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Did you know: getting the fastest website support

15 October 2018

Stuart

Got a question?  In a hurry?  Do you know the fastest and best way to contact us? Whilst you might have an inkling, we offer a number of ways to get in touch and sometimes you might not know which way is best: emails, logged in tickets, direct phone line, phone call backs, Slack, Facebook, Twitter and more. No one’s sent a carrier pigeon yet, but we’re keeping an eye out.

Email support and authentication

For most queries, we always prefer that you drop us an email. Email is great for relaying complicated technical details. We can assign you a ticket number, log the case and track it from start to finish. When the case is closed, we’ll generate a feedback request that bypasses our support team entirely. Feedback is read and responded to by myself and other company directors. We really take it to heart – the good and the bad – it’s all important.

Before you open your email client and fire us off a question or three, we recommend you login to our site first (https://account.34sp.com). Once you’re logged into the site, select “My Support” from the left hand menu followed by “Create support ticket”. Tickets created this way come into our support queue ‘pre-authenticated’, which is a fancy way for saying we know someone with valid credentials for your account submitted the request. That means we can take action right away when we get to your case. If you need something fixing we will try to action it there and then.

If you decide to send us an email from your mail client direct, we can’t be sure the email came from the account owner. As such, we will require you to login and ‘authenticate’ your ticket via our control panel. While this extra step only takes 30 seconds in itself, the extra back and forth can add delay in processing your case. We need authentication for making any change on your account or releasing any sensitive information.

We recommend email for most cases and try to turn around high priority cases within the same business day. If we’re having an unusually busy day and your query is marked less urgent (an invoice query for example) it might be nudged into the next day. For the fastest support though, always login to our site first to open your ticket. That pre-authentication can knock hours off your overall turnaround.

Phone calls

If something urgent does arise, by all means pick up the phone and we can advise in real time. We offer phone support seven days a week and only close the lines on bank holidays to give our team a little break.

Our support load tends to peak and trough several times a day, so it’s possible when you call there might be a wait to speak to someone. Don’t be afraid to use our callback feature. When you use this form you open a ticket in our support system marked urgent. During office hours, you can usually expect to hear back from us within 5-15 mins, with the added bonus of not having to wait on hold. The callback system also lets us perform a little digging into your account before we call you back, too.  This way we can make sure we know how to help before we call you.

Phone support is best for queries with simple answers, such as billing issues. Phone support is also great in emergencies.  Need to find out why a site is down right now?  Feel free to pick up the phone. Typically we can’t conduct complicated case support over the phone though, and you’ll be directed to open a ticket if complex information needs sharing in either direction.

Social media

While we don’t formally offer support over social media, we’re happy to correspond if something has gone awry. Email down and having phone problems? No worries, DM us on Twitter and Facebook and we will try to help best we can.

Stuart

Stuart

Hi! I am the the co-founder of 34SP.com and Business Development Director; I've been at this hosting lark for more than twenty two years, ulp.. I oversee multiple areas of our business to ensure 34SP.com products and services are meeting our customer's needs. You can get in touch over on LinkedIn or replying to any of most posts. In my spare time I am exceptionally interested in food and drink, I run several food website and am a multi-award winning, food and drink writer.