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Clients Expecting Free Phone Support
In this article, I talk about one of my troublesome clients expecting free phone support and an incredibly simple way to deal with them.
I have a rule that I use regarding telephone support. If one of my good clients call me regarding an issue can be easily fixed over the phone and in under 5 minutes, I generally help them if I have the time. If the issue is either going to take more than 5 minutes to explain then I will set up an appointment go onsite.
Now, I have this one client who I have visited many times over the last 5 years and is classified as one of those good clients that I am willing to help over the phone if the issue is small. During most of those 5 years I rarely needed to help them out over the phone. When I did get phone calls from them, it was just to organize an appointment to have me come onsite.
Then, about 3 months ago this client called me about an anti-spam product that I installed about 6 months before. Apparently there was a new version of it and it was asking them if it could update itself. The client didnt know what to do so they called me. It was a fairly basic update, pretty much a “Next, Next, Next, Finish” kind of job so I helped them out. They thanked me for my time and hung up.
Two days later they call me about another completely unrelated issue and because it so small, I spent about 5 minutes helping them out over the phone again. There were a few more calls after this and they were all under my 5 minute limit. I didn’t mind helping them because I had already made plenty of money off them in the past, so they were in my “good client” books.
I got another call that would have been a 5 minute fix but I then thought back to all of the past “5 minute calls” and I realized I have probably given them about 30-40 minutes of free support over that month and it was starting to get little crazy. I had become the “infinite fountain of 5 minute free tech knowledge” in their mind and this is a dangerous place to be. Its my fault though, I shouldn’t have let it get to that point and I needed to deal with it now.
I would hear them out as I had always done and but to break the cycle I said that I would have to go onsite to see what was happening. Suddenly, their little issue wasn’t very important and they hung up. They called me a few times more over the next few weeks about various little issues and I would tell them “No problems, I have some time available on ______, would you like to make an appointment for then?”
They eventually got the idea that if they want tech support they are going to have to pay for it. I still get calls from this client but instead of expecting free help over the phone, they now call me only when they want me to come onsite and they get me to fix many little issues in an hour rather than calling me every time one appeared.
There are many other ways to deal with a client like this such as putting them on a monthly phone support contract or just bill for every minute you help them on the phone. One computer technician on the Technibble forums said it pretty well:
“Send them the bill. If they stop coming – great. If they are wealthy and pay – great. Either way it’s a win win situation. You either gain a client with money, or you lose a freeloader.”
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I hate phone support its so hard to explain stuff over the phone if the customer is a complete idiot..I charge $50 Flat rate repair if they bring it into my shop.. But when they get it home i get phone calls like whats my email password, I cant hear any sound, stupid stuff like that. Well 3 months ago this guy got his comp fixed and he called up very mad saying his sound did not work.. first thing i asked was did he plug it in right.. “ofcourse i did” he said.. well after 30min of trouble shooting and not getting nowhere i finally asked him to tell me what color the port was the speakers were plugged into “the pink port” Well told him to plug it into the green port and OMG sound worked … “Thanks” and he hung up…Wow 30min of trouble shooting and all I got was a Thanks and it wasent my fault.. I now have on my contract that phone support is not free including QUICK QUESTIONS.. I charge $25 per phone support call and if they want it circle yes or no..Well so far every1 has circled no!! Yet they still call up but Now the first thing i say is “Ohh u must of paid for phone support” then i say i dont see ur name on my list (cuzz there is none) bring it back in and if its my fault i will gladly fix it at no charge and give you a free tuneup coupon for the mistake, if its your fault its $25″….That has worked for me :)
Ron said “I hate phone support its so hard to explain stuff over the phone if the customer is a complete idiot..”
end quote.
Ron, I’m sorry but that’s a poor way to view your customers. I feel that if we start labeling our clients we start to lose respect for them and this can lead to us giving them sub-standard support. I feel we should NEVER refer to our clients in such a manner.
Sorry, but just my 2 cents.
