Customer Support

Customer support is the core of almost every business. It is through this process that customers and clients are won and retained. But what exactly is it, and how can effective use help your company grow? Read on to find out.

Customer support 101

Customer support refers to the processes that involve the development and delivery of customer support services that include installing, configuring, troubleshooting, assisting and training to meet customer requirements.

The best gauge of the effectiveness of your company’s customer support is the interaction between your employees and your customers. Are your employees wiling to lend after-sales support to your clients, even when you do not require them to? Do you have manpower devoted solely to making sure that your customers are served well after they have bought your services or products?

Some ideas

Remember that your employees act based on the examples you set – putting up posters or ordering your employees to be friendlier to your clients is never enough. You must lead by example.

You must also make customer support a keystone in the recruitment and dismissal of employees. Ask your supervisors to rate your employees on their customer support performance, and reward those who show exemplary customer support.

You should always measure your company’s level of customer support with that of your competitors. Observe their techniques to see what works and what does not. How do you ‘spy’ on them? Pretend to be a customer – email their online support, or call their toll-free number and see how well they help you. Never attempt to implement any customer support system without benchmarking. Customer support is not a cheap venture – so you need to carefully plan out what you need to do and what customer issues your methods will address.

Remember that customer support is the face of your company. It can make or break your company’s reputation. A well-developed customer support system can go a long way.

Customer Support provides detailed information on Customer Support, Customer Support Software, Live Customer Support, Customer Support Services Call Centers and more. Customer Support is affiliated with CRM Call Center Solutions.

How to Assess a Web Hosting Company's Customer Support

One of the key characteristics of a good web hosting company is 24x7 technical support. This support shouldn't be limited to hardware and software issues but also things such as integration with payment gateways, installation of SSL certificates, help with extra features like autoresponders and RSS feeds, etc.

Unfortunately, the technical support at most web hosting companies is not up to the necessary standard. Many of them make big claims but they often don't invest enough in their support staff and systems.

Some hosts aren't even really hosting companies - they're resellers who are essentially a middleman between you and the company on whose servers your site is actually hosted. These resellers have to take your issues to the hosting company when something goes wrong - adding to the time it takes for a resolution.

Before you choose a web host, you should put in a little effort to assess the quality and competence of the host's technical support staff. If something goes wrong with your website, it's these people you'll be dealing with.

What You Should Be Checking

Call their customer support and inquire about the host's maintenance routines and availability, as well the support person's professional certification, years of experience, years working with the host, etc.

Even if you aren't very technical yourself, you'll get a good feel for the quality of the staff by asking a few questions. The way they answer your questions is as important as the actual answer they give.

Ask the person you're speaking with where they're located as well as the location of the web hosting company. The support staff are often in a different location than the host, and this can sometimes lead to additional time when there is a problem that needs to be resolved. They can't just walk down the hall and talk to a network admin.

You can also ask if the support staff are working for the host directly or if they're hired on a contract basis. If they are on contract, it can be a sign that the technical support is outsourced instead of handled in-house.

If you are put on hold a lot by the support person, it could be an indication that they either don't have enough support staff or the "first line" people are not well trained and have to look to a higher level for answers to difficult questions.

Make sure you do your research before deciding on a host. If your website goes down in the middle of an important event, you want to know that you can talk to someone who can get you back up and running sooner rather than later.

John Lenaghan writes about web page hosting for personal and business sites, and other website hosting topics on the Hosting Report website. Find out more at http://www.hostingreport.org.

How to Accurately Measure the Customer Support Level of Your Small Business Web Hosting Provider

If all things being equal, we would rate customer support as our most important determining factor in choosing a web hosting provider. Relying on testimonials found on the provider's site is the most common approach to assess a company's level of customer excellence but it is also quite an outdated one. Afterall it's not uncommon for some providers to fake the testimonials. Instead we suggest you follow our way of intelligently assessing its customer support.

Customer-Employee Ratio - Sizing its level of customer support is sometimes as easy as finding out whether they have enough employees to support their level of business growth. An easy way to do so is to look at the customer to employee ratio, CE ratio, as a benchmark.

For example, according to our records Sitesell has approximately 15,000 customers and employs about 30 support staff, it has a CE ratio of 500 (15,000/30 = 500), you can expect a much higher level of customer satisfaction and a faster response time when compared to another provider who is serving 100,000 customers but only have 75 support staff. Their CE ratio would stand at approximately 1,333. Basically you should look for a professional hosting provider with a low CE ratio.

Number of Telephone Lines - Check to see if there is a separate line for sales, billing and technical support. We hate companies who use only 1 line to serve everyone. Either it is a company with very limited resource or it's immediate priority is simply not their existing customers but new customers.

