I operate a Web Hosting service, and I'm interested in finding out what people really want in a web host. Post your suggestions here.

Cheers,
Leigh McCulloch

Those who need a web presentation and those who want to do e-commerce. There are also academics and many other people in different professional areas who need to have their own web page. Manuals, reference books and guides are also very important.

I want 3 things:

1) competence
2) honesty
3) reactivity

By competence, I mean that when I tell them I've got a reverse DNS issue, I'm not re-directed to a level 2 support phone number.
I get a "I'll fix it personnally" answer.

By honesty, I mean that when they have a problem (ddns, hdd screw up) they don't try to deny it, and they act to resolve it.

By reactivity, I mean that when I have a problem ,I don't have to wait 1 week before having assistance.

I'm using an virtual server, hosted by a small 3 people agency now.
I pay nearly 30$ per month for 512Mo ram, 40 Gb hdd and 200Gb bandwidth.


It's a long way of the cheapest offer I've got, but when I had my virtual server that started to react strangely and I wrote my contact at 3 am to signal it, I received an response at 5am telling me that he had setted up another node, and was moving my datas in a backup file.
That's the kind of answer that makes you want to go there personally to thanks the man... I know I was...

Every question I may have, they get answered in less than 2 hours, and every problems (except for the last ddos) in less than 1 day.
For that, I'm even ready to pay more than 30$ per months, no matter what...



By the way, the firm is IP-cracks. It's located in Bern, in Switzerland:
http://www.ip-cracks.ch/

Their web site is en German (it's the most talked language around here...), but they all speak English.
Me being a French speaker, I find it really useful to communicate.

Uptime, Reliability & Support. Price is irrelevant

Price, support, uptime and nice people. :P

Originally Posted by leighmcc

I operate a Web Hosting service, and I'm interested in finding out what people really want in a web host. Post your suggestions here.

Cheers,
Leigh McCulloch

fast server and connection
good support with live chat
cheap & good pricing & free domain & cpanel & fantastico
.. and located in US.

Originally Posted by charlesgan

... & cpanel & fantastico
.. and located in US.

I think it would be more interesting to explain why the above factors are important?

E.g. what is is about cpanel that makes you say "it's the best", and consequently hunt for that as a key feature when considering a new hosting provider?

Why do you state that you want it to be located in the US - especially when you already mentioned "fast server and connection"... so what else do you consider particularly important about US hosting to make you hunt for it?

Yup I'd like to know why you prefer these things.

I've used several different control panels, and while cPanel is the most used by webhosts, I definitely wouldn't say it was the best feature wise or ease of use.

Thanks damien_ls.

Originally Posted by damien_ls

I think it would be more interesting to explain why the above factors are important?

E.g. what is is about cpanel that makes you say "it's the best", and consequently hunt for that as a key feature when considering a new hosting provider?

Why do you state that you want it to be located in the US - especially when you already mentioned "fast server and connection"... so what else do you consider particularly important about US hosting to make you hunt for it?

Originally Posted by tripy

By reactivity, I mean that when I have a problem ,I don't have to wait 1 week before having assistance.

I second the motion...

Quick turn around time is the key as far as I'm concerned. Give me live chat, plus fast ticket response and you've got a happy customer.

Originally Posted by BreaktheSilence

I second the motion...

Quick turn around time is the key as far as I'm concerned. Give me live chat, plus fast ticket response and you've got a happy customer.

BreaktheSilence, what do you consider fast ticket response? My guys usually reply within 20-30 minutes, how does that sound to you?

Cheers,
Leigh

Originally Posted by leighmcc

My guys usually reply within 20-30 minutes, how does that sound to you?

Cheers,
Leigh

Twenty to thirty minutes sounds awesome...

Incidentally, I don't expect a solution within that kind of time frame, but merely an acknowledgment of the issue and an assurance that it is being, (or will be), addressed shortly. If you can add to that a ballpark ETA then I would be positively delighted.

Usually our first point of contact will be to resolve the issue or answer the question. Sometimes if a client has identified a larger issue, then we'll reply straight away saying its being looked into, and will be escalated to our developers.