-Luther
Luther i aggree with you but when they call me up for something that stupid and blame me when its not my fault they are complete idiots and I wouldn’t want them as a customer anyways its just not worth it I would rather lose them as a customer then to continue to get phone calls such as “what was my password” and them getting mad at me because I dont know there password lol
I have a client who is doing this on a regular basis via SMS Text Message. I am getting ready to advise her that these events will be billed in 15 minute increments and an invoice mailed if it continues. A conservative estimate is that I have spent over 2 hours on this so far.
I have many “clients” who want free email or phone support. I used to answer them all and forget about it. Currently I am very busy with paying clients’ projects. Answering “brief questions” is both distracting and quite time-consuming, especially in the agregate. So I recently changed my policy.
If they are good regular clients this is not an issue. If they are infrequent or not a client, I tell them upfront that they will be charged.
In response to your forum quote. I agree typically for freeloaders sending them a bill is a decent idea, but as you stated this is a customer you have made plenty of money off in the past, and doing something so underhanded could drive away all future business.
I really think you way you dealt with it, of trying to arrange appointments is a much better and less underhanded way of dealing with the situation.
I agree Ron, I’m just saying that we have to be careful about what we say.
@Lisa
That’s a great way of handling this issue.
Yep…I had a couple of those as well. In MY case, it was a “new lady” who started there and were always questioning my work (after dealing with these guys for about 7 years) I then found out it was an a**creeping type of woman who, when something goes wrong, always “thinks” she knows best and try to tell me MY job! When im busy cleaning viruses, i’ll always hear about this pc, that pc that i must check etc until i just got fed-up and told her her fortune. Best thing of all, her boss came up to me and said that “she needed it”…and guess what…She’s dead quite and i STILL do their pc’s ;)
Bryce, excellent article! You pretty much laid out what I do. I have learned though lately that I get those types of folks to pre-pay and I bill those in 15 increments then. It works well and no more “Hey, I got a quick question”.
For newers folks, here is how I work. I tell them, If it’s true quick answer, it’s fine. If I have to troubleshoot, the bill starts again, no matter what.
I do the freebies, it’s good for the client to keep me in mind for referrals and future calls. Most of the quick questions are “How do I find my firewall in Windows” type stuff.
I’m just starting out my repair business but I did phone tech support for Dell for 3 1/2 years. Phone support is difficult but if you can get good at it, it’s great for the customer. There is also the option of remote support. I just installed a remote software on a clients computer so I could connect to her computer, if needed, when she had a question. Then I would just send her a bill.
Also, if a customer calls and asks about something you cannot help them with (i.e. cannot remember their password for their email), instead of just telling them no I can help you, provide them with the information they need to fix the problem, such as the phone number of who to call to reset their email password. In fact, for a fee, you could contact whomever they need to fix whatever the computer issue is, if it not something you support. You get great customer feedback that way and that customer will probably refer others because you did more than they expected, even if they had to pay extra.
Hope that all makes sense.
I do not mind phone support in that I have implemented a few things on the front end.
1. We bill in 15 minute increments regardless.
2. If you want ‘5 minutes here or there’, we encourage you to either purchase a block of hours or get on an applicable managed services contract that will address that level of support.
3. We have set up a client access portal (of which prospects can also gain access) so that when the phone issue goes beyond the communication level (and they have a live internet connection) we can remote desktop directly to their pc/mac and can record the session, etc. Again, 15 minute billing.
4. Don’t leave money on the table or allow free support.
Another funny phone support story a guy called up pissed off wanting phone support because his CDROM didnt work after I fixed it….Well 1 hour later on the phone i finally asked.. “which way is the cd going in letter side up the part you can read” He replies “NO!!! Ive always stuck it in letter side Down” . “Well” i snickered “try it letter side up” well guess what it worked.. So is that my fault YES..because i should of realized he was “Computer illiterate” since I shouldn’t be calling them idiots .That the first question i should of asked was my last questions figuring he was somewhat smarter then that….Well after 1 hour of free phone support he was still pissed because Now he had to put his cd in Upside down..Remember this is a typical HP computer only 1 way to put it in..I hung up then i though to myself maybe he had the computer upside down!!! LOL
No not at all I did a windows restore on it I would of noticed something like that if the restore cd didnt work..
