Gauging customer satisfaction is a must for any Web host reseller who wishes to develop a sound marketing and customer care strategy. By utilizing tools such as online surveys and polls, resellers can determine whether their service offerings are robust enough to gratify their clientele. The use of such tools allows resellers to garner strategic information about their consumers and their specific wants and needs.

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Such tools also impress consumers because it indicates the reseller is genuinely interested in their overall customer service experience. Many resellers will attempt to tie online surveys to contests in order to entice their clientele to participate. Most contests will offer a specific period of free hosting, or will give clients the opportunity to win a consumer electronic device. The gift is offered in exchange for customers providing detailed information about themselves, their Internet usage, and consumer habits.

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Through online surveys, resellers can determine how satisfied their customers are with their services. A survey can also be utilized to rank the successfulness of a promotion or incentive program. Surveys can be used to determine the effectiveness of product lines or confidence in your reseller operation’s brand identity. Surveys also allow resellers to determine what areas of their business operations require more concentration. Competent resellers can utilize a survey to determine how their Web site might be optimized, and to glean a tremendous amount of empirical observation from their customers.

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Surveys therefore are quite useful since they highlight customer complaints and concerns, thereby allowing a reseller to adjust their marketing strategies or product line offered. Through conducting surveys on a regular basis (on quarterly intervals), resellers are able to determine whether their customers are dissatisfied. It is very important to be able to determine this, since according to an October 2000 report conducted by Forrester Research, 48 per cent of customers utilizing a Web host were dissatisfied.

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By determining whether a customer is dissatisfied, resellers can make active strides to acknowledge and correct technical and service problems. Satisfying an existing customer base will mean that the reseller operation will be able to increase its retention rate by addressing consumer concerns. It is therefore imperative that resellers not only poll its clientele, but follow-up on any concerns it may express.

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Most Web hosting customers expect a high level of customer service online, and online polling will only increase that expectation. Online polling, therefore, should not only be conceived as only a marketing tool, but an integral customer care component of your reseller business. It should be utilized to determine customer issues and most importantly, used to make improvements to service delivery.