Personally, I would not be comfortable with a host taking more than 30 minutes to post their answer in a ticket.

What do you guys think about it?

I totally agree, from a customers point of view.
However, as a hosting providers point of view this can sometimes be difficult when you have to answer queries from customers in different timezones. For them it could be lunchtime, but for you it could be 3am. And you could be asleep?! That's when things get a little tough.

Interesting reading.

It really depends on the question though; if it's something straightforward, sure, shouldn't take long. But what if they are asking "why does script XYZ not run" and you go into the code, point out the issue to them, etc.? I've done that on a slow day and debugging can take a bit.

That is a very valid point.
I had a customer contact me once asking me how to install Dolphin social networking script on his website.
I managed to help him with the issue, but it took me some time (about an hour...which is longer than my normal service time). Simply because I had never heard of this script before. Well you learn something every day.

Nevertheless, you're quite right. It does depend on the issue.
It's best to say that your "average" response time is (response time here), rather than to say we "always" respond in (response time here).

The "normal" response would be different for different types of tickets. I.e. for sales/billing related ticket the response time is usually longer, as these departments are usually not staffed 24/7. For support/technical issues though response should be quick.
Especially if the problem is causing interruption of service for the user.

Agreed, if the site is down, that should be classified much more urgent than a billing question.

We leave the classification up to the individual requesting support, so some times they classify everything as "urgent", but, when we explain the difference between what should be considered "urgent" and what is not, then it works out allright.

Yes. Very true.
A live chat service would be best if people need urgent support.
It's also great for sales and pre sales queries.
In fact, it's great for everything.

Nice tips. A live chat shall be used for urgent support!

Yeah, I think everyone really nailed the 24 hours as a red flag. Great job with your other tips though.

Yes the 24 hours was a bit excessive.

Support really is key, we grew at rapid rates due to customers so happy with our support, we aim for 5 minute responses, most are in 3 minutes, no matter what time of the day or night it is, and the clients all back this up!

Now that was the key to our success aswel as a solid service of course

But agree with the thread, only don't agree with 24 hours, dam, if my server is down due to network issues and I don't get a response in 20 minutes, I am moving, end of!

Well response time to a ticket can be faxed with auto replies, initial response could be immediate and then the host can say well are inital response was within 5 minutes so that all goes out the windows with tickets. But actuall response of the issue being fixed, depending if the webhost is actually a server admin or just a owner with a fully managed server and has to wait on his host. Or he has 3rd party support.

I wanted to make a suggestion on the part of knowledgebase articles, etc...

People love to watch videos. There's a little bit of a learning curve for people using our control panel, so we've planned to make approximately 50 YouTube videos on how our control panel works and tutorials for things like "Adding FTP Accounts".

This is something that all hosts can do, and it's especially useful if you don't run something mainstream, but even mainstream control panels lack video tutorials that have been branded by the host.

Well it isn't auto replies and if it was it would be the exact time for every time, or within that exact time frame due to crons.

But when you get Staff members (selections of them) replying to tickets, it proves it is not automated, if it was, it would be a stupid reply.

It is normal to let them know you are checking the issue or to start the conversation with them, it depends what the ticket is about.
And yes, you get the idiots, let me forward this to admin, that is a good one to say it is 3rd party or a bunch of morons being paid just to speak.

That, I hate.