Reading all these entries are very enlightening. Last week I had a customer who needed a new MBR. Pretty simple stuff. So when I got finished with it The computer started and seemed normal. They even said it was normal. Then about an hour after I left, one of the customers Guests called me because I left some marketing material. This non customer tied me up for like 20 minutes asking basic IE navigation type questions. My business is thriving because of my level of customer service, but after a long day @ the IT job then my business, a non client dragging on and on, I finally ended the call in a way I am not proud of…I wasn’t rude though. I was concerned about how long this free phone call was going to last, and the potential for more.
So reading the article and your responses has challenged me to come up with a policy addressing this issue. Thanks Bryce
Teknyka I aggree with you and I do offer that BUT then the customers will call and say “Its really simple cant u log into my computer and fix it in 2 seconds” THEY EXPECT IT TO BE FREEE!!! And that 2 seconds is 30-60min job. When I tell them it will be at least $25, that simple thing turns into something not important anymore OR they get upset because u r charging them. Nothing in this world is free I didnt go to school to give out free information..Quick Simple Fixs are $25 and even that is not worth it for me because i could of got done 2 computers in 1 hour makeing $100 instead of $25 taking my time and talking with the customer 1 on 1 while the other computers i was working on are still sitting at my bench.. Think about it like that…I have a sign above the checkin counter that says “if its so easy you fix it” =)
I haven’t had much of a problem with this yet–mostly just a free quickie here and there. I know it can get out of hand really quickly, though, so here’s my plan: I’ve got a credit card payment system setup on our website so that customers can pay by credit card onsite. If a call ever looks like it’s going to take more than 5-10 minutes, or if the call is from a new client, I’ll have them visit the website and prepay for a block of phone support in advance. This way they get phone support, and I don’t have to maintain a billing department.
I really haven’t run into this issue too heavily yet, but I want to be prepared for when it starts to get too prevalent. I think that this is something I should address right now so as not to let it become a problem in the future.
We often handle these opportunities in a somewhat different way – If as in the described case I know the client and have worked with them in the past I will normally answer thier question and then send them a bill from my office admin with a $0.00 balance and a note saying what we discussed and that the bill was set to zero “at Tom’s instruction” this does two important things 1st tells the client we appreciate them and 2nd tells them that we normally charge for these things but have chosen this time not to (gives value to our time and expertise as well as that showing that we recognize them as important valuable clients))- so that next time they will not be surprised when you do send them one with a balance due.
Just my .02
Tom T.
@Ron
Maybe by controlling the situation a little differently you could provide a better experience for your clients. Regardless of what you believe to be “right” most clients will hold YOU responsible for their PC until it is plugged back in and working 100%.
How about providing your customers with an easy to comprehend instruction sheet (with pictures) that teaches them how to properly hook the PC back up? Briefly go over it with them (if needed) when they pick up the PC. If they DO call you with problems, you then have a visual tool to reference that will help them get the PC connected quickly. (“Ok, take a look at step 5…notice how the speaker cable is plugged into the green port? Let’s make sure the speakers are plugged into that port and not the pink or blue one.”)
Computer users generally don’t want to have to call you with these sorts of issues. They just want the computer to work. Period. Going the extra mile to provide them with a POSITIVE EXPERIENCE and giving them the tools to be a more confident computer user should differentiate you from your competitors and increase the value of your brand in your customers’ minds.
Good luck!
-Craig
Ron
If he was putting CDs in incorrectly, was his CDRom really messed up when you tested it?
