> In message <39C20531.14216.636C9EBB@localhost>, "Thomas Michael Wanka" writes:
> 
> >
> >Most ISPs seem 
> >not to spend money for customer support.
> 
> In fact, customer support is one of the biggest expenses for just about 
> every ISP.  It's not that they don't want to provide good support; it's 
> that they can't afford to.  (Why?  Well, think about how much money you 
> would want to answer questions that are (a) generally about Windows and 
> its misfeatures, and (b) often asked by folks whose clue bit is 
> hard-wired to 0.)
> 

I run an small ISP with nothing but NetBSD boxes.  I'm also an
electronics engineer with an MBA.

My experience is that it simply isn't possible to provide good tech
support at an economical cost.  They are simply cost prohibitive.
The average TS person costs 15 cents a minute (regardless of whether
they are on the phone or wasting bandwidth on IRC).  If we assume
a 50% utilization rate (which would be a major miracle), the average
tech support call set ends up costing about $15.  When the systems
are all working and everything is terrific, we usually end up with
about 10% utilization on the customer support staff.  Because of
the utilization, the call ends up costing me $50 (because I have
to allocate the average dead time between calls to some cost center,
and active help desk calls are the only one that makes sense).
The customer that we just helped generates about $2 a month to the
bottom line.  We will have recovered the cost of that call in about
eight months to two years.

Remember, they can't get involved in anything really technically
chanllenging, since they need to be able to drop whatver it is they
are doing to help the customers.

My expense curve is 35% communications and other 'fixed' expenses
and 65% customer support.  If I add another tech support person,
I have to increase revenue to match his salary.   I don't know
about you, but our expenses for tech support person, regardless of
talent, starts at $25,000 a year.  That's 200 new dial-ups.  With
the bundling of telephone and internet services that the local 
phone company claims they aren't doing, it's practically impossible
to compete.

If the tech support people are any good at all, they'll be gone in
3-6 months.  Of course, they'll take my tech support notes with
them, so not only do I lose the asset, I lose whatever advantage
I used to have over the other ISPs in town because they don't have
to do all the research to solve the problems - they just hire my
guys.

Sorry - you guys struck a nerve that's just a little raw.  We are
down to two part time TS guys - one of them is our primary sales
generator.  He can either do tech support or generate sales.  The
other guy works strictly after hours.  Between them, they add up to
one trained TS guy, and I'm pulling my hair out.

I'll be quiet now.

Dave Burgess