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Web Hosting Look For A Customer First Attitude
he single most important
factor when choosing a web If you have ever talked to a web
host is reliability. This host technical support person you
is confirmed over and over again get the impression they are
in surveys of webmasters and handling three or four calls all
online entrepreneurs. at the same time. That's because
they have thousands of clients,
But "reliability" is not a simple and often the problems come in
thing. If you assume for the waves. And that can lead to
moment that most web hosting frustrating conversations with
companies are technically your tech person.
competent, have been consistently
upgrading their systems, and have For example, I have recently been
products that are reasonably having a problem with one of my
priced, then a major component of web hosts. The problem has to do
web hosting reliability comes with accessing some of my sites
down to good old fashioned to make changes. Now I have been
"customer service". doing web building for years, and
with many different hosts, and
In other words, what you really this is the very first time I
want to know is, "When there is a have had this specific problem.
problem with my website, can I
get speedy no-nonsense So although I am open to the
solutions?" possibility that the problem is
somewhere at my end, I think it
With web hosts the "no-nonsense" is unlikely. All my sites with
thing can be a problem. this host seem to have this same
issue, and none with any of the
**Talking with technical support other web hosts that I use. In
can be difficult either case, what I am looking
for is some intelligent "reliability" of this host.
suggestions. Service people often take the
attitude that if they stall long
But so far I have not been able enough the problem will go away.
to get an intelligent response -- And, yes, sometimes it does go
even though it has been happening away.
on and off for about a week now.
I get the standard response: But on the other hand, I think
"Have you tried this, have you they usually stall because they
tried that..." all of which imply are just too stretched out to be
that the problem must be at my focused on your little
end, and none of which give the insignificant problem. In other
impression that they are actually words, they are not sufficiently
thinking about what is going on. "customer-focused" on me to solve
my specific issue.
Having been there myself quite a
few times, I can sympathize with This is when web host
the technical support person's "reliability" takes a hit. And it
dilemma. But in my experience, is when customers start thinking
most tech support people have hard about changing hosts. While
seen these problems before, and the tech person is stalling you
they probably know the answer. It are wasting time trying to get
is just very difficult to get your blasted website to work. And
them to actually focus on your more often than not, getting it
issue. to work just takes a little bit
of effort on the part of the tech
**Reliability starts with a team at the other end.
Customer-First Attitude
This merely confirms what
This has a direct bearing on the marketing people have been saying
for years about "customer Customer Service
service". Customer service is
important in every business, and Unfortunately there is no
at every stage of the sales and completely fool-proof way to know
delivery process. Your sales and in advance where you are likely
accounting people must be to get good, reliable,
customer focused. Your production customer-friendly service.
people must be customer focused.
And your tech support people must You can try looking at web host
be customer focused too. review sites to get some
comparisons between hosts. But
Unfortunately many web hosting unfortunately many of these sites
tech support people just do not are themselves not reliable. For
understand this. They often one thing, they are usually
consider themselves superior to trying to resell hosting
their clients. And they have been services, so the "reviews" are
able to get away with shoddy, often tainted. For another, if
unfriendly service because it is they contain comments and reviews
just too inconvenient for clients by the public, these can also be
to change hosts. manipulated. Some hosts will post
bogus reviews praising their own
Thankfully this is changing. services and criticising those of
There is enough step-by-step their competition.
information available to help
make a host change, and many You can also scan web hosting
hosts will actually help you forums for comments and
trasfer your domain to their recommendations. These seem to be
system. generally reliable, but are still
open to the kind of manipulation
**Making Your Choice Based on mentioned above. And since things
change so quickly in the web also recommend contacting the
hosting business, comments made a customer help desk in advance of
year ago about a specific web ordering just to see what kind of
hosting company will probably be reception I get.
out of date.
I also look for testimonials from
My own preference is to look real web hosting customers. Make
closely at the website of the sure they are clearly identified
host itself. If it is overly with names, physical addresses,
technical and confusing I usually and website addresses. If you
move on. That usually suggests, really want to be aggressive, you
to me at least, that the focus of might contact some of these
this host will be on people directly.
technicalities, that it may be
difficult to navigate their Of course I agree that none of
support system, and I may have this is fool-proof. But given the
difficulty getting plain and highly competitive nature of the
simple answers to my inquiries. web hosting business, all other
things being equal, a simple,
A simple layout with a minimum straightforward customer-focused
number of customer-oriented approach is what you should be
products and an easily-accessed looking for in a web host.
support system suggests the
company is customer-focused. I
About the Author:
Rick Hendershot publishes Linknet News | Reliable, cheap web hosting | Web hosting testimonials
Read more articles by: Rick Hendershot
Article Source: www.iSnare.com
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