Tags |
|
|
Links |
|
|
Will You Add? - Small Business Owners Web Hosting Guide - Part 1
You are in business to make a profit. It is worth repeating here that profit equals revenue minus overheads.The most important part is the generation of revenue, whether you are selling something, making a product, servicing customers or any other activity. It is in the interest of any business to secure as much revenue as possible whilst keeping under control the overheads. This is the reason planning and controlling your business in the greatest possible detail is essential and, monitoring the performance of your business against your business plans regularly. This is why your administration should be organised to give you all the information you require with as little delay as possible.Stock control is a very important item that has to be dealt with continually. Some of the costs involved in stock items
Live Chat - Check to see if it's 24/7. It helps to know that you can have your questions answered almost immediately with a live chat function. Test it out by answering some basic questions to see its response time and also test its level of technical competency. Not critical but it's good to have.
Email - Send them a test mail to see how fast they respond, allowed up to
Kevin was ready to get the day started. He only had one scheduled meeting all day, a real rarity. He was looking forward to a day in the office to catch up on calls, emails, filing, etc. As he walked out the door of his home he slipped on some ice and broke his ankle. Kevin’s day just landed in a totally different direction than what he originally intended.Julie woke up all set to get the week started. She was excited because she was ready to dig in and be a productivity maven. She had put a task list together and she was geared up to tackle it. Just as she knocked one item off the list and felt that she was just getting on a roll she was interrupted. The interruption itself isn’t really important to this story – whether it was a colleague “dropping by”, a client calling, or her son’s school – the fact remains, h
Choosing a web hosting company for your small business website is easy if you follow the guide I have layout for you. Depending on the scale of your business, the type of business you run and your level of technical competency, there will always be a right hosting provider just for your business.
The general rule of thumb in choosing a web hosting provider boils down to:
Excellent Customer Support
Company Stability
Robust Datacenter
Affordability
Excellent Customer Support If all things being equal, I would rate customer support as my number 1 determining factor in choosing a web hosting provider. Relying on testimonials found on the provider's site is a common approach to assess a company's level of customer excellence but it is also quite an outdated one. After all it's not uncommon for some providers to fake the testimonials. Instead I suggest you follow my way of assessing their customer support.
Sizing its level of customer support is sometimes as easy as finding out whether they have enough employees to support their level of business growth. You should look at the Customer to Employee ratio, CE ratio, as a benchmark.
For example, according to our records SiteSell Inc has approximately 15,000 customers and employs about 30 support staff, it has a CE ratio of 500 (15,000/30 = 500), you can expect a much higher level of customer satisfaction and a faster response time when compared to another provider who is serving 100,000 customers but only have 75 support staff. Their CE ratio would stand at approximately 1,333. Basically you should look for a professional hosting provider with a low CE ratio.
Getting As Close As You Can The other accurate way to assess the real status of its customer service is to get as close as you can to the company whenever possible via the following means:
Live Chat - Check to see if it's 24/7. It helps to know that you can have your questions answered almost immediately with a live chat function. Test it out by answering some basic questions to see its response time and also test its level of technical competency. Not critical but it's good to have.
Email - Send them a test mail to see how fast they respond, allowed up to
“These days, corporate theater adds more to a presentation than most anything else can do. No one gives attendees a stale speaker, a basic presentation or a humdrum environment. It’s all about the lights, camera and action. Interactive theater is the way to go.” - Event Solutions magazine, Feb 2002Many businesses are looking to using corporate theater to invigorate and stimulate their audiences at trade shows, launches, conferences and networking events.Corporate theater can creatively communicate a message using devices that are not traditionally associated with the corporate arena. It can come in many different forms. Examples of corporate theater include combining performing arts and entertainment with a relevant business message. Movement, humour, song, dance, visual effects,
Excellent Customer Support
Company Stability
Robust Datacenter
Affordability
Excellent Customer Support If all things being equal, I would rate customer support as my number 1 determining factor in choosing a web hosting provider. Relying on testimonials found on the provider's site is a common approach to assess a company's level of customer excellence but it is also quite an outdated one. After all it's not uncommon for some providers to fake the testimonials. Instead I suggest you follow my way of assessing their customer support.
Sizing its level of customer support is sometimes as easy as finding out whether they have enough employees to support their level of business growth. You should look at the Customer to Employee ratio, CE ratio, as a benchmark.
For example, according to our records SiteSell Inc has approximately 15,000 customers and employs about 30 support staff, it has a CE ratio of 500 (15,000/30 = 500), you can expect a much higher level of customer satisfaction and a faster response time when compared to another provider who is serving 100,000 customers but only have 75 support staff. Their CE ratio would stand at approximately 1,333. Basically you should look for a professional hosting provider with a low CE ratio.
Getting As Close As You Can The other accurate way to assess the real status of its customer service is to get as close as you can to the company whenever possible via the following means:
Live Chat - Check to see if it's 24/7. It helps to know that you can have your questions answered almost immediately with a live chat function. Test it out by answering some basic questions to see its response time and also test its level of technical competency. Not critical but it's good to have.
