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The recent NaviSite case study with leading India media company Webchutney highlights the changing needs of managed dedicated hosting customers in a post Web 2.0 business environment. It’s something of a paradox, but when budget tightening is the norm, purchase decisions are motivated by more than simply price point. For Webchutney and for many other SMBs in similar positions, the difference maker is world class customer service.
While every business is unique, their requirements from a service provider are often quite similar. They want things to work, and when problems occur, they want quick resolutions. That second part is important. Hosting customers are much more sophisticated, they understand that when it comes to complex applications and server deployments, occasional issues are inevitable. As Webchutney COO Rahul Nanda put it, “Just about any host is going to work okay 95% of the time. How they respond when you are having problems is the key.”
Businesses need more in a vendor relationship than just a supplier of goods and/or services. As Webchutney discovered, customer service issues were the tipping point in choosing NaviSite as their managed dedicated server hosting provider. Although they had concerns about the quality of the hardware and reliability of their previous host, it was a lack of professional, efficient customer service that pushed them to make a move. The poor quality of support had a direct, negative impact on their ability to do business.
Sadly, it’s not hard to find examples of bad customer service. A recent problem with home satellite TV service was only resolved after 5 phone calls and more than an hour of getting transferred back and forth between two different departments. As aggravating as that was, it didn’t result in lost revenues.
Businesses can’t afford to wait hours before talking to a service engineer, and with award winning Always There™ support, NaviSite customers don’t have to. Webchutney learned this early on in their relationship, as an issue that came up shortly after their deployment was resolved quickly thanks to an aggressive response by the NaviSite team. It was exactly the level of support that they were looking for, delivering what Mr. Nanda termed “that delight factor.”
The value added by exceptional customer service is realized in other benefits as well. Monitoring and analysis allows downtime to be eliminated, while providing a baseline to identify when and where upgrades are needed. Deep experience in networked applications and other technologies provide valuable resources for businesses that wouldn’t otherwise be able to maximize those efforts.
More than anything, Webchutney was looking for a vendor/partner that freed them from concerns over IT operations and allowed them to focus on their core business. Outsourcing those IT needs to NaviSite put Webchutney back in control, and outstanding customer care was the glue that cemented the relationship.
If you aren’t getting that “delight factor” when dealing with your managed dedicated server host, then you need to consider how that’s impacting your ability to deliver quality service to your own customers. Building a long term relationship with a vendor partner that has the added value of superior support is a real difference maker, and can have a tremendous impact on your continued success.
Tags: Always There, Managed Dedicated Hosting, SMB
