when i first started back in Aug. 2004, whenever a customer cancel i will lose sleep, worry about if i can pay for the server...etc.

now i don't...i tell myself i did the best that i can and if they want to leave i can ask why and improve my service but i can't stop them. i was alway waiting for the day that i will have to pay out of my own pocket and if that happened i will pull the plug as i can't risk losing too much of my own money but odd enought, that date havn't come yet and i have gained another server and purchase softwares for my biz from my hosting biz.

when people cancel, i'm not worry about it too much now compare to when i start...i'm sort of numb now...is this normal? if you lose a customer, do you worry about it?

Is this normal? Not to me.

When a customer leaves do I worry about it? Yes.

I view every cancellation as a sign that we didn't meet the customer's needs one way or another. I contact every cancelation personally to ask them why they are cancelling and if it was something that we did. Do they have any suggestions for us or should we be handling something differently?

Fortunately no one has left from our screwing something up (yet!), everyone's needs have changed. They needed Windows for ASP content, they wanted to be able to send mail to purchased e-mail lists/found our double opt-in requirement too restrictive, and several just completely stopped their websites altogether.

These were still good opportunities to learn and examine our product, policies and pricing. We reviewed whether we should go into Windows servers... decided not to as we ran the risk of spreading ourselves too thin, tech-wise. The double opt-in thing was a no brainer ;) but for the people getting off the web, I asked them why and if there was any way that we could help to keep them online -- a business-owner-to-business-owner kind of conversation. Well as it turned out, two had become very sick and nearly died, and were getting out of business. Another two were hit hard by the economy and weren't seeing the level of kick-back from their websites that they expected/needed, and were already working so hard at 2nd and 3rd jobs that they didn't have time to even maintain their sites. Ordinarily I would strongly encourage a business owner to kick it into high gear and really push those sites, but for theses guys in their unique situations, it really was a losing proposition.

A cancellation is always an opportunity to learn and improve. The day I turn numb to a cancellation will be the day I know it's time to get out of the biz.



(Considering that I do have days like that w/ my bricks-and-mortar gift shop, this is actually my litmus, and I do consider it past time to get out of there. And I'm working on it. Real estate doesn't sell so quickly... :D)



:D Bailey

Originally posted by jt2377
when i first started back in Aug. 2004

By the way... congratulations on your first anniversary. That is a great achievement!

Man if I knew then what I know now... :emlaugh: The first year, man those were the days!!!

:D Bailey

Originally posted by bithost(NET)
By the way... congratulations on your first anniversary. That is a great achievement!

Man if I knew then what I know now... :emlaugh: The first year, man those were the days!!!

:D Bailey

thank but i'm make enought to go full time. just enought to cover servers/software/biz cost. i do care about people leaving but most of time it wasn't on my end. they leave for a lot of reason and i just stop asking and simply said, "thank you for your business".

i started doing webhosting to learn about the internet-related business so to me if i can learn the rope and it doesn't bleed me too much. i'm ok with people leaving since they leave because of xyz and it's nothing that i can do about it. i'm lucky that i havn't pay out of my pocket yet.

I've lost 2 clients in the past year. One was due to my own fault, and I fixed the problem. The other was because their business got bought out and had no need for the webspace anymore. :cool:

I don't think you should loose sleep over people leaving, but find out why, and try and fix that (if possible). Obviously if they can get a package for $1 @ unlimited then they're not worth having...well, not worth worring yourself over!

Congrats on the first anniversary,

As the guys have said above- don't lose sleep over losing customers. The beauty of the shared hosting industry is you can do so without rapidly going under!

One thing to remember, and a point I don't think has been made- remember some people, no matter what you give them, they'll cancel.

This type of person will moan at every downtime. They expect lightening quick support, and your prices are too expensive, no matter what you pitch in.

When these customers go, it's always a reason to sleep better at night :)

Customers come and go. It's a fact of life.
You can have the best service in the world and you will find people who are either not happy with it or they have decided they don't want a web site to begin with.

Treat them all well and you won't have to lose sleep when you lose some because you will know you have done your best.

A customer cancellation is rarely a good thing, but sometimes it provides insight into something your company can be doing better. If you're running a smooth operation, then most of your cancellations will just be people who no longer need the service.

The real potential problem I see here is that you seem to be worrying about being able to make your server payments. If your margins are so thin that losing a few customers is all it takes to take away your profit, perhaps you have a larger problem to deal with.

Originally posted by bqinternet
A customer cancellation is rarely a good thing, but sometimes it provides insight into something your company can be doing better. If you're running a smooth operation, then most of your cancellations will just be people who no longer need the service.

The real potential problem I see here is that you seem to be worrying about being able to make your server payments. If your margins are so thin that losing a few customers is all it takes to take away your profit, perhaps you have a larger problem to deal with.

i agree but like i said, i start it to learn how to climb so i play with price a lot of time and some stick and some miss. either way, as long as i don't have to pay out of my own pocket. i will keep doing it and go formal when i'm good and ready.

even after one year, i still got a lot to learn and i'm not ready to make a big jump.

The first customer I ever had was getting the hosting for free, and canceled after a month. :) I didn't ask them why, and still don't ask customers why when they quit. I do sometimes pity them for their bad decision.

Churn happens, you get used to it after a while, people come, people go, as long as more come as go, and you grow you are probably doing allright (hopefully anyway).

Originally posted by Dixiesys
Churn happens, you get used to it after a while, people come, people go, as long as more come as go, and you grow you are probably doing allright (hopefully anyway).

the funniest thing with my host biz is...i will have no sign up for months then some will leave and in the same month some will sign up and it balance out.

it's very weird.