Email - Send them a test mail to see how fast they respond, allowed up to
Presentation according to the management guru Riteway Strokon is everything. Your status and rise to fame in your organization depends to a great deal on the presentation of “your castle and domain” that is your office area and space.Plan your future and work your plan. How can your office scream your power, prestige and success?First of all no matter what get the office in the “Lucky Corner”. This is the corner diagonal to the door and facing the door. This has the most energy and it is said luck associated with it. Do your very best to get this vital location for your desk.Next have a view of water within your preview. You can put a picture of a beach or ocean scene in front of you to stimulate wealth, opportunities to grow your career and advancement. Maybe even you can have a water fountain install
Sizing its level of customer support is sometimes as easy as finding out whether they have enough employees to support their level of business growth. You should look at the Customer to Employee ratio, CE ratio, as a benchmark.
For example, according to our records SiteSell Inc has approximately 15,000 customers and employs about 30 support staff, it has a CE ratio of 500 (15,000/30 = 500), you can expect a much higher level of customer satisfaction and a faster response time when compared to another provider who is serving 100,000 customers but only have 75 support staff. Their CE ratio would stand at approximately 1,333. Basically you should look for a professional hosting provider with a low CE ratio.
Getting As Close As You Can The other accurate way to assess the real status of its customer service is to get as close as you can to the company whenever possible via the following means:
Live Chat - Check to see if it's 24/7. It helps to know that you can have your questions answered almost immediately with a live chat function. Test it out by answering some basic questions to see its response time and also test its level of technical competency. Not critical but it's good to have.
Email - Send them a test mail to see how fast they respond, allowed up to
A business card is a great way to introduce your company name to a potential client and then in turn they will always have your name and number handy. This brings your company into your client’s world as a household name for your customers for their future needs or as a word of mouth company to pass on to their friends and family. Business cards that boost your sales need to be given out to every person you come in contact with or anyone who becomes interested in your company and the service that you provide. A business card should also have an eye-catching design and it should be memorable to help your business profit more.Let us say that you are in the real estate business. A business card is extremely necessary in that line of work. Your name will be remembered when your customer is given your card and then they will
Getting As Close As You Can The other accurate way to assess the real status of its customer service is to get as close as you can to the company whenever possible via the following means:
Live Chat - Check to see if it's 24/7. It helps to know that you can have your questions answered almost immediately with a live chat function. Test it out by answering some basic questions to see its response time and also test its level of technical competency. Not critical but it's good to have.
Email - Send them a test mail to see how fast they respond, allowed up to
Everybody – salespeople, sales managers, sales consultants - have their own theories on how to manage a sales force. It seems that sales is becoming a science. This includes theories on sales meetings. What time of day is best to schedule a sales meeting to get the most productivity from it?It is a well accepted theory that people are most productive and alert at the beginning of a work day then they are at later times of the day. So, it stands to reason that sales meetings should be booked for early mornings, say first thing at 9 am. That’s what most sales consultants and managers would suggest. So, early morning is a good time to talk about sales goals, sales quotas, new product offerings, and such with your sales force. Do you think this is correct? I don’t.People are more productive in the early morning, I wo
Live Chat - Check to see if it's 24/7. It helps to know that you can have your questions answered almost immediately with a live chat function. Test it out by answering some basic questions to see its response time and also test its level of technical competency. Not critical but it's good to have.
Email - Send them a test mail to see how fast they respond, allowed up to 24 hours. Ask about anything but just do not be afraid to ask.
Number of Telephone Lines - Check to see if there are separate telephone lines for sales, customer service and technical support. I hate companies who use only 1 line to serve everyone. A professional small business hosting provider should have this in place. It is not uncommon for reputable providers to charge for telephone support.
Forum - The real condition of any web hosting company's customer support is really found in its members forum if any. You will get a good dose of complains and praises but if the complains outnumber the compliments; it's time to raise a red flag.
Company Stability A company's stability can be measured by the length of time they have been in business, the number of customers they have served and are serving and lastly their financial standing.
Personally as a business owner myself, a web hosting company that has been around for at least 5 years would have weathered all sorts of ups and downs in the online world, and their chance of being around is much higher than a company that has been around for less than 1 year.
Financial Stability Though public listed web hosting providers have better financial transparency than the privately-owned ones, they are not necessary always in a better financial shape than them. Bottom line, you would host your small business with a company that you know is growing in their customer base. For example, Interland having been in business since 1995 is currently serving less than 200,000 websites and this number has been decreasing. It is most likely less profitable when compared to IPower in operation since 2001 and is serving over 400,000 websites as of this writing!
Another aspect of company stability lies in its ability to remain relevant in this highly competitive industry. For example, as the number of internet users increase and streaming multi-media becomes the norm,
HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.atriclecheck.com/article/88473/atriclecheck-Small-Business-Owners-Web-Hosting-Guide--Part-1.html">Small Business Owners Web Hosting Guide - Part 1</a>
BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.atriclecheck.com/article/88473/atriclecheck-Small-Business-Owners-Web-Hosting-Guide--Part-1.html]Small Business Owners Web Hosting Guide - Part 1[/url]
Related Articles:
How Can I Build a Successful Business on the Internet?
7 Best Ways to Make More Profit With Internet and Online Business
Internet Marketing - Optimising Your Website For Google
Bookmark it:
|