Rob, That makes sense to me.
Tom DeReggi RapidDSL & Wireless, Inc IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert West" <robert.w...@just-micro.com> To: "'WISPA General List'" <wireless@wispa.org> Sent: Sunday, June 28, 2009 5:59 PM Subject: Re: [WISPA] OT, pesky email stuff > We still help all of our customers when their calls no matter who they use > for email for whatever. My point was that since we stopped hosting email, > out trouble tickets went way down because now that they mostly use the web > based mail, the problem being with their home PC pretty much goes away. > We > never ignore them and for example, we have one customer who has had issues > with his MSN mail for so many years I can recite his username and password > forward and backwards! When it comes to mail, now we usually only have to > log into their yahoo and help them set up their junk filters and the like. > Heck, we even have to deal with their manufacturers warranties because > they > can't understand the customer service people. We never, ever turn anyone > away. > > -----Original Message----- > From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On > Behalf Of Tom DeReggi > Sent: Sunday, June 28, 2009 5:47 PM > To: WISPA General List > Subject: Re: [WISPA] OT, pesky email stuff > > I've heard this type arguement for years, and I don;t thinl people really > get what its all really about.... > > In the ISP business there are two type of providers.... > > 1) Ones that take responsibilty and go beyond the call of duty to help > their > > customers. That is called customers servic, support, and value add.. > > 2) Then there are ones who deny responsibility or defer responsibilty to > someone else. That is called a , "commodity provider". > > Whether or not an ISP chooses to host Email or outsource Emal, either way > it > > has absolutely no bearing on whether an ISP is Type 1 or 2 provider. > > In other words, even if you host Email, you don't have to take Grandma's > calls. You can point her to a self help fax, online help, to the paid > support division, otr simply ignore her until she goes away, IF you don;t > want to take the calls > And if you outsource Email, you still ahve the option to accept Granda's > call. Just because she now uses yahoo or google, doesn;t mean you can;t > help > > her. And I guarantee is you do help her once, the next time she needs > help, > she is goign to call you for more help, instead of yahoo or google. > > The fact is, subscribers call the people for help, that they feel will > most > likely help them, they don;t stop for a second to question who is > "responisble" for supporting them. > > There are two answers for this.... 1) You can use that call to your > advantage. or 2) you can turn it away, so that you are no longer the one > that she trusts to call first. > > I have a slew of resellers. I'm responisble for supporting the services > that > > we offer to the customer's of our resellers, if I'm asked. But I'm not > usually the one they ask, because they trust the reseller. Thats why they > ordered from the reseller in the first place. > > If you want to outsource, fine. If you want to manage internally fine. > There > > are cost, time, and feature justifications for that decission. > > I don't know about you, but I want my customers calling me. Some of my > customers choose Gmail an Hotmail, and I'm fine with that. But I stil;l > help > > them with theior Email problems, and it takes me twice as long to help > them, > > than it does for me to help my custoemrs that use our own Email system. > > What I've challenged myself with is.... I need to do a better job using > their call to my advantage. Every time they call, its an opportunity > to.... > > 1) verify their billing is current, and collect payment if overdue. > 2) To ask them if they have been happy with service, and if they ahve any > feedback. > 3) To upsell them an additional add-on service. > > What I'm learning is some people aren't looking for it to be free. They > just > > want it better. > > Interestingly, I can;t remember one customer that has cancelled because > our > service was to expensive. If it was to expensive they never would ahve > ordered it in the first place. > If they like our service and it is to expensive, they call me to try and > negotiate better terms so that they can keep our service that they love. > I'm finding that there are people that complain about speed and paying > $49/mon, but gladly would ahve been paying $69 for upgraded service, but > never knew the plan existed. Or gladly would have paid an extra $50 for a > better SPAM system. > > I can give an example of a business sub that was complaining that our $150 > broadband plan was to expensive, and I asked who they used for Email. I > learned they pay $250 per month for Outsourced Exchange Email hosting. > Thats right they wee rwilling to pay twice the cost of our broadband, just > for Email, even when we offered free Email. And our Email service is > pretty > darn good. My point is.... Email was a pain point, they saw the value in > paying for a solution that was "supported" at a higher priority. > > I can give another example, of a customer that left us, because they were > closing an office, and ordered a competitor's cheaper service at the other > office, because they had to cut back financially. (Duh, they just closed > anb > > office). BUT, they asked how much it would cost to keep our Email > service. > I told them, we only provide Email for our customers, because Email > support > cost us more than providing broadband does. So I made a special deal with > him, and he agreed to pay $50/mon to keep our Email. (half his previous > BRoadband fee). > > I started thinking, maybe I should get into the Email business, and give > broadband away for Free as a Promo :-) Just kidding. > > Anyway, my point is,.providers are throwing away an opportunity, when they > dont take advantage of the opportunity to solve their customer's pain > points. > > Rant done. > > Tom DeReggi > RapidDSL & Wireless, Inc > IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Robert West" <robert.w...@just-micro.com> > To: "'WISPA General List'" <wireless@wispa.org> > Sent: Friday, June 26, 2009 6:58 PM > Subject: Re: [WISPA] OT, pesky email stuff > > >> Email? We don't need no stinkin' email! >> >> We gave up email hosting. We were sending invoices via email and lots of >> the customers were never getting them because they never used the email >> address we gave them, they were mostly using Yahoo online! The user >> accounts were jammed packed of just junk mail and such because they never >> grabbed mail from their box. Well! After some thought, we stopped >> giving >> out email addresses and giving them a list of free email sites such as >> Gmail >> and yahoo. ("In an effort to keep our prices as friendly as we can..... >> blah, blah, blah.....) We grandfathered the existing users and hosted >> them >> but eventually they all moved to the free providers also. So now what? >> No >> more support calls on the email, I can tell ya that! More than half of >> our >> trouble tickets went away. I no longer have to recite to grandma how to >> reenter her user name and password just because the grandkids wiped it >> out >> of her incredimail. YES!!! >> >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On >> Behalf Of Marlon K. Schafer >> Sent: Friday, June 26, 2009 11:33 AM >> To: WISPA General List >> Subject: [WISPA] OT, pesky email stuff >> >> Hi All, >> >> What are you guys doing for email these days? I LOVE my setup for it's >> reliability, ease of use etc. >> >> Hacked customer accounts and virus's are killing me though. We don't >> catch >> things until 100,000s of messages go out and we get black listed. This >> has >> now happened 3 or 4 times in the last couple of years. >> >> My server admins aren't coming up with a solution to this other than to >> limit cc's to 25 per message. We did that once before and my phone rang >> off >> >> the hook because people can't send jokes to their friends..... >> >> The other thing that makes it hard is that the log files that I get (up >> to >> 40 megs per day!) don't list the authenticated sender, only the reply >> address. So I see tens of thousands of messages from a user that's not >> even >> >> mine (faked info). sigh >> >> We use Courier MTA. >> >> My thought is to set the server to allow a max of 1000 messages per day >> per >> user. And to somehow make the log file ONLY send me the number of >> messages >> received per a user, and the number sent, user name and ip addy of all >> those >> >> sending. Twice now I've asked about that idea and gotten no response >> from >> the server admins. >> >> Suggestions? >> >> laters, >> marlon >> >> >> >> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> ---- >> WISPA Wants You! 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