Business Model and Remote Support

[The Magus]

I currently travel extensively. More than half the time I have data-level access thru my cellphone network.

I would like to startup a computer help business but I mostly can't do onsite visits because I am out of town.

I can provide phone-based support and remote-login support easily. I can occasionally do onsite support.

Is this a model with a reasonable possibility of success?

Tom M.

[Parkwaytech]

Maybe. But what happens when someone has an emergency? Are you just going after individuals?

[JonnyRT]

It would have be targeted at home users as businesses would probably want onsite work doing.

Maybe you could look at focussing it on the older computer user, so it becomes a regular monthly maintenance thing (which you can easily do remotely). Also any emergency issues they have are probably quite easy to solve for someone with more experience so solving them remotely should be fine.

[gscomputerguy]

I too offer remote support but mostly to existing customers. I find it difficult to offer remote support to potential clients that have not done business with me before. I think I can attribute this to a trust factor. If the customer doesn't know you, they are fearful of what you could do to their computer. Existing customers find this to be extremely efficient and time-saving, however, if you are considering doing remote support, what happens when you run into a problem that requires on-site support?

___________________________
Gold Star Computers
"Your One-Stop Computer Shop"

[Parkwaytech]

Originally Posted by gscomputerguy

I too offer remote support but mostly to existing customers. I find it difficult to offer remote support to potential clients that have not done business with me before. I think I can attribute this to a trust factor. If the customer doesn't know you, they are fearful of what you could do to their computer.

I'd say 95% of computer issues can be fixed remotely. Obviously, if there computer won't power on or boot into Windows, that can't be fixed remotely.

We don't have any issue with trust. I let the customer watch what I am doing and keep them on the phone for at least a few minutes after I connect (unless they are a repeat customer). If they don't trust me to work on it remotely, then they usually don't trust me to work on it period, for whatever reason.

[altrenda]

Originally Posted by Parkwaytech

I'd say 95% of computer issues can be fixed remotely. Obviously, if there computer won't power on or boot into Windows, that can't be fixed remotely..

It's interesting to see the different kinds of problems people see. A good 70% of what I see are hardware related that can't be fixed remotely. Failing hard drives, power supplies, laptop screens, keyboard and mouse replacements, router and cabling problems, printing issues, backups.

I do about 1 remote a day, but there's no way I could live by only doing remote malware removal.

[Parkwaytech]

I didn't mean to imply that it was 95% of our business. Just that quite a bit can be fixed remotely. I can even fix a lot of Windows boot problems remotely depending on the issue (obviously this is phone support and not remote desktop).

Remote is the bulk of our business since we primarily provide service to small businesses. It is rare for us to see any hardware failure in that environment. Remote is obviously a much better use of our time. For residential clients, I would say it would be closer to 60% that we fix remotely. You definitely see more hardware issues there thanks to cheaper computers and longer replacement times.