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Your Opinion Wanted About this Service

by jainy25
4 replies
Hi all

So I own a web hosting firm and have been into this industry for like 4-5 years now.

I want to learn from my previous experiences and improve my current hosting service. So to improve the quality of the service, I am going to look and improve each aspect one-by-one.

First up, I decided to start with payment processing.

So here's the situation. We have all been in that mess before as well when we fall short of money to pay up our bills. Right? And then we end up giving up on that service or start looking for lower quality providers.

So I worked up on something. What if the clients could earn credits for giving their opinions(as in CPA surveys)? Like we have the GPT sites, where people are paid for completing offers. I am looking to implement something similar which will help my clients to generate sufficient credit whenever they fall short of cash. Over here too, they could choose to fill up those simple email/pin submit offers and earn credits for it. The entire integration will be simple and fraud-proof. So only genuine clients will be able to use this. As soon as the offer is converted, they will be awarded their credits in the billing area.

Now I asked a few people around and while most of them agreed, a minority of them felt it will be very cheap and downmarket to do something like that. But then at the end of the day, I believe it is only of those ways which can help the clients. And of course, no one is forcing them to complete the surveys/email submits. They can still pay for their service from using the other Payment methods.

So what do you think?
#opinion #service #wanted
  • Profile picture of the author Jeffery
    In my own opinion you would be better off by first focusing on customer service and creating an affiliate program for your clients.

    Jeffery 100% :-)
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    • Profile picture of the author jainy25
      Originally Posted by Jeffery View Post

      In my own opinion you would be better off by first focusing on customer service and creating an affiliate program for your clients.

      Jeffery 100% :-)
      This change is a part of series of developments that we are looking to bring in our hosting. And as far as affiliate program is concerned, I am quite sure this new payment method will attract a lot of affiliates as well because let's not forget, the point of this system is to save the clients money from their pockets.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jeffery
    Do your research and you will find that the credit system in the hosting industry has always failed and failed miserably by some of the top hosts in the industry. Those hosting companies budgeted and spent 100s of thousands and failed! Why repeat failure?

    Now you may spend as much money or even less and make it work. My hat off to you if that happens.

    I am very suspicious that you are a real host because even a host with a business background knows the historical negative consequences of a credit system. First, you post your question in a forum completely unrelated to professional hosting rather than a forum dedicated to hosting. You post in a forum where professional hosts do not exist. Do you really think that you will receive a professional answer to your "supposed working idea" from a forum completely unrelated to your industry. Do you need help finding the professional forums dedicated to hosting?

    In the end you will discover that clients wishing to save money are more interested in making money! Tell me that if I send you 10 customers and I will receive credits ~ I will tell you that credits DO NOT impact my budget sheet or ROI.

    Lets say I am a customer and I like the idea of credits, but I also learn that HostGator will pay me cold hard cash. I will go with the cash because instead of saving money with your offer I just banked.

    Again, I digress, you may make it work, but if you ask for opinions be prepared (like any good business person) to not hear the opinion you wanted to hear. Do your research among the professional hosting and webmaster forums. Ask the same question and you will receive the very same or very similar answer.

    Jeffery 100% :-)
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    In the minute it took me to write this post.. someone died of Covid 19. RIP.
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    • Profile picture of the author jainy25
      Originally Posted by Jeffery View Post

      Do your research and you will find that the credit system in the hosting industry has always failed and failed miserably by some of the top hosts in the industry. Those hosting companies budgeted and spent 100s of thousands and failed! Why repeat failure?

      I am very suspicious that you are a real host because even a host with a business background knows the historical negative consequences of a credit system. First, you post your question in a forum completely unrelated to professional hosting rather than a forum dedicated to hosting. You post in a forum where professional hosts do not exist. Do you really think that you will receive a professional answer to your "supposed working idea" from a forum completely unrelated to your industry. Do you need help finding the professional forums dedicated to hosting?

      In the end you will discover that clients wishing to save money are more interested in making money! Tell me that if I send you 10 customers and I will receive credits ~ I will tell you that credits DO NOT impact my budget sheet or ROI.

      Again, I digress, you may make it work, but if you ask for opinions be prepared (like any good business person) to not hear the opinion you wanted to hear. Do your research among the professional hosting and webmaster forums. Ask the same question and you will receive the very same or very similar answer.

      Jeffery 100% :-)
      Thanks Jeffery.

      Well. This is not the first forum where I placed this question. I have posted it on several other hosting and webmaster forums as well. I felt this forum could be one of the places because I do find a lot of webmasters coming in from here as well. As far as my company is concerned, we have been into the business for like 18 months now and have been directly dealing with Data Centers rather than reselling from other resellers.

      I guess you are right that the credit system has failed in the past. But that is one side of the story. However yes, I do appreciate your suggestion and what you have posted are quite some valid reasons as well.

      As far as other hosts are concerned, we must also remember that whatever new we do, if it works successfully then there is every chance of getting bogged down by more competition. But I doubt that any host will pay a customer to buy hosting from them unless they have massive cash reserves. That's still a long way to go for that to happen...

      I agree that there is a lot of risk involved in this system considering the past failures of tries made by others. But who knows...it might just work. :rolleyes:

      I again appreciate your views. Thank you
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