Best of the ISP-Lists

How Many Employees Do You Need?

Members of the ISP-Wireless list discuss the number of employees an ISP needs. The answer depends in part on how much the owner can do—one owner has "not had a real vacation in three years."

[January 29, 2001]

On the ISP-Wireless list in January, GF inquired,

"How many employees are you using to support your ISP operations? What ratio of employees to customers do you think is best?"

A number of respondents shared their personal statistics:

[CM observed] "We support only business wireless customers, most with 10-1700 desktops per site. We have two full time support staff on pagers, supporting close to 10,000 desktops in 16 communities. For install crews, we have two full time and anywhere from 2-4 part time installers depending on the season."

[JF offered] "We have 1100 dialup and 15 wireless customers with two full time people. We could probably grow another 20-30% without more help. As the owner, I do all the paperwork, tech support and sign-ups when the first line is busy, network engineering and wireless installs. I'm doing one wireless install a week or so, so it is not a big deal. We handle almost all tech support and sign-ups over the phone. Two people are more than adequate for now.

One disadvantage with the small crew is that I have not had a real vacation in three years."

[PS recounted] "I have 6000 dialups, about 10 dedicated ISDN, and about 200 webhosting accounts. We have two tech support personnel who answer phone calls and on alternate days go out on site, so we have one guy in the office and one on site most of the time. We also have two receptionists, one office manager, one billing manager, and me."

Others warned that there are more complex factors to consider than a simple ratio:

[TI advised] "It is hard to generalize this. It depends on focus, services offered and equipment used. The more automated you are, the better ratio you will get. Also, it depends on the rate at which you acquire customers. What about web site development, computer support, network support, wiring? There are all kinds of supplemental services you can offer which take people but add revenue if done well."

[PF added] "More staff equals more growth. Spend the money on people, so they are not so rushed and can take the time to help when the phones are ringing."

— End