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How Important is Customer Service When Selecting a Hosting Provider?

Are you ready to choose your hosting provider? Have you had a think about what kind of a role customer service will play in selecting your provider?

(If you're curious, you can see who we suggest for hosting here - both of which have outstanding customer service)

If you have never used a web host before, you might not understand how important the customer service department is. But there are many situations, especially with a new site or when transferring to a new hosting provider in which you may need assistance.

There are those of you who may have felt that frustration of having a problem or a question and waiting a long time for a response from one webhost or another. If you’re in this boat, you know exactly how frustrating it is to be sending emails with no answer or to have to put your business or website on hold while you wait for a customer service department to get back in touch with you or to ‘escalate’ your problem.

If you are using a host that is out of the country or even out of your area, it is equally important that you have a customer service department that you can count on 24/7. You should be able to log on and get email or live chat help from your web host whenever you need it. But what if your internet is down or you are unable to access the host’s web site?

When you need something, there should be a telephone number you can dial at any time and get support. There should be a friendly, helpful customer service representative that can help you at any time that you need assistance.

How to test the customer service department

If you really want to see how good a particular hosting provider’s customer service department is, you might want to test it before you’ve signed up with the company. One good way to do this is to send inquiries to the customer service department. Then you can see how important customer service is when selecting a hosting provider and you can test the customer service of a particular hosting provider you are considering.

Send them some emails. Ask them a few questions (preferably reasonably technical). Be sure to make note of how long it takes you to get a reply and whether or not the answer is helpful. Did you have a hard time finding the email feature? Did they seem friendly and helpful in the email? Did you feel reassured after getting your response?

Now try calling their customer support line. Do you get an answer on the first try? Does it ring a long time or do you get placed on hold a long time? Was the customer service representative friendly? Was the customer service representative knowledgeable to your problem or concern? Ask some questions about the web host and their services that you already know the answers to. Does the representative give you the proper answer?

After you have done all of your research, take some time to recall the experiences. If you took paper notes, look over those now. Which company do you feel most comfortable with? Which one did you feel answered your questions best? Do you feel like this company cares about your needs? Ask yourself these questions and evaluate the customer service department of each web hosting company you are considering.

In an emergency you need to be able to count on the support team from your webhosting company. The few extra bucks you pay a month will come to a grand total of $20-40 over the course of a year and when that one big problem crops up it will all be worth it.