Offering Yearly PC Support To Customers

telecomops101

I am doing PC support on the side from my full time job. Someone told me I should offer yearly support to these customers who may want PC support. I would install RealVNC on there system and be able to troubleshoot any software issues from my home. If the problem was hardware, then of course I would have to charge a flat rate plus parts to fix the issue. I am trying to get feedback on this. Please let me know what you think and also what a fair price would be. I was told to offer a 3month, 6month and a 1 year plan.

Lee H

This question requires a massive answer, but in short i would offer Bronze Silver and Gold

Bronze - E-mail support, 24 Hour response, gives you plenty of time to research if you havent a clue. Issues can only be resolved by e-mail or remote dial, hardware issues are not covered.

Silver - E-mail support / On site support, Max 3 visits per year, any user with hardware or software issue will be resolved.

Gold - E-mail support / On site support, unlimited visits, on-site call out with-in 24 hours.


Pricing i have no idea seeing as i am British, a guess would be

Bronze - $100

Silver - $500

Gold - $1000


The 3 tier support structure should be east to market, depending on the user's confidence and quality of PC, this could earn you a huge profit as the phone may never ring


Let me know if this helps


lee H

KGhaleon

Sometimes these people will call you the moment something goes wrong.

My previous boss does the same thing, and he practically has to rush out to different companies every day since their always screwing up their computers.

KG

binarysoul

Make sure you have a contract stating you don't gurantee ANYTHING.

You could be liable for causing damage to personal data which someone could claim valued at thousands of dollars

win2k8

I agree with the last poster make sure you have liability and loss insurence, for all those who will try to sue incase something goes wrong

blargoe

You might have some success selling blocks of time at a discount of your normal rate as well. For example if you charge $75/hour normally, you could sell them a prepaid block of time like 5 hours for $300.

Or put in your support contracts that you will do scheduled preventative maintenance for them and do things like system optimizations, upgrading them to whatever the latest version of your preferred AV, etc, like an automotive tune up it's something they need to do regularly to keep their system at it's best. There is a local company doing just that and they are doing very well.

JDMurray

There's already been some good information posted on TE about starting your own business. Use the forum search feature to find other discussion threads with the phrase "business insurance" like this one.

d4nmf

I work for a company that does just that...we offer the following:

helpdesk (contracted hours so people dont take the biscuit!) between £750 - £1000 per year

Call out charge of £45 per hour

And thats the basics of it (naturally there are more complicated contracts)...the simplier you keep the charges the easier it is to manage and for customers to think there is a deal to be had!