Last night, PEER 1 Network, the dedicated, colocated and managed hosting provider held a customer appreciation event at the reliable Toronto party-hosting spot C-Lounge. A few of us from theWHIR had the opportunity to attend, and while it wasn’t informative in any traditional manner (nor, I should clarify, was that the intent), I did walk away with some interesting impressions of PEER 1 the organization.
Notably not a business event, the evening did provide for some opportunities for customers to throw back a couple of "peertinis" on the company, talk business with one another, or to get to know the parts of the PEER 1 team they didn’t already know.
I had the opportunity to speak several times, and at some length, to Jose Santos, director of marketing for the company, who has the sort of unique perspective that allows him to provide a very specific assessment of the environment at PEER 1. That is, he has been working with the same dedicated hosting assets since the days of Dialtone Internet, which was acquired by Interland, which later sold its Dedicated hosting business to PEER 1 on the way to becoming the consumer-focused Web.com.
Santos, as a result, has experienced a range of working environments, and a variety of corporate approaches to the same customers and products. He’s noticeably not exaggerating when he says the working environment at this company is the best he’s experienced, and that it would take more than money (or, you know, a lot of money) to convince him to move on just now. In PEER 1’s approach to customers, to marketing and to its business, he sees a lot of potential.
PEER 1, in the humble opinion of one of its hard-working executives, has the potential to be something special. And Santos wants to be there when it happens. It’s an interesting way to receive that kind of endorsement, for me, and it felt particularly resonant.
What that means for customers, in the case of this party, is a display of appreciation that really is that. Nothing more. The company had representatives in town from a few of its various locations, and it made for a unique opportunity to entertain the local clientele. According to Santos, the sales team was under explicit instructions that they were not selling that evening.
According to CEO Fabio Banducci, to whom I admittedly spoke for just a few minutes, this event was the first of several the company plans to bring to customers close to each of its several US locations.
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