I love the phone support sessions that I have with friends or customers. Patience is key, as well as being paid for the services offered. Job security comes into mind when these phone calls come in. Usually within three questions I somewhat gauge the IT competency of the person on the other side. Adjust accordingly, and presto the problem is resolved.
The Time Vampires will slowly drain you if you’re not careful! Unfortunately one has to be firm, and charge professional rates for professional opinion and service. Nothing in life is free, least of all the precious minutes each day one has to make a living in.
I’ve struggled with this my entire tech career. I’ve put my foot down right from the beginning now — what a relief…
In the case of a long term customer, you may want to send an invoice showing the billing for a 15 minute minimum charge with the total deducted. Under the comment section list as “Good Customer Comp”.
This shows the customer that you value their business as well as show them exactly what the service would have cost them. Depending on your tax strategy this amount may be deducted as a business retention expense.
If you find that you are giving away too much services, you can then use these invoices to help explain that as a small business owner you are not able to maintain your low hourly rates by giving these services way. Next time you are negotiating your service contract you may want to include the cost by distibuting them in your hourly rate.
I encourage my customers to call any time they need help, no matter how big or small the problem is. I’ve got remote desktop software ready to go, and if a phone call goes for more than 15 minutes, I tell them that they will be charged and ask them if they’re ok with that.
If it’s less than 15 minutes I chalk it up as good customer service and the possibility that the happy customer will gladly pay for work in the future.
Yeah, I get a lot of phone calls wanting free support. Just had one, five minutes ago – young chap told me he had a virus, that his pc wouldn’t boot. He wasn’t an existing customer, but when I asked him if he wanted to book an appointment he asked “Why don’t you just tell me how to fix it over the phone?”
Now, we have a freephone number, where we pick up the cost of the call, and don’t do free support normally (unless it’s something silly, and we’re happy to quickly give advice). When I told him no, he said “Why are you being so cheap, you could help me out, couldn’t you?”
We welcome all kinds of customer, except the ones who want a free ride! It’s important to remember that we’re not charities, nor doing this for the benefit of our health: The only reason to do anything for free is because it’s good for our businesses, and if it isn’t, just say no.
I tell my customers that I repair computers, not teach how to use them.
As mean as it sounds, I find people rude when they try to freeload. Everything I learned was by schooling, reading the web or trial and error. I never relied on someone else.
I think we should add email support into the equation as well!
Over the years, I’ve grown accustomed to clients (both good and not so good), emailing me left right and centre for everything imaginable.
Some emails start innocently enough and then, BOOM! ..it turns into a barrage of one liners that seem to go on forever.
I’ve learned to deal with this the same way as voice calls. I do help via email, but to an extent that is not going to become habitual or habit forming for my clients as some sort of “free” extended service. In the end it’s all about quality, not “quantity”. If I’m unable to be of help right away or the questions are too cumbersome to be dealt with efficiently and effectively, then I tell the client either voice or email that a scheduled service call is in order.
I read somewhere up here a while back that phone calls should be converted to on site service calls. Most of the time when my customers call me, I am OK with helping them if its a quicky (existing customers) but when I get a call from potential customers I have been successful with just going out. Existing customers can get a quick (5 minutes or less) free fix on the phone. Just last night I talked a customer through installing a printer. Simple and cost effective.
This is one of those things that we’ve struggled with over the years. You have clients that you’ve worked for, and now and again they want phone support. We’ve never thought of charging, but we always made sure that the calls didn’t last long. Otherwise we would ask them to for on site appointment.
Great article, Bryce.
Well about that I have a client who is supposed to be a professional.
He called about internet is not working and I went through fire up cmd ipconfig and all that stuff I spent all the time with him and he was connected.
I thanked him for calling (He did not even say thank you) NO CHARGE ( I do not know who is the Idiot now Me or the client I guess it s me cuz I did not set up the rules)
a week after call again same problem
I did the same thing Internet is back (This time I was just waiting for him to say Thank You But guess what he did not even Thank me )
I did not ask for charge or any thing.
