Customer support is at the core of Heart Internet and careful hiring, continual monitoring and regular feedback has always been crucial to our business. One question we get asked quite frequently is ‘Why do you offer ticket support?’ We’re always surprised by this because the instinctive short answer is, ‘Because it’s better than phone support’. For a more in-depth answer, read on…

No hanging around on hold

Web hosting is a highly technical industry, with thousands of internal and external factors in play at any one time. Everything from your ISP’s connection right down to the individual components of a server in one of our data centres is a factor in your website’s accessibility. Even problems which may seem simple on the surface can be incredibly complex, particularly as there are a range of advanced systems and networks involved.

Ticket support means you don’t have to wait around on hold whilst someone checks something or tries to find out the latest information on an issue. Instead, you’ll receive a detailed response as soon as there is something new to report, or a practical, human response on the cause and its resolution.

Fits in with your day (or night)

Our ticket system allows us to investigate any issues and questions whilst letting you carry on with your life as normal – you’re not stuck on hold or queuing. We respond to your ticket with any details we can provide and you pick up the answers and reply whenever suits you best. You don’t need to cancel plans or meetings, end up having to hang up halfway through a resolution or make an awkward switch from office landline to home phone – the info is waiting for you in your emails and account whenever you need to refer to it.

Easy-to-follow instructions

It’s much easier to follow step by step instructions when they’re written down, especially if they are lengthy or contain unfamiliar terms and acronyms. You don’t need to ask for something to be repeated or remember to write notes – our ticketing system means you have a complete, detailed step-by-step guide written for you that you can refer back to at any time.

It’s free for you

We don’t charge for ticket support, so you don’t have the cost of calling us or getting in touch. Whether you have one customer or thousands, it’s a fantastic way to save time and money.

Unlike a call centre, there is no ‘average handling time’, which means we aren’t trying to get you off the phone as quickly as possible. Instead, we look to solve any issues permanently based on a strong and effective communication system between different departments.

Optimum internal efficiency

One key feature of our support ticketing system is the ability for staff to add internal messages to customer tickets. This means that different departments can log queries and updates, paste in bits of code, and make comments to other staff members that don’t interfere with direct responses to you. Having all this information contained in the same place ensures that any staff member coming into the ticket is completely up to date with all the latest developments and progress made and knows who else is involved internally. All the information about the issue can be efficiently passed to the person/team directly responsible for working on it, rather than relying on word of mouth communication.

This also means that written confirmation is easy to obtain; it’s already integrated into the process. If we need to ask your permission for something, e.g. to log into your server, it can be asked via ticket with written proof on both sides that we’ve asked and you’ve agreed.

Better security

As you need to be logged into your account to raise a ticket, there’s an extra layer of security to protect your domain names and websites. This is especially important for resellers – your customers can’t make any changes without your permitted access to the account even if they can quote details of issues, domain names etc.

Access complete historical logs

It’s easy for you and all of our support team to browse the past communication you’ve had with us. This cuts down on the questions we need to ask and also means you can easily find out who you spoke to, when and what they said. If you need to revisit a past ticket to repeat particular troubleshooting steps or find out how we helped you resolve a problem that’s reoccurred, you can find the information you need easily. It’s all there for you to access as you wish.

Support tailored to you

Accessing prior communication means that our support team can tailor their responses to your needs. If you’re not technical, they can provide additional explanation and define terms. On the other hand, if you have a high level of understanding, you won’t feel like you’re being talked down to.

No need to repeat yourself

Written records of your contact with us means you don’t have to explain your issue repeatedly to different people – any support person has access to all past discussions and all the details they need in front of them. This also means you don’t need to remember who said what and when they said it.

Get the best person for the job

As tickets can be passed internally between staff members, you get support from the person best positioned to answer your query. Whilst all staff are fully trained on all our products, platforms and services, people naturally tend to specialise in one area or another, or have more experience in one area than another. Getting the best person for your specific query saves everyone time.

Fast, genuine responses

The biggest reasons that people are reluctant to choose a company with ticket support is because they think they’ll be fobbed off or given cut and paste robotic responses. That’s not true with us. All our support staff are human beings with human, hand-typed responses; as you’ll have probably seen, they’re not above the odd typo!

It’s easy for you to give feedback

Our ticket system has a built-in ratings feature so you can rate the support you receive on an individual, per-response basis. Feedback stats are sent out to everyone in the company on a weekly basis, and any low-scoring tickets are reviewed to see how responses could have been improved. Each week, the member of the support team with the highest average is rewarded for their efforts.

Effective collaboration in a focused environment

Every single member of the support team is based and trained in our UK offices, and we aim to respond to tickets in less than half an hour (in many cases tickets are raised and resolved within fifteen minutes from start to finish). Having everyone in one place means that it’s easy for staff to be kept up to date with the latest changes and developments in addition to creating a solid learning atmosphere and an environment that encourages questions and teamwork to provide effective resolutions.

We don’t cut corners with our support – the team is by far the biggest in the company and is on hand to answer your queries 24/7 every day of the year, with each member rewarded accordingly based on their feedback ratings from customers. We understand exactly how important support is to our customers, which is why it’s vital that our team has a strong, efficient system that works and that the vast majority of our customers prefer. That’s why we made the decision to focus our efforts on offering fast, helpful and free ticket support.