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It\u2019s important to know what you don\u2019t know<\/strong><\/p>\n The web hosting industry makes a lot of assumptions about what their prospects or clients know, and for the most part, think they know more than they really do. Granted, some hosting clients are well versed in CPU models, RAM, bandwidth, cloud scenarios and managed services, but if trouble tickets are telling the truth, quite a few still need help with simple stuff like setting up email.<\/p>\n The more successful hosting providers understand this upfront and offer a knowledgebase on their site that addresses the most frequently asked questions.<\/p>\n You could be putting your business at risk if you don\u2019t find out what you don\u2019t know<\/strong><\/p>\n From the client\u2019s point of view, price is very important because, let\u2019s face it, times are tough and we all need to get the most bang for our buck. Price alone though doesn\u2019t cut the cake. Why? There are infrastructure variables hiding behind that price point when we\u2019re discussing web hosting.<\/p>\n A teenager can purchase a cheap VPS and start selling plans on their summer vacation, and design a hosting site that compares to hosting providers that own and operate multiple data centers. How would you as a consumer know the difference? And then where would your business be come September when they\u2019re back in school and can only reply to trouble tickets on weekends, if then?<\/p>\n What if you don\u2019t have a clue what you don\u2019t know?<\/strong><\/p>\n If you find yourself lost in a world of terms you don\u2019t understand like shared hosting, virtual private servers, cloud hosting or colocation, start by performing Google queries for hosting providers and compare multiple sites, including their knowledgebase articles.<\/p>\n Check the hosting provider\u2019s site for Live Chat<\/strong><\/p>\n Surprisingly, a lot of hosting providers don\u2019t offer Live Chat, or if they do, it\u2019s only on the sales side, or it\u2019s not actually \u201cLive\u201d 24\/7, just during their working hours. Most business owners know upfront what type of site they\u2019d like to have online, but don\u2019t know what type of hosting plan would match their requirements, and Live Chat offers them that opportunity to ask questions before they purchase a plan.<\/p>\n So what do you ask of potential hosting providers?<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019d recommend asking how many technicians they have on their staff, at levels 1, 2 and 3 and how they escalate trouble tickets. If your site goes down after normal working hours, you don\u2019t want a level one tech telling you you\u2019ll have to wait until a supervisor comes in next morning to get you back online.<\/p>\n The real measure of a great hosting provider is not the plans they offer, rather how they treat their clients. Cross-industry, companies that survive the test of time are those that realize the lifetime value of their clients.<\/p>\n\n
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