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With competition in the web hosting industry becoming more and more rigorous, companies must continuously find new and innovative ways to bring value to potential and existing customers. While almost all hosting companies claim expertise in areas of "hardware provisioning", "infrastructure" and "uptime", those that are leading the pack are focused on the total customer experience. Successful hosting companies use the inherent strengths of their technical staff to create new and innovative solutions. These solutions are ideally customized to meet the customer's ever-changing needs.

Optimizing a customer's experience within a company is not an easy task. The needs of clients change, often on a daily basis, and fluctuate as widely as their industries vary. Keeping up with these changing demands can be daunting, but ultimately validates and solidifies a company's significance to its client.

This desire to continuously adapt and innovate is what innately drives the technology industry and should, in the end, drive hosting companies to succeed in the eyes of their customers. However, it's not just putting a new spin on featured products or services, it's taking the product several steps further - almost to the edge - of what customers might expect.

For a hosting company, this might mean not just throwing another SQL box at a latency issue to solve a problem, but providing SQL tuning and optimization to identify root causes and create better efficiency. Reporting simple statistical information on web traffic is not enough. It's imperative to partner with experts who can provide services such as Pay-Per-Click Fraud identification. This identification has a potential to save hosting customers thousands of dollars each year.

Why focus on the individual needs of the customer? It's Marketing 101 - customers want stable, reliable and trustworthy companies with recurring success in their space. They also want their hosting company providing service well ahead of what they could ever imagine - proactively solving problems that hopefully will never enter their realm of thought.

It has been proven in industries across the board that it costs much less to keep existing customers then to recruit new customers. Therefore, why not create the best, most comprehensive and innovative experience for your customers? It's the creation of this experience that many companies fall short of delivering. However, it's this type of understanding of customer's needs that, in due course, will differentiate one hosting company from the thousands competing globally.

Thus, a customer-centric strategy to providing products and services will, if executed properly, lead to future marketing success. A recruitment strategy highly directed toward adding value to customer experiences will lay the groundwork for effective word-of-mouth marketing. Satisfied customers tell their friends, colleagues and associates about their positive experience with their hosting company.

How might a company begin with a program such as this? It helps to promote a supportive environment in which employees are encouraged to take ideas to the edge. Ask employees to identify ways in which they believe customers might respond better. Encourage employees to better understand the customer's individualized business needs by asking questions. This aspect is critically important. It is not enough for support staff to answer a question, solve a quick problem and then hang up the phone. Take this opportunity to talk to the customer about what more they might need in their hosting environment. What do they feel is currently lacking?

At the end of the day, continuously evolving hosting companies that are identifying new solutions, and understanding the customer, will see the greatest customer retention. Creating this culture now among support and technical staff will reap the greatest rewards for hosting companies in the near future.

About the Author
Jonathan Erwin is V.P. of Sales and Marketing for Hosting.com, a managed hosting provider headquartered in Louisville, KY. He is a 15-year veteran of sales and marketing for early stage and rapid growth technology companies. He brings his expertise in selling collaborative communication, development and Internet technologies to the development and implementation of Hosting.com's global sales and marketing strategy.

Hosting.com
P.O. Box 70309
Louisville, KY 40270
www.hosting.com

For more information, visit www.hosting.com