If you could offer a single piece of advice...

...or piece of information, a link, a quote, a single word, or a personal experience to someone starting up in hosting, what would you say?
It'd be interesting to hear from experienced people about what they think is the most important thing





__________________
I love to make websites. I love to program. I'm hosted by downtownhost and they're brilliant!

My advice to someone who is starting up is... 'Dont bother - unless you're heart is really in making it successful'
If they turned round and said their heart was going to be in it, then tell them to focus on customer satisfaction. Support - I can't stand waiting hours for a reply.

Quote:



Originally Posted by LH-Danny


... focus on customer satisfaction...


Yeah. I've quit talking about Customer Support and have tuned my advice to include Customer Satisfaction.





__________________** 2009 **
Go out and make this your best year yet!

Quote:



Originally Posted by citricsquid


...or piece of information, a link, a quote, a single word,...


Local market.
Vito





__________________DemoDemo.com - Flash tutorials since 2002 - trust the undisputed market leader.Monthly subscription tutorials are now available. If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.

Take pride in the service you offer. While customer satisfaction and all that other stuff is important, I'll let the other guys preach that. My knock against majority of online businesses is that everyone seems to wipe their hands clean after the sale has been made. Don't fall into this category. Consider the level of service you expect (I expect perfection) and try and offer that back to your client.
As a side tip, make wise server choices from the get go. I know one thing our company failed miserably at was selecting providers that we could grow with. Unfortunately it took years of "testing" to find the providers we truly loved. I'm sure some serious research could have saved us (and our clients) many headaches.





__________________TeamSpeakHost Inc. - Quality TeamSpeak ServersHostVentrilo - Quality Ventrilo Servers

Quote:



Originally Posted by citricsquid


...or piece of information, a link, a quote, a single word, or a personal experience to someone starting up in hosting, what would you say?
It'd be interesting to hear from experienced people about what they think is the most important thing


Be customer focused and offer quality service . Have unique offerings and pricing models to attract mass.
The buzz word is Quality. Deliver more than what you have promised and it will lead to customer delight.





__________________
Blessen Cherian
CTO, www.bobcares.comMy 2 cent on Preventing DDOS
HeMan and the Masters of VPS

The Customer is King.
-mike





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Quote:



Originally Posted by Mike - Limestone



The Customer is King.
-mike


I actually like that quote, maybe every hosting company should atleast consider it.

Support and Customer Service are the most critical aspects of web hosting business which you should ideally focus on.





__________________Dedicated Servers - Fully Managed UK Dedicated ServersVPS Hosting - Virtuozzo powered Virtual Private Servers
Complete Web Hosting solutions at eUKhost.com

The perception of great customer service (in your client's mind) lends to great customer satisfaction. Not all issues can be fixed by the host, but if you work with your clients (instead of just telling them they need to fix it on their end), your support carries so much more weight, which lends to higher customer loyalty. Commit yourself to Raving Customer Satisfaction.





__________________▓ Hostirian (314) 216-7148Premier Colocation - Dedicated Servers▓ 24-7-365 NOC Tech Support sales@hostirian.com

Since I couldn't say it better my self:
"Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage."
- Niccolo Machiavelli

Quote:



Originally Posted by vito


Local market.
Vito


Ditto.
Although I think that's because I enjoy social interaction, vs. the local market being easier to engage.
I love seeing client's and their projects firsthand.





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David McKendrick @ Fused Network
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