An Active Forum - The real condition of a web hosting company's customer support is really found in its members forum if any. You will get a good dose of complains and praises but if the complains outnumber the compliments, it's time to raise a red flag. Forum is possibly the most effective way for you to get as close as you can to knowing a company's strength and weakness without committing to any contract with them.

Cynthia is the webmaster of Small-Business-Web-Hosting-Guide.com, you can discover even more but often overlooked ways to determine which is the right web hosting provider for your small business by subscribing to her free web hosting newsletter for all small business owners.

Customer Support for Web-Hosting Newbies

Webhosting is a highly competitive field where only those who provide quality service succeed . Quality support increases customer retention which is as important as new customer acquisition.

There is no hard and fast rule on how to provide support. However for a startup webhosting company, its better to be aware of the options available. This article would show how effectively support can be provided with the limited resources available. Many of the ideas and points in this article would help all those who are presently stuck up running their businesses from their homes to foray into this business in a organized way and make it big.

While deciding on how to provide the support, the same rules don't apply everywhere. Larger hosting companies should be handled differently from smaller hosts. If you are a newbie ask yourself the following questions.

1) How many hours can you spend daily for providing support ?
2) What is the level of technical skill you have ?
3) What is your support budget?
4) Are your clients more technically proficient than you are?
5) What are the technical services you would like to provide ?
 

The answers to the above question will help in deciding what support system is to be used . Lets see how the answers to each question would influence the plan.

1) How many hours can you spend daily, for providing support?

A proper customer system can give you more time to spend on other departments like marketing and sales. So when you are designing the customer support system, you should decide on how much time you should be spending on providing support.

What happens if there is not much time available for support? For a startup company, spending just 3-4 hrs ( not necessarily in one go ), would be more than enough. Since there would be only few support queries coming in, it wouldn't be difficult to handle all queries . But here instead of concentrating on replying to each email or phone call, start building a solid self help options for customers . Build a knowledge base and also provide tutorials . A new hosting company with a well laid out tutorials and walk-throughs gives a better impression to the clients. It has been observed that, there is a 60% reduction in the number of support queries coming in, once the above tools are provided.
 

What's advised is, instead of trying for a 24x7 support system running, concentrate on providing self-help-support for customers. A customer would appreciate a site that says "Customer Support from 9am to 5pm" along with self-help support documentation rather than going for the more expensive 24/7 support when your business is small. With competitive pricing this would paint the company to be one run by a professional rather than a newbie.

2) What is your technical capability?

Many startup companies are run by a single owner who juggles the roles of sales, support and billing person by himself. Support is one department where his technical skills would be tested daily . Single owners who are not technically ready, would end up losing more money and time which otherwise could have been used effectively for growth of the company.

There was this owner of a company who was brilliant in marketing and sales .Since he was not a tech guy, he used to spent time googling to find solutions for the support queries from his users . However the support tickets took a long time for getting responses . Due to his customer relation skills, he was able to hang on for some time, but soon clients started leaving . Even after 2 years in the industry, he is still owns a single server, while others have moved ahead. Funny fact, is he is still not ready to accept the fact that his tech skills are not good enough.

The support determines the customer retention factor, which is deciding factor for the company's growth . Hence it should not be neglected . Its okay to try your luck with 50 or so clients at hand . But once your client base grows over 100, get a proper system running . If you are not familiar with systems involved, contact any outsourced tech support company and get a single tech from there to get the system ready . You just need a dedicated tech for 12 hours to install the system for you . Make sure that you get the following services done by the tech.

1) Ticketing System / Help desk installed
2) Backup procedure installed ( if not available already )
3) Customer Contact Form in your site installed.
4) Security auditing of your server.
 

All of this will cost you very little. Once done, you can start providing quality support for your customers. Remember to get the tech from a good company, as there are many out there . A few are Bobcares, Touchsupport ( Don't forget to checkout the testimonials of their customers before coming to a decision ).
 

There are a lot of newbies, who would like to take care of their customers themselves. Problem is most of the issues that can be solved by an experienced person in 10 minutes will take an hour or more for a non-technical person. This will leave a bad impression for a startup hosting company.

If you are technically good, then have an email-based customer support. That'll help archive all communication, and also give time to think twice before providing response. As a startup company, its always safe to read through what you are responding before sending it. The problem with chat/phone is that your knowledge level gets thrown open in front of the customer. A single mistake in the response can bring in bad reputation.

3) What is your support budget ?

Like in any industry, the amount invested can make a major difference in webhosting too . Just in the support department, there are a lot of things that could be done if there is a lot of money at your disposal.

Having a telephone support is the best option. Clients could be handled better over phone, than through any other media. Nothing can beat the personal touch a telephone conversation can provide. On the negative side, you'll have to prepare for understanding all kinds of pronunciation and slangs. This could become more difficult customers are from different parts of the world. Also be aware that phones have to be attended even if you are vacationing with your girlfriend on a lovely beach.