So if an issue goes to developers it can take about 24 hours to resolve.

We have considered IM/Chat ability with the tech guys, but have decided to stick with a ticket-like system. Its more efficient for responding quickly to clients. We may reconsider it in the future.

Originally Posted by BreaktheSilence

Twenty to thirty minutes sounds awesome...

Incidentally, I don't expect a solution within that kind of time frame, but merely an acknowledgment of the issue and an assurance that it is being, (or will be), addressed shortly. If you can add to that a ballpark ETA then I would be positively delighted.

Originally Posted by leighmcc

We have considered IM/Chat ability with the tech guys, but have decided to stick with a ticket-like system. Its more efficient for responding quickly to clients. We may reconsider it in the future.

Yes, completely agree with this - our experience shows that phone/IM isn't efficient for any kind of complex issue since the tech. has to take a little time to investigate etc. and therefore additional pressures of real-time communication are not helpful.

With specific reference to phone-based support, this also introduces another level of difficulties for complex issues as there is usually a need to explain at length (generally more effective via email/written text), and the obvious need to provide URLs in either direction - which can be cumbersome via telephone...

We therefore prefer to use email based ticketing as our primary support mechanism, but beyond that escalation/clarification via phone/IM can be beneficial.

We currently offer phone for escalation or otherwise urgent issues, and IM ("live chat") primarily as a sales tool, but unofficially also answer basic level 1 support queries which customers inevitably ask via this channel.

hosting (hehe)

Cheap
Quality
Support
Priority

Originally Posted by damien_ls

With specific reference to phone-based support, this also introduces another level of difficulties for complex issues as there is usually a need to explain at length (generally more effective via email/written text)...

I completely concur with your position from the point of view of the service provider, but what about the flip side of the coin? How is you customer likely to react if they receive an email which contains a "complex" explanation? If further clarification is needed, how would you feel about having to write back and experience further delays?

I expect it to have all the features I need, to have good uptime and support. And a decent price of course

Great uptime. there's nothing like spending $50+ on PPC ads or sending out a major mailing & afterwards notice your sites are down.

Responsive, always available & competent support. If my sites go down or have a major issue, I can't even imagine having to wait 8 hours for a resolution, let alone a response. If you make your living online using your website(s), this is simply not acceptable. Almost worse than slow support is incompetent support - ones that completely do not answer or resolve the questions/problems your support request addressed.

Pricing is somewhat important, but if there's no true 24/7/365 support, I can't deal with that. I've been with one hosting company for over 4 years now, but in the year or so before that. . . I probably filtered through 20.

Originally Posted by whooligan

Great uptime. there's nothing like spending $50+ on PPC ads or sending out a major mailing & afterwards notice your sites are down.

I did exactly that with my old host. No sooner than I had started running my adds, then we had about 2 days of down time. I eventually left to a host with 99.9% uptime. That should tell you where my priority lies.

Originally Posted by BreaktheSilence

I completely concur with your position from the point of view of the service provider, but what about the flip side of the coin? How is you customer likely to react if they receive an email which contains a "complex" explanation? If further clarification is needed, how would you feel about having to write back and experience further delays?

I think you missed my point. I'm saying that we've found it far more effective to explain a complex issue in written form rather than on the phone.

By "more effective" I mean that the customer gains a more complete understanding when reading a well-written response compared to a similar verbal explanation.

Why? I think this is because the customer has the opportunity to "rewind" and re-read (as well as easily refer back to it later); via phone this isn't an option - the only possibility is to ask to explain again, although many people feel bad about asking for another explanation about some technical issue because they fear that it may make them feel (or sound) "stupid" etc.

The above is based on experience - and it's generally quite easy to tell when someone actually understands or not because of their response/later interactions.

I agree that there are advantages to instant communication methods, and the phone is an important tool in the whole mix, but phone support is often desirable for customers because of the speed of response (i.e. you talk to someone immediately and therefore feel that your provider is working on it right now) - but if your provider has prompt email response times (and/or live chat) then you can still have that benefit.

My belief is that customers want fast/reliable support - not necessarily support via a specific medium.