Does it make a difference?

Z

Zachary McClung

New member
Hey,

At the moment, I find myself baffled. We have been around about four months now and people just are not signing up. In your opinion, do you feel as if a toll free number or a phone number in general makes a difference? Does it make you more legit? Does a physical address rather than a P.O. Box makes a difference as well? Let me know what your thoughts are I am curious to see what you guys feel on it.
 
I don't think It makes a huge difference, but may make some difference as people do like to ring the company they are at for emergancies just incase your server is down and they need another method of contact since emaail won't work.

Have you been advertising? Maybe post some ads on forums, busniess takes time and does not grow over night.

As for PO.BOX is not about address, it's more about quality this industry can be very competitve you need to bring something on the table that no other or very little companies provide.

When I say that I don't mean packages for very little pricing. Some people do tend to go with mega cheap companies.
 
At the moment, we over a 45-day money back guarantee, 99.9% uptime, Soholaunch Pro Edition, and me. Which me is the best part of the entire package. That is why customers who do sign up love it. :)

Do plans space and bandwidth need to be increased?
 
I would personally increase the bandwidth 0.97GB Bandwidth is very little for $4.95 / Month

If you look at some of the free providers they do provide 3GB Bandwidth (Geocities) for example.
 
Upon said that, if you are desperate for customers they are many threads, and domains that want to sell Web Hosting Customers... take a google search. I'm sure you will find some customers still for sale in recent days.

(Ebay Last Resort -- People do sell their customers on Ebay they must be desperate for money ;))
 
Equonix,

No, I think your misunderstanding the issue at hand. We are not desperate for customers. We purchased a hosting company already. The clients that moved are very happy. On the other hand, I love how you put that into GB totals instead of MB. :)

I will look into s space and bandwidht increase. Geocities and google are something we are not trying to compete with or other cheap high bandwidht high space hosting provides. Its based on quality, service, and personalization.
 
The clients that moved are very happy. On the other hand, I love how you put that into GB totals instead of MB.
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Why thank you ;); I always prefer putting things in Gigabytes :)

I will look into s space and bandwidth increase. Geocities and google are something we are not trying to compete with or other cheap high bandwidth high space hosting provides. Its based on quality, service, and personalization.
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You are absolutely right, Quality, Service is a key as well as Cost.. people tend to think that Cost is not an element; but it is; it is very hard to balance a reasonable cost because things change quickly; what I would suggest is adding another 100mb and maybe a GB or 0.5GB to your packages; and that would be much better, if I was a first timer... I would think it is not expensive; it is not cheap but quality :).

What you could try and do is go on directories like DMOZ and other directory listings to advertise your company.

Or purchase Advertising on Hosting Discussion, or get 400 points and get a bottom advertiser (10,000 impressions free) ;)

There are lots of ways to make a difference and change how many customers you get.
 
The most cost effective advertising: word of mouth. If you already have a number of customers it might be a good idea to encourage them to recommend you. Of course, having happy customers is the key. :)
 
Happy customers are the best. From buying this company we had young customers such as me a few years back 15ish 16ish. Which in matter of fact, I find myself somedays helping with homework.

wow internet service and homework help IM STICKING TO THIS
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I thought that was amuzing. As for the plans increase I think that is just what I will do. We have some awesome flyers being designed by our design team right now. I walked downtown Kalamazoo tonight writing down business address, phone numbers, and names. I am now going to back and see if they have website. If they do not, I will send them a letter along with an about us section and see if that will generate design projects. I will also be handing out flyers down there Tuesday.

As in hosting discussion are these actual web hosting prospects or are they web hosting companies? I have been on webhostingtalk.com for a long time and they are all hosting providers not customers.
 
What I found is that people who seek hosting services browse the forum to have a look at the options, queries and replies by the hosting company to their customers/visitors.

But in case of resellers, many of them actually register on forum (s) and discuess many things before they buy any account.

So try to be active on as many popular forums as this one and gain knowledge and good ideas.

I will personally like to put a link on my homepage where I can give advice to prospective customers on type of hosting and how to choose a good domain name.