With more money, you can setup a nice informative site and tutorials. Having flash based Howtos can be of real help for the users. Further having a professional looking tutorial will make customers at ease with the services. Also spend money once in a while to get the servers audited for security and resource management. Many outsourcing companies like Bobcares provides this service at low rates of $12/hr.

Also take advantage of the systems like Alertra, Web Site Monitoring system. They can alert you to your Mobile phone or PDA as soon as a support ticket is submitted or the server load goes high. It can save a lot of working time, and since the ticket notifications are alarmed instantly, prompt service can also be ensured.

4) Are your clients more technically proficient than you are ?

A good businessman will know who the future customers are going to be . Market study prior to starting of business, is needed in webhosting too . Decide whether the services are to be offered to hosting novices or power-users . Knowing your customers well can really help in providing efficient support.

 

Hosting novices prefer to go to the companies charging very less . Their requirements are very less, and the sites would consist mostly of static HTML pages . These are people who'll be asking questions on everything under the sun especially startup questions like "how can I upload files" . Just keep a really good knowledge base, and most of the issues will get resolved there. Newbies prefer to go through tutorials than asking questions . Give phone numbers to clients on need-to-know basis. Together these services would give a newbie a homely feeling. But its not suggested to have a user-forum in this situation. There was this company that setup user-forum, but ended up getting bashed on daily basis for no fault of theirs. Newbies are more worrisome people. hence its best to keep them separated .

Power-users are those who use a lot of resources and services ( SSH, CGI, ASP, Java, Coldfusion ..etc ), . They make the best use out of the resources available, but at the same time are experienced and often patient . In case the power-users are being targeted, get a geek ready. Otherwise lot of time would be spent on googling than answering the support queries . A tech guy who is experienced on the services provided will make life easy .

Another benefit of this market is that you'll have a pool of skilled users . Just get a user forum running, and that'll relieve you from most of the support job. The users would be able to help each other here. Many established companies have a well kept user-forum that acts as a support system. However keep a watch on the forum, to avoid getting back-bitten, though that wont take up much time on daily basis . Phone & chat support can be avoided here. Users would prefer to have an efficient email based ticketing systems like Cerebrus HelpDesk or kayako.

5) What are the technical services provided ?

A hosting company would use a lot of softwares and hardwares that are technically complicated . This includes Control Panels, Server's Operating System, Coldfusion, Java, ASP .. etc . Selection of the services that are to be offered will influence the support department too .

Technology changes fast, and its normal to be forced to update the softwares and servers quiet often. But a frequent change and upgrade can cause lot of downtime . Users would also get agitated over it . There would be a rain of support queries after an upgrade or change . If a control panel like CPanel is being used, which updates every fortnight, you would have to be on the toes all the time. Be selective on the services, and prefer using softwares that requires minimum changes . Plesk, another control panel, is a good example for it . Once installed plesk would not require a change very often, which means less support queries.

Further, for a starter its better to start with limited services . This will help in getting a solid support base, and as the company grows keep adding new services. Also update tutorials, and problem solvers as new services are added.

Support is just not about responding to customers, it includes how support is provided. Having a complete support system running, with a professional touch added to it, will make a great impression on customers . Add to it a competitively priced packages and then there will be nothing that can stop this mushroom from growing into a tree.
 

Sojish Krishnan is a freelance author and is currently emplyoyed by http://bobcares.com . He can be reached at sojish@sojish.com

Providing Excellent Customer Support on a Small Budget

An integral part of any successful e-commerce website is an effective customer support solution. Your online business must be able to quickly respond to inquiries from potential clients and from existing clients, and then be able to address those inquiries accurately and efficiently.

There is no other area of an e-commerce website that is as important as customer service and support. If your online business fails to address this one issue, your business is nearly doomed to failure.

Small business owners usually rely on a simple email address or a contact form on their website to direct inquiries. The reasons for this choice are obvious.

Most small businesses are one person operations. There is seldom any need to provide anything more elaborate provided there is only one person handling all communications.

In the event that the site is being managed by only one person, it is recommended that you provide your customers a simple contact form attached to a simple contact script which can be found for free in numerous places online. A good starting point is: http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Programs_and_Scripts/Perl/

This is the recommended method because spammers ruthlessly use email harvesting software to gather email addresses from websites for their spam games. If your real contact email address is hidden inside of a CGI script, then the spam harvesters cannot find your address, thus protecting your email address from large amounts of spam email.

Anyone who is operating a website for profit and has no intention of ever expanding his/her business beyond current levels should not worry too much about expanding beyond a simple CGI contact script to run their customer service and support.

However, if you find yourself growing to the point of needing something better, then please keep reading.

Small business people often find themselves in the mode of needing to add extra support staff, but still being small enough to not be able to yet afford a customized support software solution.

