With so many hosts, and resellers how do you stand out above the rest?

I am targeting a certin client one that only a handful of companies cater to and only one that I know of has done it well.

I thought this might be a good topic, get some creative juices flowing :D

If you are outstanding in your field, you will be standing out in your field.

Differentiating one's business is difficult, especially in an industry like ours where it's hard to tell false promises from the real McCoy.

Web Hosting is our base service-we all offer that. It's the value-added services, pricing differentials, and quality differentials that make every host unique. Find what you have that is different about you, focus on that and the type of customers who will appreciate that difference.

If you or your staff are exceptional at training, focus on new web designers and help them through difficult to learn concepts such as FTP, SSL, and others. Price your services accordingly to compensate you for your time.

If you happen to have a whiz-bang script person on staff, offer free help with scripting problems as a value added service, as well as optional script development for time and materials. Price your services accordingly to be able to afford and retain your script wizard.

If you've got a good server administrator, offer help with setting up customer's web servers (optional administration). Price accordingly to be able to afford him.

If you don't have any special technical talents on your staff, focus on customer service and billing. Make sure that this aspect of your customers experience is a positive one.

Adding bells and whistles as value added services helps, but the licensing fees can get a bit pricey.

If you can offer your service at a low price, sell it for as little as possible, make it as self-serve and turnkey as possible, and make it clear that it is no-frills hosting.

But start by asking yourself the question, what do I/we do better than anyone else?

One thing will make you stand above the rest, customer satisfaction!

A host providing terrible service will also stand out. :D I can't speak for others, but I am more incline to read posts about bad hosts.

This is sad :(

but mostly true

True. You see lots of messages about bad hosts (and other companies) but rarely see a post in praise of a host.

Originally posted by Jaiem
True. You see lots of messages about bad hosts (and other companies) but rarely see a post in praise of a host.

That's pretty much how it works in all forms of business. An unsatisfied customer tells on average 10 people. A satisified customer tells on average 1 person.

And in the world at large. People are more interested in bad news than in good news.

Yep, that's why I stopped watching the daily video obituarties, OOPS! - I mean the 6pm 'news' which is basically who was killed, when they were killed, and how they were killed. They throw in a fluff sappy feel good community piece at the end just to make it look as if they are actually reporting on something. people like the bad news.

*bangs head on wall*

What is the world coming to??? Why? Whhhhhhhhhhhy???

Ahem, back to topic... I agree with cbaker's comment. Really, know your stuff as or at least learn about it as much as possible while you are hosting, and offer the best support you can.

Haveing good support, as said before, is a huge plus. People not on a tight budject are willing to pay more for it. Also, one thing I learned is that advertising is the key. I remember talking to a paid host when I was playing the field 2 years ago on hosts. This person was loosing money and was going under. He then started advertising like crazy and he is still up today. He also had a good support center. But advertising really did it for him.

Sure sure, people thing they put up a site and *bing* they'll be rich. Guess they failed to notice that thousands of other sites offer the same thing? I've told my clients that putting up a site on the web and not promoting it, is like building a giant super store in the middle of a remote Vermont forest. You could have the lowest price in the area but how are people supposed to find it when you don't have any signs on the road and you don't advertise it?

Originally posted by Chicken
like building a giant super store in the middle of a remote Vermont forest. You could have the lowest price in the area but how are people supposed to find it when you don't have any signs on the road and you don't advertise it?

very nice picture :)
How about building a giant super store on the north pole and doing very much advertising? Do you think many people from the US and Europe will jump into their car and drive north?
:D

is that what people in Austria do?

Originally posted by Walter
How about building a giant super store on the north pole and doing very much advertising? Do you think many people from the US and Europe will jump into their car and drive north?
:D

Well since this is actually a *virtual* superstore, and I have DSL, the traffic ain't that bad.

go to the extremes...be it your company image, the service, the support, etc...

Originally posted by cbaker17
One thing will make you stand above the rest, customer satisfaction!


Wise words... everything else falls below this.

You will never be the BEST for everyone, but you can certainly rank in the top strata if you build up a loyal base of satisfied customers... and if you have no business experience, then ask someone who has... or get some yourself...

;)

BTW, less than 10% of our customers come from this viper pit.. errrr, forum... so targeting a section of the market that is easier for you to manage is possibly a better place to start than a broad brush attempt at mass exposure (eg *****)

Good luck...

Speaking as a customer the key to doing well is....
COMMUNICATION

Having support that speak the multitude of languages (variations in tech speak, to laymens) required to get the message across to all users.

Sales people who tell it straight.

A team that work together including letting each other and customers know what's going on, even when it's going bad...

If you can do all that and offer services as per the other posts you'll do well in my book.

I can speak tech to a layman very well because Im totally self taught from back in the days when graphics were new and modems were 9600 Baud :eek: lol

I definitely agree with Phoenix's comment that if you are outstanding you will stand out. Also, those who succeed in this are not here solely for the money. You really must enjoy it to make it here. The time and effort it takes will drive you crazy if you keep your eyes solely on the greens. Most important though is Customer Service and Support. I cannot stress this much more.

But it also is important to note, from my experience working here that there simply are some clients you do not need and you have to force off the servers. There is always going to be that client who believes that because they paid for the service, your life must revolve around them.:stickout