What's most important to a reseller?

[captureroftyme]

Support, Uptime, Support, and more Support!! If something happens with the server, you HAVE to have a good host that you can reach to find out whats wrong. Otherwise you end up not knowing what to tell your clients when they ask, or you end up giving them some stupid reason over and over.
NEVER look at price! Test their support, call them, or send them emails to see how long responses are, see if they have a uptime stats site somewhere that you can view.
You can find a reseller account for $5 a month for 10gb space and 75 GB bandwidth from one of these kiddie hosts, but I can GUARANTEE you , you will be on the market for a new host soon. If their server is droping alot, or they dont support you, how are you to support the unhappy customers when , what they think to be "your" server, drops!

 

[wise]

I just got slated from other hosts (on another board) for suggesting someone raises their prces from under $25 for 9GB/150GB package. I was told that I had crazy prices and stupid margins and that resellers could get a dedicated server for my pricing. Well, yes they could - but you need excellent hardware, techs that know the hardware and software, helpdesk, "addons" like rvskins, CE etc.

Resellers see three things -

1. Cost of package
2. What extras do they get
3. What support is really like when their websites go down.

I try to push support as our main feature - but it's difficult when resellers still see 1. as their main focus. With so many budget hosts with $2 margins on the packages it makes it difficult to convince resellers.

In my experience Telephone numbers do make a difference - but for us we need to keep costs down and be able to track any customer problems so that both sides know what is happening (ie CE)

 

[Matrixx]

Resellers see three things -

1. Cost of package
2. What extras do they get
3. What support is really like when their websites go down.

Don't worry about being slated by people for being too expensive.

We don't accept clients who quibble about price because we know the service the price buys and we are confident about it.

You're right about the three things resellers see, unfortunately #3. Is most important and it's the hardest to tell until something bad happens. Then theres consistency of support too - they maybe good or bad once but what about the next time?

So to balance the risk they try to get a cheaper #1 and more #2 - not realising that that increases the risk of number 3 being worse quality!

It's a mad world, try asking people when they buy a car do they get the cheapest they can find and expect it to out perform all other cars on the road, or when they buy a house.. do they get the cheapest house they can find and expect the roof not to leak etc etc...

So why do people go for the cheapest host they can find and expect total perfection?

<Gets off soapbox and exits>

Rob

 

[talkwebhosts.co]

I just got slated from other hosts (on another board) for suggesting someone raises their prces from under $25 for 9GB/150GB package. I was told that I had crazy prices and stupid margins and that resellers could get a dedicated server for my pricing. Well, yes they could - but you need excellent hardware, techs that know the hardware and software, helpdesk, "addons" like rvskins, CE etc.

Resellers see three things -

1. Cost of package
2. What extras do they get
3. What support is really like when their websites go down.

I try to push support as our main feature - but it's difficult when resellers still see 1. as their main focus. With so many budget hosts with $2 margins on the packages it makes it difficult to convince resellers.

In my experience Telephone numbers do make a difference - but for us we need to keep costs down and be able to track any customer problems so that both sides know what is happening (ie CE)

I have found that telephone support can go both ways. Either used quite frequently or not used at all. I have only had one client ever call me on the telephone! Most of the time I talk with clients via IM for support. Telephone is important for sales I have had clients that call to check on information about services.