Software driven help desks can be an expensive proposition. WonderDesk is a decent application to serve this market, but starting at $499 and going up to $8499, it can be a really expensive solution.

http://www.wonderdesk.com

Facing costs like this, many small businesses choose to try bringing on extra staff and trying to manage incoming messages through various POP email accounts.

While this method remains the cheapest solution, it is not always the most efficient. Think about this.

If you have email going to Bob and to Steve --- in a theoretical scenario --- and you have Bob handling sales and Steve handling support, all would seem well.

But what if Bob finds himself extremely ill and unable to work? What then? Now you are stuck with the very real possibility of sales inquiries not being handled until Bob can return to work. So the way to handle this becomes making sure that everyone has access to the accounts that handle sales inquiries and support inquiries. So, you make arrangements for both Bob and Steve to be able to get the email from the POP accounts.

Of course, this introduces a whole brand new problem. Now, both Bob and Steve are getting email from both accounts. But now, if Bob answers an email, Steve really has no way of knowing that Bob has already answered the email. If both Bob and Steve answer the inquiry, then your company now looks as if it consists of a couple of bumbling idiots. That is definitely not the image you want to portray of your company. Additionally, you don't want Bob and Steve answering inquiries that have already been answered because it is a waste of human resources.

Facing this problem, it would seem wise to use a web-based email interface. Problem here is that you will have to constantly monitor a web-based email account for new inquiries. Can you imagine the pain of relying on web-based email for the operation of your business? Unless your web mail system contacts you immediately upon the arrival of new email, then you must maintain an open browser window to your web mail account and continually refresh the window to see if there is new email to answer.

Relying upon your web email account for your support inquiries can become very time consuming and inefficient.

The advantages of having the ability to have one email account monitored by a number of people, and having the ability to move some emails to different folders should weigh heavily in your consideration of using web-based email for your sales and support inquiries.

Web-based email had seemed like the perfect solution for the cost-aware business person, but the disadvantage of the troubles of keeping an eye for incoming mail seem to eliminate this as a realistic solution to our problem, doesn't it?

I had argued with myself concerning how to solve this problem for many months. I needed an effective sales and support inquiries system without spending my entire budget to get it. But you know, if you stew over a problem long enough and keep your eye to the horizon, a solution will present itself.

As it turned out, a piece of software I had on my system for quite some time figured into the solution I had been searching for. With the last upgrade of the ePrompter software, I suddenly realized that the final piece of the puzzle was within my reach.

ePrompter is a handy little application that has always permitted us to check multiple email accounts simultaneously and delete messages as we were finished with them. With the last upgrade of ePrompter, the makers enabled us to have the ability to respond to email inquiries also.

With this development, I have handed out copies of the ePrompter to each of my support team members. ePrompter runs in the background and notifies us through an icon in the System Tray how many new messages are present in each of the accounts we monitor. As we answer each email, we either delete it from the server through the ePrompter software, or if we need to store the messages for future reference, we log into the web-based version of the account and move the email in question to the appropriate folders.

To get your copies of the ePrompter software, visit http://www.eprompter.com - this software is free to download and use, and will be absolutely essential to your low-cost (free) sales and support system.

Bill Platt is the owner of http://www.LinksAndTraffic.com

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Web-Based Learning Management Systems Deployed in Customer Support Settings

In many respects, e-learning has matured as a technology and industry. Today we will look at how web-based learning management systems can and are being used as part of the customer support function in a company or organization.

What is a learning management system?

Learning management systems (LMSs) are web-based software application platforms used to plan, implement, and assess learning processes related to online and offline training administration and performance management. LMSs provide an instructor a way in which to create and deliver content, monitor learners’ participation, and assess student performance. They also provide learners with the ability to use interactive features such as threaded discussions, web conferencing, discussion forums, and other methods of communication.

Where and why are learning management systems being used in customer support settings?

LMSs are being used in business-to-business, high process, value added, and technology-oriented business environments in industries like telecommunications, advanced electronic technology, semiconductor manufacturing, insurance, banking, medical products manufacturing, and others. Learning management systems are being used in customer support settings because they can be a cost-effective solution to providing customer and performance support for a company’s products and services.

Why is it cost-effective to use an LMS for your company’s customer support operation?

Learning management systems can be used to create a library of custom online courses that demonstrate how to use your company’s products and services. The course can be updated at will, so you’re not paying every three months to print new product guides and support manuals.

LMSs can be used to track and monitor your customers, instead of using a bunch of spreadsheets. This is very effective in scenarios where customers must be certified in order to use your products and services. The learning management system can be set up to notify a user when their certification is set to expire using an email tickler so they can recertify on your product.

What other features in learning management systems can be used for the customer support function?

