We started gradually providing 1st line customer support to end-users so as to a few months ago and we are confident in handling the number of support calls. More than 90% of support calls were related to user settings, and not to hardware problems with hotspots. Wherever we are not able to help the user directly, we will contact the Hotspot Provider to investigate further. As such, we will be making some changes to the Portal Page (aka Splash Page). With immediate effect, Skyrove will provide 1st line support contact details on the Portal Page. In the near future, the Portal Page will approximate the look & feel of the Welcome Page (what people see after they’ve logged in). We are also revamping our Hotspot Provider Terms & Conditions, and ask that you revisit these (https://auth.skyrove.com/provider_tandc.html). Due to implementing Rand Billing on our systems, clause 8 has changed slightly. Clause 10 is to ensure a consistent experience for end-users and Clauses 11 and 12 are to ensure end-users can easily identify hotspot locations where they can use their credits, either through signage or when connecting to the nearest Wi-Fi network. Thank you for all your feedback so far!

We are planning two major changes that will affect new Hotspot Providers: 1. We plan to do first-line customer support centrally. This is so that we can provide a consistent service to all Skryove end-users, while at the same time taking off the load from the Hotspot Provider. This support will be limited to telephonic support related to end-user problems. If we cannot help the user, we will contact the Hotspot Provider to check the status of the Hotspot. 2. We plan to implement different revenue-share models for Hotspot Providers. We will have two common models on our website: a) Sign up as an ordinary Skyrover (Hotspot Provider), and get 50% revenue share. If you plan to only run a single hotspot for your coffee shop or to share with a few neighbours, you’ll qualify for this. b) If you plan to install Skyrove at lots of different locations, you can also become a Skyrove Reseller. You might be running an IT company or have a passion for technology and entrepreneurship. You can get between 50% and 70% revenues, on a sliding scale based on total revenues. We also plan to provide more documentation, training, etc in return for a commitment to upholding certain minimum Skyrove standards and to keep setting up new Skyrove hotspots. Skyrove resellers will also have an opportunity to provide a service to ordinary Skyrovers, and we are thinking of linking up ordinary Skyrovers with Skyrove Resellers. For example, we could promote Skyrove resellers on our website, and if someone wants to start their own hotspot, they can choose to get a Skyrove Hotspot-to-Go or to use the services of a Skyrove Reseller to come and install at their location. Currently, we have not finalised all the details, and therefore would like to ask you for any feedback on how best we should implement this. We have only one goal with the new models: To get more Skyrove hotspots out there! We are offering a free Skyrove router to the best feedback we receive, positive or negative. Please email your feedback to henk(at)skyrove(dot)com or leave a comment on this blog.

I mentioned last year, and more recently in a podcast on the Amplitude Show, that we’ve been looking at ways to implement advertising on our Welcome page. The bad news is that we haven’t really figured out how to do this properly, yet. The good news is that we realised that sometimes the best way to figure something out, is by doing it! So without further adieu, we are introducing a pilot advertising campaign for Travelstart, a discount airfare booking site, on our Welcome page. We thought that this would be the best product to promote, seeing as most Skyrovers are visitors to South Africa, and may have the need to get around. The point of this campaign is to first try and determine whether there’s any value in having advertising on the Skyrove Welcome page, or whether this is merely an annoyance to customers, before we develop a more robust product in which Skyrove Providers can partake. And, of course, to get feedback from Skyrover Providers!

I’m happy to announce that we’ve launched a Skyrove Support number! +27 (021) 4488843 We plan to progressively give more 1st line customer support to Skyrovers over the coming months. Skyrove will start to directly support Skyrovers with forgotten passwords or who have account or purchasing queries who would normally have been referred to us only after speaking to the Hotspot Provider, thus causing extra inconvenience for the end-user. In addition, Skyrove will also give telephone support to users who are having trouble connecting to the network due to any problems on their computers, such as Wi-Fi cards not being on and static IP addresses or proxies being set. If we determine that the problem is with the hotspot itself, we will then contact tech support for that particular hotspot. As always, we welcome your feedback! Henk

We’ve just implemented a new look Skyrove Welcome page! (That’s what we call the page that displays immediately after you’ve connected to a Skyrove hotspot). It’s still a work in progress, so we might still add and remove a few things.

The main feature we’ve added is the Google Search box. We noticed many people went straight from our Welcome page to Google, so we thought we’d save you some time by allowing to do a Google Search directly from the Skyrove Welcome page. Is there anything you really miss from the old page? Is there anything you really don’t need on the new one? Please leave a comment! (100 free Skyrove credits to the first 10 responses before 5 May, which is also Henk’s Birthday! Please also mail me at henk at skyrove dot com with your Skyrove username so I know who you are)

If you’re a Skyrove Provider, you may have noticed that we’ve implemented a Google Search Box on the Skyrove Welcome page. If end-users use this to search, and thereafter click on a Google Adword on the Results Page, Skyrove will earn commission on the cost-per-click. For now, we’re simply trying it out and the primary purpose is for the Search Box to be a value-add to customers, NOT a revenue earner for Skyrove or Skyrovers (Hotspot Providers). If it turns out that there are significant revenues resulting, we will look again at implementing a revenue share structure for Skyrovers. I’ll also gladly publish revenue figures here, in the interest of transparency. (So far 0c earned!)