My customer acquisition strategy includes a couple of key points as I have stated in the past. First and foremost is integrity. Next and maybe closely related is accountability.
Check out the article on accountability by Douglas Hanna: http://www.thewhir.com/features/101107_Accountability_in_Customer_Service.cfm
I think this sums it up pretty well.
So, what do I struggle with? Well… how can I state our goals of being accountable to customers? Really, I want to attract customers with more than just allocations as a sales model. I want to “show off” how well we do. So what is common and how to we factor in true accountability?
Common should include support staff that can handle your issues within a normal time frame, 24X7X365. Common should include quick call answering, fast email response in less than 30 minutes and chat ready and online for most services. Common is nominal downtime at a rate exceeding 99.9%. Common is security architecture and firewall protection, maybe IDS.
So if all of this is common, what differentiates common from better or best service? Rack Space has the catch phrase “Fanatical Support”. How is it fanatical? Or are most of us becoming “Common Support” in what we do?
I want to take a stab at understanding what “Top Tier” support means and try to “eat my own dog food” a bit over the next few weeks. I do think top tier support and service is the way we are going to rise above everyone in this hosting market.