A good LMS comes with a help desk feature that can be used for 24/7 customer support. Learning management systems can have integrated web conferencing technology which can be used in a number of ways to support customers such as synchronous training used in product implementation; a web conference on a new feature set that can be archived for later viewing; actual, on-the-spot tech-support using the “share your desktop” feature so your tech can go in and fix any problems necessary; and more.

LMSs can have a built in survey tool that allows you to query your customers with the results stored in the learning management systems database for later use. Learning management systems can have a single sign-on/e-commerce registration feature that can be used to sell add-on features. They also may have events management/seminar logistics add-on application that can help you manage both your off-site and onsite customer support training, and much more.

A company can realize effective resource planning and substantial cost savings by using learning management systems in customer support settings. Even greater gains in productivity and cost savings can be achieved using a learning management system in hosted business model environment. The virtual customer support campus is created to have the same look and feel as the company’s web site. Since the customer support campus is hosted and maintained on the learning management systems providers’ servers, the company only pays for set-up, its level of desired functionality, and usage. In conclusion, web-based learning management systems can be a very useful, cost effective way to manage a company’s customer support function.

Dave Boggs is the founder and CEO of SyberWorks, Inc. He has been involved with computer-based and web-based training for more than twelve years. Before founding SyberWorks, Dave was the VP of Sales and Business Development for Relational Courseware. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Union College in Schenectady, NY, and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.

Customer Support: What Does Yours Say?

Whether you are talking about customer support software or you are talking about those employees that answer the phones, what does your customer support say about you? It should portray to the customer that you are dedicated to them and that you will do whatever it may take to make their experience the best it can be.

What should customer support be, then? Here are some things to consider about the amount of customer support you may or may not have.

• First of all, in ecommerce, you still have to supply a solid customer support base. You can do this by making sure that your website is customer friendly, answers questions and allows for them to ask you questions as well. By doing this, your customers are less likely to go somewhere else for their needs.

• In all arenas, customers will appreciate being able to have all the information that they need at their fingertips. So, take the time you need to take to make sure that they get just that. You can offer pricing and availability information as well as a number of descriptions, consumer reviews and price reductions as well.

• Also, make sure to provide a way for your customers to provide you with feedback. For example, they could tell you they had a hard time finding xyz. Then, you’ll know that maybe something could be done better to help that customer. They may also provide you with good feedback which is simply wonderful to hear.

No matter if we are talking about a software program to place on your website or methods to be placed in a retail setting of the local area, there are a number of great ways that you can provide your customers with great customer support. Happy customers come back!

For more information please see http://www.customer-support-info.co.uk

The ABC's of Online Customer Support

Want to provide great online customer support? Want to provide the kind of customer support that will grow your business, by building customer loyalty and satisfaction? It’s not as hard as it sounds! Just remember your ABC’s.

A-Add value

Don’t just do the bare minimum when it comes to providing customer support on your website. Go above and beyond to provide the customer with an exceptional experience. Remember, there are probably several sites out there right now trying to sell the same products or services that you are. Differentiate yourself by the high level of customer service you provide. Don’t simply answer questions. Provide solutions. Don’t just give a suggestion. Be an expert! If your customers or potential customers come to your site with a question or problem, help them as if you’re the foremost expert in your field. For example, let’s assume you run a website that sells bird houses. A potential customer visits your site and has a question about a specific model. How do you help them? First and foremost, I hope that you answer their question. But you have a great opportunity to go above and beyond. Ask the potential customer what types of birds she’s hoping to attract, where she is going to be putting the bird house, and where she’s located. With this information, as the world’s foremost expert in bird houses, you can recommend the right model in size, style, and material for her desired result. Now, you’re more than just a bird house salesman to this customer, you’re a bird house expert! You’ve added value through your online customer support.

B-Be There

A customer is on your site looking at your information and they have a big question. Where are you? The idea of ‘being there’ is twofold. First, it means making customer support channels easily accessible via your website. Regardless of what channels you use, you want them to be easily accessible from any page on your site. Either put your customer support channels on each page, or provide a clear and easy-to-find link to your support page from every page. As soon as your customer has a question, you don’t want them to have to look far to find a way to get in touch with you. Second, ‘being there’ means being available when your customers contact you. Be ready to answer the phone when they call, respond to all emails within a couple hours, or be prepared to handle incoming chats or support tickets. What good is customer support when a customer finds no one on the other end to assist them immediately? ‘Be there’ for your customers and you will be rewarded with better relationships and stronger loyalty.

C-Count the Cost

Let’s face it, your time and money are valuable. So, how do you provide great customer support on a budget? Come up with a plan. Determine what options are available to you, weigh the advantages vs. the costs, and implement your decisions. Here are some considerations regarding different online customer support options:

Phone support: Convenient for your customers, but potentially costly and time consuming for you. If you have an 800#, that is a large expense, and you can only talk to one person at a time.

