Criteria Suggestions

[Orpheus]

I agree with most of the criteria in the locked thread, but I wanted to look at a blank page and offer my suggestions without the influence of others' posts.

A hosting company that meets my standards of excellence should meet AT LEAST these requirements:

1) Well outlined Privacy Policy
2) Well outlined Terms of Service on EVERY page
3) Uptime guarantee that insures compensation for guarantee not met. This includes letting your customers know when a machine is down, not just betting that they won't find out. Obviously malicious attacks may or may not be included in this guarantee.
4) A money back guarantee for dissatisfied customers
5) Prompt support practice (which can secretly be assessed by iawh)
6) A phone number (doesn't sound important right? I've seen MANY companies purposely NOT list a phone number)
7) Been in business at least long enough to join BBB or local chamber of commerce (usually 6 months).
8) College educated or certified staff.
9) Honesty in business.

Regards,
Dave.

[Phoenix]

Good summary Orpheus, the criteria thread kind of morphed into a discussion of support, which is a key area for all of us, because that is the number 1 value added service we offer.

Can you expand more on your #2 point, putting TOS on every page?

[thecomputerguy]

I feel when you say college certified, why?

Certified in Dance class doesnt make you certified to host. What if you didnt have the money to get into college, is that not descriminating against them, or just plainly they aren't old enought to get in yet...

What if you don't want to offer certain things such as money back to a dis satisfied customer?, I have had people try me out for a month and leave, they were the ones that used my 30-day money back guarantee...i think that is just gravy on the tators, because forcing me to do something makes the society which is trying to be built, Elite, not for the little guy working 2 jobs, and does this on the side, to maybe get out of those 2 jobs...

[Orpheus]

What I meant by TOS on every page is simply that the host includes a link to their TOS on every or most pages. Too often while I browse other companies' websites, I simply cannot find their TOS until their order area if I find it at all. Granted, I've lost sales because of my TOS (I always follow up on sales emails that do not end in signup) and probably because it was so easy to find, however, I believe it is best to be up front with the consumer.

Ok, I figured College Educated OR certified would be cause for discussion so here goes. I do not expect every web host to be of some elite socio-economic status. I would (as a consumer), however, expect the people running the business that hosts my website to have experience or training in several areas and here is why:

Educated in Business or hold a business degree
::Because::
If the company is run by individuals that do not know or follow business law and are not equipped to handle billing/ledger entry/client tracking...etc.. , sooner or later they will make a mistake either with the IRS or in their billing department that could possibly run them out of business. Hosting companies, in my humble opinion should be around for the long haul. And all too often we hear of companies that double bill, or bill clients even after they have canceled their subscriptions; this is not acceptable.

Educated in Technology or hold some kind of technology degree
::Because::
If the people that power an organization have all of the technical skills needed to successfully handle ALL support questions without the primer of a college education or certification in programming/networking/etc.. then more power to them. I believe, however, that more often than not most people exaggerate the skills they possess in order to lure clients to a host with an unknowledgable support staff. WE are selling support, please always keep that in mind.

If I've been too pretentious or overbearing, feel free to put me in my place. These are just my humble opinions and are always subject to influence.

Regards,
Dave.

[James]

Originally posted by Orpheus
Educated in Business or hold a business degree
::Because::
If the company is run by individuals that do not know or follow business law and are not equipped to handle billing/ledger entry/client tracking...etc.. , sooner or later they will make a mistake either with the IRS or in their billing department that could possibly run them out of business. Hosting companies, in my humble opinion should be around for the long haul. And all too often we hear of companies that double bill, or bill clients even after they have canceled their subscriptions; this is not acceptable.

I can understand where your coming from on this, but I dont think the owner holding the qualification is that critical. Speaking personally I'm hopeless at filing returns, meeting with bank mangers, accountants etc. But I'm very capable at marketing. So I chose to employ someone whose equally capable at the reporting side of the business.

What I'm trying to say, is that you can easily employ people that are qualified in any aspects of the business where you feel you are weak.

[akashik]

# 6 and 7 are a bit of a problem too.

While that's all fine for amercian businesses, those of us outside the US have own own set of problems to deal with.

A large proportion of our business is with US customers. Americans are very 'insular' as a culture and tend to frown on anything that's not in their own sandbox. We don't post a phone number on site as we don't find it applicable. Most customers would be ringing at international rates, and those that are local would gain (to my mind) an unfair advantage over those that aren't.

If they aren't aware of our business not being in america they're more likely to sign up. After they realize they get just as good support no matter where it's coming from then they don't mind it's not just down the street. It's not an attempt to mislead anyone, just getting over a few misconceptions.

As for the local BBB or chamber of commerce, I checked this out locally and there isn't an equivilant of that where I am as far as I can tell (SE Qld, Australia)

Considering we service people from the US, Colombia, Nigeria, England, and Australia to name a few the BBB isn't going to hold much water with them, given most americans find it a toothless old bear.

