For those of you with Web sites, you probably know
what a “host” is. It’s a company
that provides a location, or address, on the Internet
where your Web site resides.
In other words, just like a physical business needs
an address, so does a Web site. You can’t have
a Web site and just “stick it up” on the
Web. Unless you want to set up your own server, you
have to go through a hosting company who gives you
that address, including server space and bandwidth,
that enables the search engines and visitors to find
your site.
Let’s look at some common problems
we often have with hosting companies:
- You can never find an actual person to talk to!
They may have a 24-hour customer service line open,
but you can never get through to a real person.
- Hosting companies often think that the “lowest
price” will always get the sale, but they fail
to realize that what people really want is excellent
customer service, servers that are up almost 100%
of the time, and a variety of services that come with
the hosting package.
- Many hosting companies don’t provide any
other functionality other than Web site hosting. They
don’t provide a “control panel”
full of goodies such as PGP secure e-mail, shopping
carts, log analysis, database creation, etc.
- Guess what? Technical support people often don’t
make the best “customer support” people.
They may be technical gurus, but their main interest
lies in their high tech servers and other functionality,
rather than solving the simple problems of their customers.
- In other words, weak customer service is a major
problem with the majority of hosting companies these
days.
