at about 1AM and the cheque came in the post the day after - and he wasnt in annother time zone, somewhere up north if I recall.

Sorry - missed this post.

To be honest we don't have a "normal" time when we receive enquiries. We get them throughout the night and throughout the day....

Matt

We run sales live on line from 9-midnight m-f
het a lot of hits at night mostly because of US based operations

Am starting to do 24/7 sale now

<< OK so we all know about 24/7 support - some of us have it and some don't - but does anyone have or think they might eventually need 24/7 sales? >>


According to our clients and people who have contacted us for
sales and then become clients, they all think we do 24/7 or about
there - which unfortunately for them is totally not the case.

We are on a lot to respond to sales, but certainly not 24/7 - more
like 18/7, but the seven days a week is certainly true. Just on the
14th of July, here it is a public holiday - but still we had reps
on-line and ready to answer any sales or support questions that
came in, and yes a many did come in.

Hi - been a while since I last saw this thread heh.

Since I last posted - We still run 24/7 email support but shut down live chat at around 2am (GMT), The office mailserver has become a fair bit more active during the night now too, mainly as we have taken on more U.S clients who obv are 8 hours behind.
Having someone up around the night is also conforting as they can keep an eye on the network and see an issue way before anyone at the dc does, like last time we had a issue (sometime back in may iirc), a router had developed a problem overnight and we were able to get the duty engineer of his ass to do something about it - and prob wouldnt have noticed it for another 5 mins.

I offer a 24/7 live support. And my clients love that also

Hello pals,
We provide live chat support 24/7(flexible to budget and requirements)

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Just to add, many of the companies that I have worked for have 24/7 support. Also, many of the smaller hosts that have dedicated servers through one of the companies I've worked for had a simple way of providing 24/7 support.

Basaiclly, they rely on the fact that it isn't something that most of their customers will use. What they did is included in their welcome e-mails a statement to the effect that they would appreciate it if customers would follow this type of escalation procedure for their questions:

1) Use the "self-help" resources that are provided (FAQ/KB/Tutorials/etc)
2) If that fails, to try asking in the forums
3) If that fails, to open a TT
4) If all else fails or its an important issue to call their toll free number
(again I'd have to recomend uReach.com for this service)

Basaiclly, they simply have the phone number routed to their cell phone which they leave on 24/7 and get awakened maby once every other week or so (if that). Providing it is much better than not - in fact, many have mentioned to me (as we resell uReach service) that they almost never receive tech support issues and simply get new customers "testing" whether or not it is actually 24/7 support.

Another possibility is an advanced phone system that redirects calls based on time of day - and they simply have a few friends with cell phones that work out a scheudle (helps if a few of them work a night/overnight shift at their day jobs).

A final possibility is to have an answering service (as opposed to voice mail) - that way, the customer has the impression of talking to someone, being able to vent and give their issue - and is simply told that we will look into the issue and get back to them once a resolution has been researched & tested (its little things like that one can use to give customers the impression that its 24/7 - even though you might not get the message until you wake up several hours later - but customers seem to like it).

Hope thats helpful....