I was putting together a website for a client of mine and in the process of setting them up with web hosting I discovered that I was getting gipped; not by the client, but by the web hosting company. My client had purchased the same hosting package that I had but they were getting way more features than me (increased bandwith, storage space, unlimited number of addon and subdomains, etc.). I knew the reason for this was because I had purchased my package about a year ago, and my client only just purchased theirs recently. That being said, I felt that I should be getting the same features as they are, it’s not like the price I paid for my package was different than what they paid for theirs.

So, I decided to contact the web hosting company and let them know about my concern. I was fully prepared for the patented excuse of “we’re sorry sir, we cannot upgrade you because your package is based solely on what was provided at the time of purchase, and that is the contract that you signed into at that time. If you want the updated features you will have to wait for your contract to expire and then we will give you the features available at the time of renewal.”

What response did I get though:

“Not a problem sir, we’ll get that set up for you right away.”

I was floored! That is what a company is supposed to do, that is how they are supposed to treat their clients.

The point of all this is that you should be paying close attention to your web hosting provider. Look to see what the features of their standard packages are, and if you have the same package but not the same features that are being offered to new clients, then you should be asking the company for those updated or additional features. The company should not have a problem with this, if they do, then I would be very concerned about their customer service ethics. Keeping existing clients is the key to a successful business. So many companies out there feel that they can provide poor customer service because they figure that there are tons of people waiting outside their doors that want to do business with them. What they fail to realize is that the customers they are losing on account of their poor customer service are walking out those same doors and telling the people waiting in line just how bad the company really is.

Eric Meyer’s has a great story dealing with a similar issue.

I would love to hear any of your good or bad customer service stories as well.