Offline companies, you will be surprised at this one

[Bev Clement]

We have been working with a offline company, and I sent them an email which bounced. When we checked there website was dead.

This shocked us, because it is a model which is being doing more and more.

The consultant/SEO company sells you a whole package, you pay for the hosting for a year. But, they don't send a reminder at the end of the year to pay your hosting. If you don't remember and pay within 24 hours of it being due, then they take down your site.

Before anyone starts slagging off warriors, it seems that it is a lot of companies who have been doing this for many years. It isn't something anyone we know who has been involved in this from this forum.

But if you take on a client who has a website and paid hosting for a year, check about this and make sure the site isn't taken down for non payment.

[Corwinnx]

Thanks Bev. Good way to sell hosting if they already have a site.

Marcus

[altos]

Thanks for the great reminder. Good little trick is when you set it up you take an extra thirty seconds and put a little reminder in your Google calendar (I have been getting more and more caught up in the big G's tools lately!) or other calendar for the date next year.

[warbar]

Bev,

That speaks volumes about why you are doing business with this offline company. It's pretty clear the previous consultant / SEO company didn't know a whole lot about customer service.

Sure, things can fall through the cracks, but if one is on top of their game, they will be in contact with their clients on a somewhat regular basis and would never:

a. Make it worthwhile for a client to bail out and sign on with new consutant
b. Never allow a client's business to be negatively impacted by their (consultant's) lack of action.

Now, it certainly could be that the client was a one time sale and the consultant wasn't interested in a long term commitment. If so, that's crazy in my mind. With the time and effort that goes into landing a client, I'll never understand why someone would not want to build a long term relationship with them. Even if it was a one time sale, why not do as Altos mentioned and make reminder for yourself and sell them again the following year.

[Jillian Slack]

Originally Posted by altos

Thanks for the great reminder. Good little trick is when you set it up you take an extra thirty seconds and put a little reminder in your Google calendar (I have been getting more and more caught up in the big G's tools lately!) or other calendar for the date next year.

This is excellent advice, no matter what type of calendar or scheduling system you use.

What's great about Google Calendar is you can send yourself more than one type of reminder. I usually have it email me the day before something happens, and then have it send a text message to my cell phone the morning of the event and also a few minutes before the event.

It's terrible to think that these businesses are putting their trust in another business for something as vital as web hosting, then the whole thing goes down.

[AndyBlackSEO]

Yes, and it's their email and website. The first one being really important as they have removed part of their communication system.

The SEO / hosting company are just leaving money on the table. A gentle or even automated reminder would not only guarantee a sale for a new hosting period it would also ensure they retain that customer.

Some people don't deserve to be in business.

[John Sullivan]

Most decent hosting companies will send several reminders when the renewal is about to come. This is just common sense as most people do not know the expiry date of their domains, hosting etc.

John