Things that make you go hmm...

[RyanK]

I wanted to intrigue this forum and ask all of you what is it that you enjoy, dislike or wish a web hosting company could provide?

As always web hosting companys as a whole are striving to keep our clients happy by providing good service and value-add products or services. Here we can, as web hosting providers, listen to your needs and make paths for them.

For example we have spent a long time developing our iControl product that provides end users instant account activation and control panel functions. Taking that example, how would you rate that functionality, how important is it to you?

________________
Ryan Kekos
GearHost
www.gearhost.com
Starting at $4.95

[Mr Chunder]

Likes:
1. Online access to all configuration (control panel)
2. Online help / FAQ
3. Zero downtime / High-availability
4. 24-7 support with instant response
5. Online payment / invoice checks
6. Stable company - one that is here and not changing hands

Dislikes:
1. Con-artists
2. When any of the above likes are not met.

[RyanK]

Totally understand . What about value-add services? What would your dream hosting company provide for you?

________________
Ryan Kekos
GearHost
www.gearhost.com
Starting at $4.95

[Mr Chunder]

I appreciate what you are doing here but I really do feel that the hosting industry needs to get the basics right first before looking to the next level. If this can be done, then these hosts will shine through all the others over the next couple of years and the scammers can die a well overdue death.

Not many people have responded to this thread suggesting to me that this is pretty much how everyone feels.

Goold luck in your business anyway

[RyanK]

Totally understand. I see your point clearly. These forums are a reminder to all oh how hosts can better their business. All I see are threads about simple basic hosting requirements being challenged by clients. I wish all the best of luck.

________________
Ryan Kekos
GearHost
www.gearhost.com
Starting at $4.95

[orangy]

I'm at the start of own business, but spent some time building and managing websites. So, I'm a bit experienced in web-management, but with outsourcing hosting. Here is my wish list for hosting providers (in addition to those mentioned by Mr Chunder)

- Ping map. When I'm in a process of selecting hosting provider, I want to see how fast is his access from various network points in the world.

- Custom hosting plans. And a wizard to calculate price. I want to come to service provider, select features I need and see how much I will pay for this. Without long talking to sales, who wants to sell more and more. Example is simple. I need MS SQL 2k service, but I don't need a lot of disk space and traffic. Most of hosting service providers include MS SQL in expensive packages/plans.

- Try before buy. I.e. free 1Mb disk space for 3 days, without DNS or whatever, just web page on the site. URL may be hosting.blah.com/demo?id=234652364, so I can ask known people all over the world to test site.

That is. Hope this helps...

[toma1708]

I am running a small hosting company in Romania and I realized that clients are attracted by 4 things:

1. Possibility of having custom packages;
2. Try before you buy period.
3. Scripting possibilities (MySQL DB) on cheap packages.
4. Monthly payment.

[Amanda]

...technical support staff that don't always use one liners to answer your requests.

I just absolutely hate that, and if I ever leave the current company I am with, this would honestly be the only reason. Personally, I think that taking the extra couple of minutes to fully explain something would really improve the service - even if they are busy.

It may sound funny to a lot of people here that are really up on all this hosting stuff, but one liners seem to scream this message to me:

"what are you stupid or something??"

That's my two cents! Oh, and I'm not stupid.

Amanda

[Jaiem]

Hi Amanda.

I think it's more an issue of understanding the technical mind. Technical support people tend to think (and converse) in short "bursts" of knowledge. And tech people aren't known as literary poets. (no offense intended to any tech support people out there!)

Also, not all customers want a long drawn out explanation. Usually when someone contacts tech support they want a quick resolution to whatever problem they are having. I agree that some customers may like a detailed explanation but given the number of customers mosts hosts have the support person at the other end has no way of knowning who wants how much verbosity in the response.

I'd be more concerned if your tech support was inaccurate, very slow in responding or didn't give you an answer altogether.

[Amanda]

Nope! My tech support are always very prompt, and they always answer every question I ask. However, I still feel that some of the support I get is too abrupt (for lack of a better word).

Several times I've had to ask several questions to finally get the answer I'm looking for, and each time the techie is basically answering part of my question with about twenty words. Sorry, but I'm not up on the techie stuff to get everything I need from twenty words or less.

Also, I really only have this problem with one of the staff in particular, the others I find will usually elaborate on their answers, since they realize that it's no good to assume I know a lot of this stuff. They probably see it the way I do - explain it properly the 1st time and it won't have to be done again.

Here's an example of something I asked recently:

I wanted to be blocked from my site tracking software, so my tech support told me to forward my IP address. Now, I wasn't even sure how to get that, but when I checked with my provider, I was told that since I'm on dialup I can't give them an IP address since it changes every time. You'd think my tech support would have asked me the type of support I was on up front, and since I haven't gotten back to them about this, you'd think they would have followed up on it. Maybe I'm expecting too much???

Amanda

[Tommy]

Amanda,

Sounds like you want an account manger to me. By the sheer title of the role, the whole focus would be working with the customer and helping their every need. If you ever got stuck, they would help you and even go as far as doing it for you. Now wouldn't that be great!

[Jaiem]

Amanda,

I sympathize but it seems to me your tech support person gave you good advise. He/she doesn't know what type of connection you have so asking for your IP is reasonable, especially since more and more people are getting dedicated IP's as they sign up for high speed connections like cable modems.

One time I had a problem access an server's SMTP server after I switched to a new ISP. When I emailed support they told me it's a known problem with that ISP. The way that particular ISP has their system setup you can't access the host's SMTP from an account at that ISP. I suppose I could be PO'd at the host for not inform me of this potential problem in advance, but the host doesn't know (and generally doesn't care) what ISP you use.

And let's not forget that while things have come a long way fast, this technology is faaaaaar from being seamless and bullet-proof. Someday, probably. But not now.

BTW, if you're using a tracking system (AXS?), most tracking systems have a way of setting a cookie on your machine so the tracker doesn't count your own visits. There should be a menu option for it.