Email support: Less effective for the customer than phone support. It is quick and easy to send their questions to you, but uncertainty over the length of time for responses is a concern. For you, email is one of the cheapest and easiest forms of support. You probably already have email, and you can respond to inquiries on your time.

Live chat software: Most effective channel of online customer support for the customer. Their questions can be answered immediately on the website by a real person. For you, the key is finding quality and affordable live chat software, and it is available. Also, live chat requires that you, or an employee, are available to handle incoming chat requests as much as possible.

Knowledge Database/FAQ/Self-Help: This can be a quick and easy way to get answers for your more savvy customers. However, it can also be burdensome for customers if they aren’t quickly and easily able to find answers to their questions. This is probably the easiest channel of customer support for you. After the initial time investment required to dump all of your information to the site, it is there and available for customers from then on.

These are just 4 of the channels for online customer support. You may also consider support tickets, forums, and others. As you can see, each channel has its advantages and disadvantages, both for you as the business owner, and for your customers. The best websites for online customer support usually offer a blend of several of these channels.

Providing great customer support on your website is not difficult, and it will have tremendous advantages for you. To provide excellent support for both you and your customers, simply remember the ABC’s of online customer support: Add value, Be there, and Count the cost.

Dan Cavanaugh is an online customer support expert with the Customer Support Network, an organization committed to the improvement of online customer service. To learn more about online customer support and the role it plays in e-commerce, click here: http://www.customersupportnetwork.com

Back Hair Laser Removal

Are you a victim of back hair? Does your wife or girlfriend cringe when you take off your shirt? There may be help for you with laser back hair removal.

Laser hair removal is a trend that is sweeping the country. With improvements in laser technology, these procedures are safer and less expensive than ever, and the results are longlasting. Most treatments use a very low level laser that is targets the affected area. The energy of the laser enters the pigment in the hair and causes the shaft to heat up, killing the hair. The follicle is also rendered ineffective, stunting new hair growth. Although the hair follicle deactivated, the surrounding skin is unharmed by the procedure.

Of course, this treatment has many applications for men and women, but one of the most popular is back hair laser removal. Previously, men had to undergo painful waxing, smelly dilapitory chemicals or shaving their backs to eliminate the hair that so many women find distasteful.

Of course, the type and amount of hair will determine how much your procedure costs. Darker or olive skinned patients will require more treatments than natural blondes, and hair thickness and density varies widely. Different lasers are even used to treat different skin color groups, so be sure to ask if your treatment center can handle your needs. Prices typically start at about $200-225, but back hair laser removal can run much higher, due to the larger area being treated. You should also expect to return for several treatments, as hair is removed in certain parts of the growth cycle only.

Although it may seem initially expensive, back hair removal using laser treatments is actually cost effective in the long run. Typically the hair does not regrow, and most centers offer touch ups for the few that do, as part of the package. If your back hair is an embarrassing problem, invest in yourself and try hair laser removal for your back!Kathlene Capelle is a writer for beauty tips and advice. Her site has information on laser hair removal, permanent hair removal, waxing and other hair removal methods. Please visit http://www.Hair-Removal-Central.com.

Laser Hair Removal: Hair Raising Experience

 by: Barry Lycka, M.D.

More and more people are giving laser hair removal a shot! If you're not into this hot, new treatment, then you've come to the right place. Imagine never having to deal with messy creams. Imagine talking to the grocery clerk and not having her stare at the hair on your upper lip. Imagine never having to hide your precious parts at the beach.

Stop imagining! You can make your dreams of hairless summers and hairless winters come true. First of all I believe its important for women and men to find out what causes abnormal hair growth before they start drastic measure to remove it. Doctors say hair usually grows abnormally due to hormones. Once youve determined whether you have health concerns related to your hair, then you can decide on the appropriate remedy.

I can tell you lasers are safe and effective in the removal of unwanted hair. A trained specialist can help you determine what treatment is best for you using your skin and hair type. With lasers you dont have to worry about shaving, tweezing, or waxing now and forever. Forever sounds like a long time, doesn't it? Lasers produce a beam of light that is used to remove hair. The light passes through the skin to the hair follicle. Once it gets to the hair it basically kills it. Neat, huh? The process only takes less than an hour.

Lasers are attracted to dark colors. You'll get the best results if your hair is darker than your complexion. You're wondering if the laser has any side effects. It does if you have a tan. Tanning and lasering leads to burning. Ouch, it really hurts so youll want to beware of adding the two in combo. Also, it's important to note that the laser doesn't do a thing for blondes, white or gray haired people.

If youre not ready to give lasers a shot, then there are several other techniques on the market that can help you get rid of your hair-raising problem. Let's talk about the only permanent hair removal known to man right now. It's called electrolysis. If you're scared of needles, then this is not the treatment for you. You'll want to make sure that you have not waxed or tweezed within a few days of having a treatment. This makes the hair follicle easier for the electrologist to reach.

