At a loss

[JPC-Greg]

We don't post those but she is right, ever since I've been saying it there have been improvements month over month. Are there individual servers that get set back due to some failure , sure. But as a whole response times are improved, live phone and chat introduced, client ticket feedback ratings are improving. Things are definitely better now than they were a few years ago. I'm not sure what benchmarks or things are being tied to 5 yrs ago.

We're still constantly hiring and training. We still need to reduce the escalations taking place and swap more L1 techs for higher level techs. Therein lies a problem many hosts face. L3's dont want to be answering trivial tickets all day, nor should they, and L1's can't do much more than answer trivial tickets all day. Our next move may be to just drop Levels of support, have one support group of mostly former L2's , and one admin level of former L3's . Also opening a headquarters with more onsite personnel and less remote may help management and training.

Katrina has been a big help in recent months to help gather more metrics from staff and clients so we can make more informed decisions. This is growing pains as we break through new levels. I've been seeking more consulting and other business mentors to help us manage the growth.

Thank you, to everyone that has stuck with us and continued to send friends and family our way.

I'll look into adding some client side stats in our dashboard that show some avg response times for tickets, chats, phone and maybe avg ticket feedbacks. This will probably just shock most people when they see most responses are fast and get 5's on feedback. I expect a few people here to just call bs on it.

[Frank Broughton]

That has got to be the most bone headed statements ever to grace these forums

I disagree, I have not used support on my server for well over a year! maybe longer.... and on one server I have had I have NEVER needed support.

[Frank Broughton]

Also opening a headquarters with more onsite personnel and less remote may help management and training.

THAT IS THE KEY! (yeppers I yelled that). The L1's can powwow with 2 & 3's and LEARN FASTER! That would be a big move towards better support.

[JPC-Les]

I disagree, I have not used support on my server for well over a year! maybe longer.... and on one server I have had I have NEVER needed support.

We've got a diverse group of clients with varying skill-sets. Many do solve their own issues that crop up. Some have the skills but don't have root access so they have no recourse but to use support.

[Ron]

We've got a diverse group of clients with varying skill-sets. Many do solve their own issues that crop up. Some have the skills but don't have root access so they have no recourse but to use support.

I would probably fit somewhere in between. Some skills, no root access. But most importantly, no desire to become a systems administrator.

I don't wanna have to learn about every technical aspect of running a server so I can have a website up and running. I just don't care how logical volumes are created on this version of whatever RAID and volume manager and OS I'm on. I don't wanna know how to configure whatever firewalls they're running or what drop lists they may or may not be using or using or how to configure mod_security rules, or any of that. I've done similar before and it's not where my interests lay. I do know or learn the minimum of what I have to learn to accomplish my needs and that's all I wanna get involved in.

If I wanted to run a server as a hobby, I'd get a raw VPS or bargain bin server colocated, or get 200 Mbps FiOS business service and stick a couple under my desk next to a UPS device. But I don't want this as a hobby.

I run a website with information, not hardware.

[Gwaihir]

The thing is why do people need support? Do it yourself!

Ehm.. yeah.. just about any ticket I've put in for years has been either a server wide or JagPC wide issue. Nothing one can do himself but point it out (I am on shared).

Nowadays that means the issues are usually not something lvl1 (or 2) can handle, yet they seem way to set on not escalating it. So my tickets tend to be a battle to get past lvl 1, without getting shoved off and without my site taking a hit. (As whatever it is, lvl 1 will try to "fix" it by changing something on my account .)