Oct 06 2008
Hosting Provider vs Hosting Customer
I’ve been selling hosting services for years. What started as part-time job has now become one main business. Selling hosting is not lucrative, unless you have many customers. And I’m lucky to have quite a number.
I’ve also been running web sites for years. So I’m also a hosting customer. As site owner, I have sought services from web designers and other service providers. I have come to learn more of what customers need, problems and dilemmas they could face.
Being a hosting provider and a hosting customer at the same time gives me a little vantage point to see from different points of view. I came from a technical background and I’ve learned to be more business-oriented. I have learned to sound less like a techie to customers but to speak their language.
I’ve seen conflicts and misunderstandings between customers and their providers. Some customers even appointed me to argue with their providers. Common issues are such as domain name ownership, domain/hosting transfer, web site copyright, web site maintenance, overcharging, or simply provider missing in action.
If you follow my blog, you may wonder why sometimes I tend to speak against people in my own industry, including web developers and even hosting providers. Now don’t get me wrong. Most providers are good. But there are those who shortchange, overcharge or take advantage of customers, or are not totally honest, or just outright unethical.
Compared to other countries, customers in Malaysia are not very IT-savvy. And sometimes we the IT providers can simply curi ayam (shortchange) them. I admit I also had done wrong before.
I wish to see people in my industry excel in business but serving the customers well. I don’t quite like the way some providers are competing now, such as harvesting customer database from the Internet and stealing customers from competitors.
Good ethics means good business for them, in the long run. We could do better in our business than we do now. If only we could truly listen to what our customers want, and create our own blue ocean business, then we don’t need to rely on unethical means.
Read related posts
Be updated about this blog by email or in your feed reader (RSS)!
Many business owners are not clear of how to prove their ownership of their domain name. Dispute can happen. It is good to make sure the right Registrant and Admin Contact information are used during domain name registration.
Yes Pin
That’s what we promise our customers too. See http://www.rickysoo.com/2008/08/07/our-promises-domain-name-hosting-web-development/