The electrologist inserts a tiny needle into each hair follicle and uses a short impulse of energy to kill the root. Sounds, cool, huh? The hair is tweezed out one at a time. Sounds like an awfully long process. However, it only takes a few hours. You will most likely need more than one treatment to kill all of your hair. There are electrolysis kits that you can use at home, but I wouldn't recommend it. You're better off using a licensed electrologist.

Speaking of problems, what's yours? Everyone has a specific area of the body where they want to be bald. Women usually hate facial hair on their upper lips, chin and sides of face. Hairs in those areas dont seem to bother men that much! Okay, I shouldn't joke about it! Hair on the lip is very troubling to most women. It can be removed using a bleaching procedure.

Bleaching works if your hair is similar in color to your skin. Be careful, bleaching lightens hair in dark complexions. Ill never forget someone with a dark complexion once asked me if she could use a depilatory creams on the lip. No way, don't even think! My response was fast and furious. Depilatories are harsh on sensitive skin and should never be placed on the lips or eyes areas.

The important thing to remember about depilatories is you should use them on the legs and thighs only. Depilatory creams dissolve the keratin in hair. As you can imagine thats some pretty strong stuff! Be sure to test patches of skin before you put the cream on. The cream can cause rashes and skin discolorations. It is possible to treat a negative reaction with an anti-bacterial solution and antibiotic.

Waxing on the other hand is a great way to remove hair from the legs and thighs and bikini area. Your skin will feel so clean, smooth and soft after this procedure. Waxing doesnt irritate your skin the way shaving and creams do. However, waxing is a temporary hair removal procedure. Waxing is similar to the sugaring procedure that is also temporary.

Sugaring is becoming more popular for people who want to be hairless in the bikini area. The sugar is warmed not at all like the high heat thats used in waxing. The warmed sugar is placed on the skin. Your technician will then remove the sugar with muslin strips. The sugar sticks mostly to the hair and not the skin. That makes it easier when its time to remove the hair. I highly recommend sugaring because the red bumps and other skin irritations are minimized with it.

Youre daring, right? You want a bikini wax, but you want it all over. Then, youll have to try what is called a Brazilian bikini wax. Have you ever been to Brazil? The natives are not at all ashamed of their bodies. The Brazilian wax removes hair all over the pubic area including the labia and buttocks. You can tell your technician how far to go, or not go. A patch of hair is sometimes left above the vagina.

Now, the procedure for getting a Brazilian wax is the same just about as with a bikini wax. Youll be given a paper thong if youre a little shy to put on for Brazilian bikini wax. Your hair will be cut using some scissors. The wax is then put on using a wooden stick. Strips of cloth are used to take the hair off. Tweezers are sometimes used to pick away stray hairs. Some folks say it hurts, others swear it works magic to improve their self-esteem and body image. You now have choices whether its shavers and creams or lasers and wax. You no longer have to live with a hair-raising experience. Get rid of it! The choice is yours.

Barry A. S. Lycka is a cosmetic dermatologist and surgeon who practices in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, where he has worked from 1989. Dr. Lycka was the Dream Makeover doctor for Edmonton's Dream Makeover. For more information you can visit his website at www.barrylyckamd.com.

Automating Your Customer Support

 

My regular readers will know that one of the things I highly recommend doing with any online business is automating as many of your day to day tasks as possible.

From a personal point of view, one of the tasks that takes up a lot of my time is answering emails. It isn't just answering email that eats up the hours - sorting through and deleting spam and junk mail absorbs a lot of time too. In the good old days, I used to get a couple of spam emails a day. Now it is closer to 1000 a day!

In fact, when you look at it, email isn't always the best form of online communication. Not only is there the junk mail issue to contend with but also the fact that email is not 100% reliable. Emails do 'go missing' far more regularly than you might expect. Often this is simply because the recipients email software has decided that a particular email is junk and has transferred it directly to the 'Delete' folder. Other times it may be because the recipients ISP has decided that the email is junk and deleted it BEFORE it has even been seen by the recipient! (Yes this really does happen - imagine if your postman sorted through your mail and made the decision of which letters you want and which ones he should throw away?!)

One way to help avoid the spam problem when dealing with customer support enquiries is to make use of a contact form on your website instead of posting an email address. This will certainly help to cut down on spam but it still means that you have the problem of emails not getting to their destination (and when you have a frustrated customer waiting for assistance this is not ideal).

Therefore, probably the best option on the market presently is a full-blown helpdesk system. Setting up a dedicated helpdesk is a superb way of automating your customer support and speeding up the process of dealing with enquiries and support emails. Not only that but if you use a system that allows customers to create 'tickets', you don't have to rely on email as your customers can login to a special web page and view both their tickets and your replies online.

