Hey everyone,
I work for a relatively new hosting company, in the marketing division, and was wondering:

Which do you value the most in your web-host?

A. Speed
B. Uptime
C. Price
D. Tech Support

Obviously, a good host should have all of these, but post your thoughts!

As a veteran client of a several hosts over the past 7 years, I would say: All of the above! Of course.

But to add another that I have come to value the most:

E. HONESTY

If you sell someone a plan for 5G of bandwidth, then be prepared to offer 5G of bandwidth. If you sell someone certain features (i.e. SMTP service) then live up to providing that service... or if you can't, give ample notice that you'll be discontinuing that service.

I've found that far too many hosts put together these impressive-sounding packages that they simply are not willing to make good on after the point of sale. It's a terrible practice, and altogether too common.

Hope that helps.

I couldn't agree more with your comment about honesty.

Personally we have been going for about 2 years now, and not once have we paid for advertising - all our business comes via word-of-mouth which everyone knows is the best advertising you can get.

If you're honest with your customers and they are happy, thats the best for everyone involved.

HTH,

Andy.

Maybe you could have done a poll?

All of the above are important and I would not even consider a host that doesnt offer all.

having said that, being that I am a web hosting provider, price doesnt matter to me in the least. If the other areas are fantastic then I am willing to pay a little bit extra. I'm talking dedicated servers here.

It's like I tell my own customers, and like I ripped from a volvo commercial: It's now what you pay, it's what you get. Do you want to pay $99 a month? Ok the support sucks and you get no advanced options, but the good part is it isn;t costing you much! This works great if you are a guru and can handle all problems yourself. Does this work out for a intermediate hosting customer? No.

Uptime and a rock stable backbone don't mean much either. In my 5 years of business thus far, I have hosted with 4 different companies. Each, however big or small have been able to handle my traffic with no unplanned outages that I can remember, and I would remember. Just about any reliable web host is going to have a decent connectivity.

The moral of this rant, is that different things matter to different people. If you stress the tech support, you will get a ton of people who don't know crap and are flocking to you because you advertise hand holding.

One last piece of advice, and I may be way off here... It appears as if you are asking web host providrs the question that you should really be asking hosting customers. I've seen more providers/resellers here than buyers.

All of the above are important. Essential is the friendlyness of the support. If the customers are treated right they refer their friends and send you nice emails.

I know this as I have been with several hosts in the past, and even if the hosting experience was good i only seem to remember the snarky tech support.

I think that if something goes wrong and a customer complains, you need to keep the customer informed on exactly what’s being done to fix it and a timeframe on around how long you think it will take to fix it.

The more the customer knows that something is being done, the better they feel.

I think service is one of the most important followed by supplying a quality product that the customer wants. It is of no value if you offer something great and it is not what they want or if you back up a horrible product. I worked for a company call Ariel Corporation (www.arielcorp.com). We owned over 70% of the market because we serviced great. Some of our biggest praises were that no matter what the problem, we fixed. We fixed all problems and found fault later. When someone is down and it is costing them big money, it doesn't matter who's fault it is. The problem needs fixed and NOW!!! Another company I would like to point out is Compaq. In my previous IT career's I have purchased hundreds of compaq notebooks. I will only buy their notebooks because of their support. I can call them up and no matter what the issue, they fix my laptop for free within 1 to 2 days. Talk about service. For these luxuries, most people don't mind paying a little more....

Thanks
jared

Moderator's Comments: Jared - Change your signature. It's too self-promotional.