Do you close support tickets without confirmation from customers?

One common practice that I have come across with many hosting providers is that they close the support tickets as soon as they think that the issue has been resolved. This follows with an annoying email to the requester/customer of the ticket informing about closure of the ticket. As a hosting company you must know few things abouts handling the closure of the ticket to avoid angry and annoyed customers.

1. Always seek confirmation – Even when you are sure that the issue that was initially reported has been resolved, don’t just close the tickets. Send an update on the ticket, informing the customers that the issue seems to have resolved and ask them to close the tickets at their end. If your ticketing system doesn’t come with this feature, get one or close it after receiving a confirmation from users. Following this strategy will make your customers feel good and satisfied with your support function.

2. Don’t assume – Don’t ever assume that an issue has been resolved or does not exists. Ex: It so happened that once I was unable to open my website using different ISP connections that I was using. The problem was with BGP routers that were at the ISP that provided bandwidth to the hosting company my domain was hosted with. The customer rep simply closed the ticket because he was able to open it internally in his LAN. When you are not sure, ask the customer to explain the issue or elaborate on it. Don’t make your customers angry by assuming things by yourself.

3. Customers are not tech savvy – Ok, nice to know that you are an expert in Sun Solaris and managed hosting solutions. But your customer is not! Have patience while handling tickets of customers who know only a thing or two about managing her/his website. Help them help themselves, don’t get angry if they can not understand basics. If they were to be technically strong, why would they need you?

Always remember, before you close support tickets, get a confirmation from your customer on resolution. By the way, do you follow Voice of Customer model to get feedback from your customer about your customer support?
[tags]Customer Support, Web Hosting Business[/tags]