Based in Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island, On-Line Support offers affordable helpdesk services for ISPs, with flexible pricing and a wide range of reporting options.

by Jeff Goldman [August 13, 2003]

On-Line Support began life in the mid '90s as the in-house technical support desk for a Canadian ISP, Hookup Communications. According to Kent MacPhee, On-Line Support's executive vice president and COO, the company's founders bought the call center division from Hookup a few years later, and created On-Line Support in January of 1997.

At the time, MacPhee says, outsourced helpdesk support for ISPs was something of a niche market. "In those days—in the mid to late '90s—there weren't that many call centers that specialized just in ISP support, certainly in this country," he said.

On-Line Support Voice: (866) OLS-INFO info@onlinesupport.com

Being based on Prince Edward Island in Canada allows On-Line Support to offer a uniquely cost-effective solution. "In our part of the world, we tend to live within our means, and we try to do more for less," MacPhee said. "And the fact that we used to be an ISP is the best thing that's ever happened to us, because we know what you can and can't do, and what you can and can't afford."

And the company services an extremely wide range of ISP customers. "We have ISPs with 500 customers, and we have ISPs under a telco brand with 500,000 customers," MacPhee said. "Still, everyone's needs are pretty much the same, and everybody's treated the same."

Reporting and monitoring
On-Line Support offers technical support for dialup, DSL, and wireless ISP customers. MacPhee says the company's reporting is a key strength. "I don't think there's ever been a reporting request put in to us that we couldn't accommodate," he said. "If you need it and we don't have it, we'll get it."

The typical reporting data that ISPs request, MacPhee says, is focused on wait times. "Most ISPs look for how long their customers have had to wait to get through to a live rep," he said. "We can generate reports every day that tell them, on average, how long it took. The reports can also generate the quickest responses and the longest wait in the queue of the day."

Other ISPs want to monitor calls more directly. "They can have access to the queue so they can sit at their desk in Dallas and see if there's four in the queue or 45," MacPhee said. "We send them a remote unit to access our telephony system, so they can have their thumb right on it all day."

For an ISP that's new to On-Line Support, the setup process comes down to filling out one form. "We have about two pages of information that we require in terms of settings and dial-in numbers, that line of stuff," MacPhee said. "Once we have that information, then it's really just a matter of pointing the 800 number here. We've done it so many times, it's old hat."

The island life
Being headquartered on Prince Edward Island offers the company an important advantage with respect to staffing. "In our part of the world, the tenure rate for employees triples the national average: loyalty is high," MacPhee said. "We scored very well in national surveys last year for best employers in the country: we were in the top hundred. That is not the norm in the call center space."

The company's technicians, MacPhee says, also stand out. "Over 50 percent of our agents on the phones have a post secondary education, and that is not the norm either," he said. "I'm a big believer that if you have happy employees, you'll have happy customers. It's not that complex; most people want to do their best most of the time, so if you give people a chance, they will usually take ownership."

As mentioned, On-Line Support's location allows the company to operate more economically than many of its competitors. "Our operating costs—for example, the cost of real estate and leases—are half of what they would be in the urban centers," MacPhee said.

Prince Edward Island is also a great place to do call center work in general. "For this type of work, patience is a virtue," MacPhee said. "If you can live in a place where the quality of life is what it is here, then you're not stressed out when you get to work. And when you leave work, you can usually find a very tranquil setting close by."

Working with the customer
Pricing for the company's services varies according to the ISP's needs. "There's no cookie cutter solution," MacPhee said. "Some customers will choose to pay a certain amount per subscriber, and some would rather pay per minute, per hour, or per call. We're going to make sure it's a win/win solution, because we don't want your contract for a year; we want it for ten."

Sprint's wholesale division uses On-Line Support to provide outsourced helpdesk services for its VISP customers. Eric Smith, Dial IP Product Manager for Sprint Data Services, says the company began working with On-Line Support a couple of years ago.

Since then, he says, he's been very happy with On-Line Support's ability to serve the full range of Sprint's VISP customers. "We've found them to be very flexible," Smith said. "Different customers require different things, and one of the areas in which Sprint has found success is in being able to meet customer needs. In order to do that, we needed a partner that could be flexible with us."

Customer satisfaction is a key focus for both companies, and Smith says On-Line Support's flexibility has been crucial in keeping customers happy. "I can't tell you how many times I've gotten calls from account teams who are working on opportunities where a number of things are out of the box," he said. "They contribute to Sprint's success by allowing us to offer that kind of flexibility."

— End

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