Hi LP folks,
I decided to take a slightly different approach for my vote. Examining the three times:
7am to 12midnight (PST)
12am to 5pm (PST)
4am to 8pm (PST)
It is hard to tell exactly which one would be best for LP without looking at the situation in quite some detail. First of all, where are a majority of your customers?
For example, for people on the heavily populated East Coast of the United States, your offices would not open until 10:00 AM. This means if someone checks their web site early in the morning and notices a problem, they can't call for a while.
This is a helpful tool with these things.
12 AM PST is 3 AM in NY, 8 AM in London - doesn’t benefit too many people, except relatively early risers in London and surrounding cities. (If you want to take it further, look up what time the average British citizen wakes up. Some places (i. e. the West Coast of the US) typically don’t go to work until a bit later, while others go earlier.) 5 PM PST is 8 PM in NY, 1 AM in London. The business hours (represented as green on the web site) between the three are limited.
The situation as a whole is tough when time zones vary that much. To me, it seems that the 12 AM to 5 PM PST covers the most and would be the best for a majority of LP’s customers (assuming the possibility they are spread out fairly equally). It covers most of the business day in all three time zones, including early morning. Of course, if you add some other large cities (like New Delhi, India, for example), it becomes even more complicated. Add Tokyo and it is another timezone to figure out.
If it was just for me in EST, I'd vote for 4 AM to 8 PM. That covers the time I am usually awake and online. However, that doesn't mean it is best for the rest of customers. A poll system usually identifies what is best for individual customers who vote. This is good for some things (i. e. what the company has to improve upon as a whole), but for very specific things like this, it isn’t quite as effective.
Some other things I would consider besides the obvious (geographical location of a majority of the customers):
- Busiest time for helpdesk and phone system. This will help identify when customers need the most help. Without looking at LP's numbers, I would guess relatively early morning (8 - 10 AM local time) and evenings (8 PM to 10 PM) would be among the busiest times.
- Possibility of having extended phone hours on the busiest days (oftentimes Monday and Friday).
- Limited 24/7 support (per incident charges, only for longer time customers, callbacks as opposed to calling in, etc.).
- Possibility of having remote employees (such as those in Australia or in Europe) offering callback support. This could be done fairly easily with a VoIP line or cellphone provided to the representatives. This would be an inexpensive and effective way to offer support to those not covered during the normal business hours.
Sorry for the long post! Hopefully some of my suggestions are useful.
Poll
