Anyone here use a hired support staff?

Any of you have a hired support staff?
I'm thinking about hiring one as I'm not available all day at times.
Competitors hav elive chat and live phone support, so I'm going to need it as well.
If so who do you use? Don't really like the feeling of living support in the hands of someone probably doesn't care too much about my business.

Allow them revenue share/commission - that way they will have vested interest in your business and produce better service = more sales

you need to have a rev-share kind of thing going for the support/sales people so that they really give it a push for better support and sales.

jxiong2012 said:

Allow them revenue share/commission - that way they will have vested interest in your business and produce better service = more sales

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Yaaaaa, nah .
Okay, maybe it's not a terrible idea. But I'm trying to find cheap options lol.

You won't sacrifice a few bucks a day for a support staff that actually cares? I'm not saying giving them an equity stake in your business...just like perhaps .05% commission on sales that they are clocked in for

jon_xx_x said:

Yaaaaa, nah .
Okay, maybe it's not a terrible idea. But I'm trying to find cheap options lol.

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may be you can hire a support manager and let him handle the support team and get the support manager motivated.

Hiring a support manager will cost way more than just motivating the base level workers. If you study successful companies in recent history: Costco, Whole Foods, Publix, etc. you'll see that revenue share really results in motivated and caring workers. If you're paying an employee dirt cheap wages they will not give a damn about your business and will take the easiest route to complete their job without being fired. This is not using your employees to their full potential. By giving revenue sharing, their performance will be reflected in their paycheck. The people that are staffing these positions are most likely not very well off so even a few dollars a day will most likely motivate them to give it their all.

OP is looking for cheap solutions - but you get what you pay for and if you hire cheap people, you will most definately get cheap service

I want the BEST, I don't care what it costs, as long as it's cheap and I don't have to spend anything extra.

oh...wait

hire a VA for monthly salary. There'd be people interested if you open a thread in the hire a freelancer section

jxiong2012 said:

Hiring a support manager will cost way more than just motivating the base level workers. If you study successful companies in recent history: Costco, Whole Foods, Publix, etc. you'll see that revenue share really results in motivated and caring workers. If you're paying an employee dirt cheap wages they will not give a damn about your business and will take the easiest route to complete their job without being fired. This is not using your employees to their full potential. By giving revenue sharing, their performance will be reflected in their paycheck. The people that are staffing these positions are most likely not very well off so even a few dollars a day will most likely motivate them to give it their all.

OP is looking for cheap solutions - but you get what you pay for and if you hire cheap people, you will most definately get cheap service

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My main concern is that it's going to be for a new site, so traffic is going to be really low. I'm fine with commissions, but I don't want to be paying them decent money when they only get the odd call/chat. The main point of my thread was to see if anyone had any experience or recommendations for hiring a support staff though.

InnovativeSEO said:

I want the BEST, I don't care what it costs, as long as it's cheap and I don't have to spend anything extra.

oh...wait

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Who said I want the best? I just said I don't want someone who doesn't give two shits.
The whole point of the thread was looking for recommendations of who to use.

You don't have to give a % of your business away for a support staff. What in the world are you guys talking about.

Advice: No one is going to care that much about your business than yourself.

BUT! You can motivate your employees to give a shit about your business with other methods than giving a % of your business away.

I would suggest reading "How to win friends and influence people" by Dale Carnegie. It will give you a deep enough understanding to how you can treat your employees right that they will be motivated to give a shit about your business.

+ creating a document or process list for your support staff will be very helpful to get them started.
e.g: if question is about x -> this is the answer & if its not forward them to you.

Hiring is a tough process but when you get the right employees and treat them right, they will give a shit about your business.

If you can provide them a manual for the script, you can shop around for a call center that uses US-based employees. That's cheap but still a lot better service than getting your man in India or an answering machine. (Assuming the volume is low. These employees handle multiple companies.)