I would say Clients are not Idiots but sometimes they will play stupid or thay are sometimes Really Rude
You People make alot of money That is what they Think
Let me tell You something friends Customers do not like Tech support Cus They Do not wanna feel stupid
And Yes You will meet a Rude Person Every once and a while
someOne who will Try to phisically Assult you.
I do not like those ones at all.
I have had this issue with remote support. I feel it is my fault. I pay for a service I am offering giving away. Really stupid.
I also charge by the minute for on site work. On the work order I have a place for time started, finished and total. If under 1 hour I still get 60 because its one hour minimum. After that its by the minute. I guess I could adapt this to a phone support service with blocks of 15 minutes…
How do you guys track the time, I mean do you guys just look at a clock or do you use a stop watch? If they dispute the charge and/or argue about the time then I guess you can just use the phone bill?
For phone/remote support, I charge per minute, with a 20 minute minimum per month (so if someone gets, say, 6 minutes of support in a month, I charge them for 20 minutes).
If someone is a good regular paying customer, and I can solve their problem in less than about 2 minutes, and they don’t call with quick questions often, I don’t charge them. If it is a client who is always calling with quick questions, I charge them for every minute. I’ve only had a couple of complaints from these characters, but then they agree that they did call for advice this often and they have paid.
Sometimes I’ll have strangers call and expect free phone support. When I tell they how much I will charge them, they act surprised and hang up. No loss as they were not willing to pay anyway.
Thanks for all the comments, it’s great to get different perspectives on this topic, which can be difficult. “Going the extra mile” is a principle which is old-school, but has it’s rewards.
I remember being at a lecture at BYU where the president of Nordstrom spoke about customer service. He told a story known company-wide where a middle aged woman had bought a pair of shoes and would come in and every year and return them saying there was something wrong and was not satisfied. They lost count of how many pairs she eventually got for free over the years, even though the seasoned managers there knew who she was and what was going on. (back in the day when if you kept your nose clean and worked hard, a company would keep you for life:) I’m sure she was buried with another free pair on her feet. He said something to the effect that at least every time someone complemented her on her nice new shoes she would say, “Thank you, I got them at Nordstrom”. Free advertising. Keep your freeloaders loaded up with business cards or a stick on their case :)
..er..that’s sticker on their case :)
My policy has been that when I’m working on a job, inhouse or onsite, and a call comes in from a regular client that requires more than one troubleshooting question to solve, I explain that the call is taking time away from a project and that phone support charges will apply for the duration. If they are a prepaid phone support client, it subtracts from their monthly allotment of discounted support time; if not, they will be charged my onsite rate (or emergency rate, at my discretion).
If I’m not busy at the time, I’ll help a regular non-prepaid client until a ‘charge’em timer’ (differs depending on how I feel about the client) goes off in my head, at which point I state that I’d like to charge for the call. Most times the answer is ‘yes’; if not, they usually say it can wait until my next visit or a scheduled phone call.
Any uncharged time gets chalked up to ‘good customer service’. Several clients I’ve had for 10 or more years, including one client I’ve supported through three different owners of the business. I figure that, measured against the overall total of any client’s paid hours, the free time amounts to no more than a 5% discount. That customer’s loyalty is worth more than that to me.
One big problem I’ve had — when every employee at a company has your number and feels they can call you with ‘just a little question’. At the start of my business I’m sure I gave away more hours that I care to think about, until I learned that the first thing to do is ask if they have cleared the call with whoever is the contact at the company for billing. This almost always terminates the call right there, and sometimes they call back with permission to charge.
Having all support calls authorized through one person or department is now a requirement.
Thank you for all your articles and everyone for all the comments — most helpful. Now, back to work. ;-)
I started my biz back in November of 2009. I have since expanded my Mobile region territory and hired a tech as well. I am on track to hire 3 more before the summer’s end. I am very happy and fortunate that I am able to do this! But this website is a godsend because sometime when you come across a variety of situations such as the phone calls that come in and emails, etc–you can feel like you are alone in this crazy tech environment. I am very happy to see others are in the same boat.