Greg Moore

[Phoenix]

Originally posted by Orpheus

Educated in Technology or hold some kind of technology degree
::Because::
If the people that power an organization have all of the technical skills needed to successfully handle ALL support questions without the primer of a college education or certification in programming/networking/etc.. then more power to them. I believe, however, that more often than not most people exaggerate the skills they possess in order to lure clients to a host with an unknowledgable support staff. WE are selling support, please always keep that in mind.

I'll take this one. It's actually two issues-support and qualifications measurements.

I've worked in IT for a number of years now, and that is not how our field works, at all. I've managed, trained and done tech support for hardware, software, and internal corporate users.

Unless you are billing for it, support is something you give away. It's a value-added service if you give more than break-fix away, otherwise it's one of the costs of doing business. Support is something that if you give too much of it away, you go broke. Every software company, hardware company, and connectivity company has this problem.

No one tech support person is expected to answer/resolve all issues. Tech support is traditionally broken down into levels. Level 1 (aka Front Line) is your break/fix, password reset, etc. This is your free support. Doesn't take a lot of expertise to follow pre-written scripts to troubleshoot and fix these kind of issues. It is a job that no-one wants to do, and there's not enough money in the budget to pay them well. In IT, front-line tech support is the equivalent of flipping burgers, or emptying trash. Low-status, low pay and zero respect. thank you, please drive through.

Once you get beyond Level 1 support, it starts getting expensive to provide because you need to have more experienced staff, and usually a consultant or more, on hand. This is the kind of support you normally pay for on 900 numbers, per incident charges or time and materials. Level 2 or higher support has to pay for itself, either by higher fees for the product/service or by direct compensation.

The problem that I see in the hosting industry is that many companies have one person doing all the support. If the support rep is qualified to do Level 2 support or development, they will be bored to death doing Level 1. And if they are qualified to only do the Front Line stuff, they really should not be trying to do the advanced support. It only makes the company look bad.

IT is different from many other fields in that degrees and certifications don't mean that someone is qualified for even a Level 1 support position. In IT, different rules apply.

There are two types of people in IT.

First we have those who are ahead of the curve, they learned technology by writing programs, holding LAN parties, hacking and teaching other people how to use them. They are the ones who are doing R&D on the side for fun (see Linus Torvalds and the development of Linux) and will take something apart, put it back together and improve it. They love technology, could care less about making money (except that it enables them to buy more powerful computers), and are more interested in helping the world become more like Star Trek.

Then, there are the ones who learned about technology in college, or by going to cram schools and passing the MCSE exams. They are more interested in money and management positions and retiring rich on their stock options than the technology.

In any ordinary industry, the first group would be considered less qualified than the other, due to lack of paper. Not in IT.

The first group are the techies. They are the expensive consultants, they run the networks, manage the servers and the firewalls, write the code, and some do support if they have something else going on the side as most techies do (nice thing about front-line support, you don't have to take it home with you unless you are 'on call'). They want hands on, hard core tech. They are IT's elite caste.

The other group are qualified for Level 1 support-with a lot of training. If they have the right people skills and financial knowledge they often end up in IT management, because the techies don't usually take that path. A lot of meetings and bean counting. Some of them are interested in technology, but don't quite have the right mindset to be techies.

Both groups will lie about their abilities. Techies know they can learn whatever they need by picking up a book or playing with the technology. Those with the paper normally expect their company to cover the cost of any further training, so they BS their way into the job-saw a lot of that at the corporate level.

I've worked with, worked for, trained, and managed both groups at different levels. I managed a Yale-educated database programmer, and a 17 year old Unix/NT admin. I worked for a guy with a high-school education who programmed carrier grade routers from scratch, and for someone with an advanced degree in IS Management.

Like most IT managers, I would never hire someone just because the have paper when I could get a techie. Techies are more expensive, and not easy to keep, but worth every penny.

[allera]

Originally posted by Orpheus
Educated in Technology or hold some kind of technology degree
::Because::
If the people that power an organization have all of the technical skills needed to successfully handle ALL support questions without the primer of a college education or certification in programming/networking/etc.. then more power to them. I believe, however, that more often than not most people exaggerate the skills they possess in order to lure clients to a host with an unknowledgable support staff. WE are selling support, please always keep that in mind.
I'm going to reply to this as well. Personally, I have no college degree nor technical certifications (that are worth anything) towards anything computer related. I have been working with computers since 1990 (back when I was 11 or 12) and I quickly became consumed by them. I entered the BBS world and learned the ins and outs of MS DOS and Win3.1. From that point on, I taught myself everything I could get my hands on. Computer hardware/software, networking, linux, solaris, and freebsd, a vast amount of knowledge on how the internet works as a whole, as well as its parts, etc etc. I have worked for small businesses and very large corporations alike, doing a variety of high-end tasks. All without degrees or certifications.

My point is that I can run circles around some people with degrees in CIS or equiv, and people with MCSE and other technical degrees; yet I possess neither. Although I agree that college degrees and certifications sure do glorify and make a person LOOK more qualified, they sometimes aren't. I wouldn't choose a host based on their professional qualifications. I would choose a host based on their knowledge, their attitudes, and their principles. If they reply to my support questions intelligently, quickly, and friendly, chances are very high that I will stick with them for a few extra bucks a month over some host that boasts qualifications and can't back them up.

But that's just me. :)