Another feature of many helpdesk scripts is an 'FAQ' or 'Knowledgebase' section. This is simply a collection of the most frequently asked questions/queries/problems along with answers and solutions. This means that customers can search the knowledgebase and hopefully find the answer to their question without having to contact Support at all.

Some of the more advanced scripts will even scan the customers support ticket prior to submitting it and then list a few possible answers to their questions just in case they didn't read through the knowledgebase before typing the ticket out - very clever stuff.

These scripts are also very powerful in terms of how they can benefit you. Just think how much time you could save if, say, 40% of your customer support emails just stopped coming due to the fact that your customers were now able to find the answers to their questions automatically.

Having an online helpdesk is also of benefit if you travel around a lot or if you are away from the office on vacation etc. Instead of having to take a laptop loaded up with previous emails from customers, you can simply login to your helpdesk admin page and all of your previous correspondence will be online and at your fingertips. It also means that you won't have to spend hours in an Internet cafe deleting a days worth of spam at a time just to get to the important emails since only the important emails will have made it through to the helpdesk in the first place.

As with most things, setting up a customer service helpdesk is one of those tasks that is always better done when you first start your online business. That said, it is fairly easy to integrate such a feature into your existing set up and that is exactly what I have done for all of my websites...

Over the next few months, I will be phasing many of my email addresses out - I simply can't stand the spam any more! With immediate effect, all customer support issues for all of my products and websites will be handled via a central Customer Support Helpdesk.

I am confident that this will improve the overall 'support experience' for both my customers and me :-)

If you are interested in installing a similar helpdesk on your own website/s, there are numerous options when it comes to suitable software. I chose a product called eSupport (link below) and whilst this is a very powerful script, I am hesitant to give it my full recommendation since the installation/set up process was, how can I put this, slightly painful. It doesn't help that there is no manual for the software which means that new users are left to figure out how it works by trial and error or by trawling through hundreds of posts on the company forum. That said, I am advised by the software creator that a manual is in the process of being written and will be available soon. As I say, an excellent and powerful script once installed and configured but definitely not for those lacking patience (and indeed, some computer knowledge). If you opt for this script, my advice would be to get the publishers of the software to install it for you. You can find out more about eSupport at: http://www.kayako.com

Other alternatives (neither of which I have tried myself) include Perldesk ( http://www.perldesk.com ) and Cerberus ( http://www.cerberusweb.com ). One advantage of Cerberus is that there is a free version :-)

Richard Grady has been helping ordinary people earn online since 1998. He writes a free newsletter which is published every two weeks. To subscribe (and claim your free gifts), visit: http://www.thetraderonline.com/newsletter.html

The Importance Of Customer Support In Hosting

So why is customer support all that important in a hosting service? Simple! Imagine your self working hard on a site and you finally get a quite popular one with an impressive amount of daily visitors. Let's say it's a very popular forum. And all of a sudden system gets crash. So you have to come up with silly reasons to tell to the visitors, why is the site down and why can't they access their accounts. Most importantly you don't know if it's permanent or is it just some temporary down time. And believe me, by the experience that I have, when that happens you are in quite a pickle. All of that can be avoided if you have customer service. They will tell you what is wrong, when will the server be up again etc.

So how do I find a hosting service with customer service?

Well just search the web for a bit. Now a day almost every hosting website has that already in the cheapest hosting package. After all you wouldn't want to be stranded all alone in a situation like that. Because of such technological advancement and lots of researches, there are many sites and companies, which promise you everything. The customer service can even serve you like a critic. If the company doesn't provide it to all of the packages, than that means it's not a too good company, now is it? How can they host servers for people and sites if they can't even manage some customer service and support?

Usually sites with a lot of money and a big capital have such things installed because the consulting staff is not cheap at all, as a result to that we can conclude that companies with customer support care about their clients. The consulting staff is paid like normal workers, even more if they have good knowledge and that's how you know that you won't be left down. So what does it cost you to search the web for a new and better service with some consulting involved in it, having help when you need it and finding a good hosting company just for you?

But don't be fooled. All customer services aren't all that good. A quick response and resolution time of the crew is a must when talking about quality. When you talk to the staff they have to make you feel good, and can communicate fast, clear and without complications.

Still don't understand the benefits of the whole thing?

Think of it in this way. The Customer service is actually like a hand that guides you, so you can't actually make mistakes. The only mistake that you can do is at the very beginning. That is choosing a wrong hosting service or a free package, that doesn't include the support. So just don't be lazy and search for a better company, a company with pizzazz, a company WITH CUSTOMER SERVICE that won't let you down.

Abdul Vasi is a Marketing Expert specialized in Internet Marketing, His Bangalore Windows Hosting Company Web Hosting Bangalore provides you with reliable but affordable web hosting solution for your online business