To the point, phone calls come in and WOW…can they come in quickly and non-stop. I feel that I do my job very well and to the point where I am always telling my customers that they can always call me anytime they have a problem. Well, my niceness is a mistake. Yes, at first, it was really cool to know that I could help them out and it would really help with word of mouth advertising. And it has. Which is part of the big expansion of my business. But THEN I got a bill for $537 from my phone company. $537. Yes. I have a regular 2100minutes with unlimited data, email, etc. Last month, my niceness finally showed up in the form of over 5,0000 minutes in one month. It is my fault completely. Does it show growth or stupidity? Both I can say.
With my new techie working for me. I am already experiencing a lot of phone calls from him–which is fine with me…because I want to be able to provide him support when he needs it. Now, things are gonna change by the end of the summer. Yes, I may have to hire another tech to man the support phones.
Yes, charging for phone support is crucial. My “legacy” customers, well, I am just gonna have to tread lightly but I am starting to get the correct info ready in format so I can make sure my customers are aware that phone support is a fee.
This week a good customer called. He had sent out viruses to everyone. “What do I do?” He was unable (maybe unwilling) to bring the machine in. I advised him on the phone. Total about 8 calls maybe 30 minutes of time. Good customer…it’s ok.
I just realized he works for a local hotel who I service. He infected over 5 machines there and they called. We set up a onsite call (at $125 an hour) then they called saying they were fine.
The guy I helped cost me at least $500 bucks.
From now on when asked for free or phone support I will tell them. I use a wide variety of scripts, programs and tools to remove malware. I don’t have the ability to talk someone throught it over the phone nor do they have the tools. When I finish a machine in my shop or onsite I know I am leaving a fully clean and reliable machine for the customer.
I pick my battles but generally if it’s going to take more than 5 mins on the phone then I offer to go onsite. I always ask for phone / address details early on to seperate the tyrekickers from the potential clients.
I had a new customer who called me yesterday needing assistance with her wireless printer. I was on the phone with her for about five minutes and right away, I knew that she was a novice computer user. I walked her through some things and it took her a little while to find control panel, printer properties, etc. and different settings but she eventually did. Her wireless printer (as it turned out) was powered on but not connected wirelessly. I knew she was frustrated and it was also something that I knew that would take longer than five minutes to troubleshoot. We made arrangments for me to go see her in person this afternoon. I never, never view clients as idiots, why? Because that could come across in my voice, over the phone and guess what? I’ll lose that client and the possibility of her telling others about me and that’s more clients I can have. Clients are calling us for a reason and yes, they’re frustrated as computer repair professionals, we should understand that and try to help them – without the attitude. Just because they’re upset and frustrated, doesn’t mean we should be either in our dealings with them. If I realize that a problem cannot be fixed over the phone 5-10 minutes (that’s my phone limit) then I’ll suggest an onsite visit and that usually works for me. Professionalism at all times.
Good topic and article. I have people call be all the time asking for free follow-ups or free phone tech service. If I have made a mistake, then that is one thing. However, most of the time this involves new problems or old preexisting problems that I have not been paid to fix yet. I do agree that at a certain point, they need to be charged.
What we usually do is for email inquiries we give a general idea of what we believe needs to be done and a price range with contact information. If they want to set an appointment they call or email back, and if not, we weren’t a fit for them somehow.
For phone calls, I generally limit it to about 2 or 3 minutes, unless it’s something that got missed. If I feel they are trying to get free advice I always tell them “I need to see it for myself to be sure.” Again, if they weren’t intending to spend money anyway you lose them in a professional way.
I have a few clients, friends and family I can give some free advice to, but when it becomes a habit and keeps me from being profitable the threat of charging usually drops the freeloaders, as you said.
When a client becomes a frequent caller, they get notified of the billing policy. Each month, their minutes are added up and they are billed.