support / out of office cover for sole traders

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achieve

New Member
I wonder if there are sole traders out there in the area of web design, who would be interested in setting up a small pool, which could cover support issues for others owners when they are away?
 
K

Kieran

Guest
Excellent idea. PM me if and when you have ideas. You could set up a website purely for handling the support emails during this time and route the out of office to it then.

Good thinking !
 

Byron

New Member
I don't mind handling work on the basis of when I'm around I can answer emails / calls from other people, and vise versa, and just bill for the support offered.

i suppose the things to think about are:

1. Skill levels required / usual problems which might occur.

2. Access to ftp / accounts information.

3. Finding a common rate per hour for support

.... maybe a bit of a challenge???
 

achieve

New Member
Ahhh, just wrote a big long post, only to be timed out and have to start again!

Will leave the PM's for the moment. I have previously used somebody for just this situation, and thankfully everything has worked out fine. And he had the whole range
of support issues to deal with, from minor username / password issues, to having to deal with a total server crash and restore! My support guy didn't actaully have to carry out the
restore but did need to co-ordinate a few different backup procedures, and he did a brilliant job in this disaster situation. My pastime means that sometimes I am
completely out of contact for days / weeks - simply cannot be contacted, so I realise that this is a bit "out of the normal".

It is very rare that disaster strikes, but it can, and knowing that you have a a solid support solution in place gives great peace of mind. Most of the time I have had
this 3rd party support in place it wasn't required, so I suppose it's almost like having an insurance policy.

I agree with Byron in that,

1. Skill levels required / usual problems which might occur.
2. Access to ftp / accounts information.
3. Finding a common rate per hour for support

would all need to be considered. Additionally there would be a great deal of trust involved. In saying that, I'm not sure if a group situation would be the way to go,
or whether 2 individuals would just come to an arrangement between themselves.
 

mneylon

Administrator
Staff member
You'd need to be very very careful

Who will have access to FTP / control panels etc?

Are all computers secure?

What about conflicts of interest?

Confidentiality?
 

achieve

New Member
You'd need to be very very careful

Who will have access to FTP / control panels etc?

Are all computers secure?

What about conflicts of interest?

Confidentiality?

Those are all very valid points. Which leads me more to lean towards an arrangement between two sole traders rather than a "support group".
 
Yeah while I think the group thing has its merits I think the bigger issue of confidentiality, how your existing clients might respond to the varying levels of support etc etc all stack up to push things more in the direction of having 1 or 2 solid individuals set as backup.
 

link8r

New Member
-Or- if you create a vetted community approach and push the model to a sort of support-Elance site, whereby the client can raise a private ticket and receive profiles from people who are currently set as "Online" and then the customer can discuss the issue and nature of the project with the proposed vendor and supply account details as needs be and then the encumbant vendor can reset them the following day, you'd push the responsibility/security to relationship development.

(thinking further) many web companies have a host of sub-contractors and rarely rely on 1 key person in each area, and I've no idea why more website owners don't develop the same strategy.
 
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