Certain customer types cost way more to support than others.

Let me tell you a story perhaps you have heard before.

Customer A is a big shot tech company everyone has heard of. They need our WordPress hosting as they are tired of running that lone LAMP stack on one of their 150 AWS instances for their Ruby SaaS app. They spend 10’s of thousands of month on infrastructure and the few hundred dollars paid to us to look after their lone PHP app is part of doing business.

Customer B is small marketing consultant. No less awesome then Customer A as they too trust us to look after their WordPress site for but for only $20/mo. They are in business to make money as well and rely on their website for lead gen and marketing.

Customer A and Customer B enjoy the same amount of uptime and support response times, and besides the amount of resources they use, a few plan enhancements, and price they could very well be the same person.

When an issue occurs, say an unplanned reset of on our nodes that results in a few minutes of downtime the difference in the two customer types becomes obvious.

Downtime SUCKS ASS. Any issue that is out of norm SUCKS ASS. We know it sucks, they know it sucks.. there is no hiding the fact it sucks. Regardless of which customer type, we treat them the same when it comes to remedying issues.

Half the time customer A does not even notice a blip, and when they do they generate a support ticket in the tone of “FYI our site is down”. Customer B on the other hand always notices every hiccup, and generates multiple support tickets in the tone of “OMG the sky is falling, WTF my business is ruined!!! You guys suck so bad!”

Now the $25,000 question.
What’s the difference between Customer A and B? I have my guesses, but you tell me your thoughts.

3 thoughts on “Customer Types : Cost of Support”

  1. Johnny Marketer lives and dies by his site. He has no product whatsoever to point to that isn’t tied to his “web presence”. His “community” lives there. His (insert buzzword here)….you get the point.

    Customer A has multiple lines of business and has many, many things to do. Also, they work in tech, so they understand that things happen that are outside of their control, and bitching / complaining won’t affect the outcome.

  2. Customer A is a national/international company that has a multi-tiered infrastructure and relies on the whole of it’s brand, marketing, employees and clients.

    Customer B is a local business that is attempting to have a larger media presence via connectivity & has way too much time on their hands.

    I can identify with both. And yes, treat all clients/guests/customers the same.

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