My original idea :shh:
 
Ravi,

I wont tell anyone. What about the non tech savvy market though? And, what aobut the business industry? A owner of a small business does not have a clue about hostingdiscussion.com. They are going to use something on google, yahoo, or something even local. Am I not thinking correctly?
 
Hey Guys,

I finally just went and did it. We now have a toll free number. Hopefully by the end of tomorrow it will be available on all our pages. I will update you and let you know if it does indeed increase sales.

Another quesiton that I have is currently it goes straight to voice mail and then one of our staff members (mostly me the rest only if it is a design project) will then call them back. I figured this would keep cost low because they are charing a stupid fee and it would allow me time to gather as much information on the topic as possible before nailing it on the head.

I have also decided that we will not do support over the phone. If eel as with support it takes time and it takes research and some trouble shooting. I feel as if you cannot do this while on the phone with someone. What do you think?
 
BHNSupport said:
Ravi,

I wont tell anyone. What about the non tech savvy market though? And, what aobut the business industry? A owner of a small business does not have a clue about hostingdiscussion.com. They are going to use something on google, yahoo, or something even local. Am I not thinking correctly?
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People who recognise the power of having a site with their products will surely go with the popular one or closest one. But once they start facing issues, they will look for stable/reliable hosts. At this stage the need PROFESSIONAL service.

Forums like HD have good ranking on search engines and their search will eventually lead them to HD.

So, best rule: Treat every inquiry with personal touch.
 
BHNSupport said:
Hey Guys,

I have also decided that we will not do support over the phone. If eel as with support it takes time and it takes research and some trouble shooting. I feel as if you cannot do this while on the phone with someone. What do you think?
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Agreed. It is always recommanded that technical isssues must be resolved with care. Support people needs time to investigate the problem and resolve it. Sometimes they need to do R&D.

But a toll free number is best way that can be utilised by customers/leads to get in touch with company in case of urgency.

So that's a good decision :thumbup:
 
Ravi,

Thank you, I appreciate the positive comments. Actually, we are in the process of working with a customer to get their account set up. Guess where they found us on? Hostingdiscussion.com and webhostingtalk.com. Is that not just amazing? hehe

Every customer is treated personally and respected. Even though I do have a short patients for inmature and poke'mon. Those 15 year olds can get annoying when you are trying to run a business class solution. But hey, someday they'll be our business class customers and they do have neat stories.
 
This community is great. I like it in some aspects better then wht. I feel as if WHT is so impersonal and to many people. Here its like a nice little family. It might take longer to respond; however, you see the same people and get to know people better.
 
I know it from a trusty source that telephone is great for sales (if you have the right person answering it). It would be of utmost importance to get back to your potential customers really fast though. Responsiveness increases confidence. :)

Here its like a nice little family.
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Yes, it is, but it wouldn't be bad if it would be somewhat bigger though, as there's still room for a few members in this family. :)
 
Dan,

Agreed, we are always able to add more. I have been trying to refer more people to here. And, shortly we will have a webmaster resouce section up on the hosting site. Yes, hostingdiscussion.com will definitly be in it. Customers can see other hosts all they want; however, when they are with us they will not be moving. Its to give them some ideas outside of our tech staff so incase they would like to do something that we do not cover such as programming.

The phone issue is taken care of. I am the only one who will be answering. At times, we might have a designer call people back. I handle Tech support, billing, abuse, and sales. It is a small enough company that I can do it all. My designer, graphics designer, and programmer can handle the rest.
 
BHNSupport said:
Ravi,

Thank you, I appreciate the positive comments.
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My Pleasure :)

Actually, we are in the process of working with a customer to get their account set up. Guess where they found us on? Hostingdiscussion.com and webhostingtalk.com. Is that not just amazing? hehe
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Great.. Congratulations :thumbsup:

Every customer is treated personally and respected. Even though I do have a short patients for inmature and poke'mon. Those 15 year olds can get annoying when you are trying to run a business class solution. But hey, someday they'll be our business class customers and they do have neat stories.
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Exactly.. Main point is that you don't loose your temper. I did chats of 3 hrs continously (sales+queries about billing and tech). But that helped me clear my concepts and knowledge :D
 
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