Hi Everyone,

Just looking for your thoughts and feedback on this point.

I have found that many resellers go crazy over downtime and problems that occur with their providers and claim that they lose X number of clients because of the problems.

Now I agree that down time is best kept at 0% and that it can cause some clients to leave.

But do you find that if you have a good repore with your customers and keep them well updated on the suituations that the "real" customers will usually stay with you?

From my experience my clients don't think of me as a reseller.. they view me simply as a provider of hosting space and where I buy that space from is upto me. I also make sure that each client understands that there is no such thing as 100% uptime.

"In the best possible times you still have to turn the car off and fill the tank up again, at least once and awhile" (this is what I tell my clients before any problems arise, not after)

So in the end when a problem arises I let the customer know quickly and do my best to provided detailed information on what is going on and when it will be fixed.

Of course you get the handful of people that want 110% uptime and if technology & the net ever allows for this we will all be happen then.
:D


just my 2cents worth...

-JF

Yea, I agree with you, I think that most people want to know what is going on. if you can keep them up to date with all hapenings i think that genrally they will stay happy ... Although they might get a bit annoyed if you send them an e-mail saying ...

The server was down again last night for anther 5 hours were only expecting 3 or 4 hours downtime tomorrow, hope this is cool with you?!

ha ha ha!

I believe communication is key. Unfortunately, our NOC had one of it's communications providers go down this past weekend. In this case, it wasn't us, our server, our NOC, but Quest. Fortunately, we did have enough connectivity through redundant channels for me to fire off an email letting my clients know what was going on as honestly and openly as I could.

Before the letter went out, we were getting emails and phone calls from concerned clients. After, we didn't get anything but regular support requests. We didn't lose one client as a result. Other hosts at the same NOC were not so fortunate. All (most) clients want to know is that you really are aware of the situation, that you're doing everything possible to remedy it, that they're not alone and they want reassurance that this isn't a long term or recurring problem.

My 2 cents.