That's right - you heard me. If you want a truly effective customer service organization, ideally, you should not base any portion of your hiring or training on the your (potential) employees' manners.

Now, in order to get you to drink my Kool-Aid, you need to understand and agree with my definition of manners. For the purposes of this post, we're going to consider definition 2b of Dictionary.com, which I believe is the most applicable definition to the customer service environment: "ways of behaving with reference to polite standards; social comportment."

(Definition 3 applies pretty well too.)

Some quick background: two days ago, I had the pleasure of missing a connection flight in Atlanta Int. airport in transit from Ft. Lauderdale to home. What ordinarily would have been a 45 minute lay-over turned into a three hour wait. No problem - my wife and I were coming back from a little cruise R&R, and we weren't in a rush to get home for any reason. However, our extended stay in Atlanta meant getting some dinner, a book, a travel pillow for my wife, that sort of stuff. During those three hours, I noticed something very interesting. The people working various stations in the airport had no manners whatsoever! They never smiled. I never once heard a single "thank you" or "your welcome," even in response to such courtesies extended by customers.

At first, this bugged me a bit, but very quickly it dawned on me that the employees I observed had traded in manners/courtesy for honestly. They weren't thankful, and so offering a "thank you" to a customer would be a hollow, insincere sentiment at best. I'm guessing most people would be put off by the lack of manners, but I came to understand it and even respect it.

Here's what I decided: manners are an excuse to pretend you care. An employee in a customer service role can only pretend to care for so long. Once they stop caring, a predictable and costly cycle plays out - dropoff in production, firing, search for new applicants, and new training for your new, "well mannered" employees.

Does that mean you should employ rude people? Of course not. I'm not suggesting the behavior displayed by the airport staff was proper. I'm suggesting they hired the wrong people.

Instead of hiring people who display good manners, look for people who are genuinely gracious, where words of kindness and gestures of pleasantry are not motivated by a need to pretend, but by the innate character of the individuals who extend them. The overt result (at least in the beginning) might look identical - the differences between good manners and genuine caring might be very subtle, but in the long run, you'll cultivate a more positive, more efficient work environment for your employees, with results your customers will notice in a very good way. Customer loyalty goes up, costs associated with maintaining a workforce (large or small) go down. Bottom line - everyone wins!  Manners are an excuse to lie and falsely represent the character of your company.  Genuine caring is simply...genuine.

I'm sorry, are you asking how to tell the difference between manners and caring when interviewing potential customer service representatives? How should I know? C'mon now - I can't solve all of the world's problems for ya :)

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==========[ MORE ABOUT PAUL ]==========
PaulHirsch.com . International Web Developers Network . Web Hosting Talk . Equentity Host

I know I promised a couple open letters in my next posts, but those are going to have to wait. I have a question/topic of much greater importance to me and the industry as a whole.

Almost a year ago, I blogged about the formation of a hosting association, a noble endeavor for which I was witness to both the waxing and waning of inertia that went into and eventually left the project. I'm sure it came as no surprise that the effort was being made; apparently it's been made more than a few times in the past. It's probably no surprise the efforts came up short. So far, the formation of a comprehensive hosting organization has a 0% success rate.

The fact that it hasn't happened doesn't make it any less important a pursuit. The hosting industry has a very weak voice (consumer media, mainstream business, government, etc.) and has very little means of providing support to the businesses and individuals of whom it is comprised. Outside of some (thankfully very active) online communities and vendors who typically satisfy very channel-specific hosting company needs, there's not much in the way of collective activity. What's missing is the right platform for that activity to take place.

At HostingCon 2007, a group of us were lamenting the lack of a unifying body in the industry. Indeed, the Web hosting industry is one of very few large industries that lacks this, and conversations arose over what such a body could accomplish if given the opportunity. So, a small group of us set forth to discover why given so much anecdotal support, the formation of a hosting association has yet to be achieved.

We've been quietly researching the industry, asking a lot of people and companies a lot of questions, essentially in an effort to assess the feasibility of pursuing this endeavor again. The assessment is complete. The research is done, and without getting into too many details, we are moving forward.

During the course of exploratory research, we compiled a lengthy list of holes in the industry where an association could have real impact on hosting businesses, individuals and suppliers. We held our own brainstorming sessions. We also asked a whole lot of tough questions to hosts and hosting vendors, shut our mouths, listened and took notes.

The purpose of this blog post isn't necessarily to drum up publicity for the association (though I suppose it inherently has this effect). We'll make official statements about it when the time is right, explaining what it is, why it exists, its name, etc. I'm posting this because I want you to be aware an effort is underway, so you can speak up about ways an association could help fill needs and gaps in your professional life.

If you'd like to respond here, please do so! If you'd like to email me privately, use the link to my personal site below and fill out the form. If you wish to post encouraging comments, thanks, we'll take 'em! If you wish to post disparaging comments, think of ways you can voice concerns constructively so they can be taken into account as we move forward.

The best type of response to this post would be your own personal wish list. For example, "I'm a small host, and I wish I had easy access to affordable benefits, legal services and a comprehensive vendor directory," or "I'm a larger host, and I wish I had a thorough library of research available to me, hosting industry-specific binding arbitration services and a voice in the Net Neutrality debates happening in congress."

What's on your wish list? What keeps you up at night? What would get you more excited about hosting if it existed?

(P.S. The organization will be entirely non-profit, and the principles involved in its formation will derive no additional benefits from its formation. This is an altruistic effort in its purest form.)

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==========[ MORE ABOUT PAUL ]==========
PaulHirsch.com . International Web Developers Network . Web Hosting Talk . Equentity Host

A few months ago, I had a most interesting customer service experience, one that mystified me, about which I promised I would eventually blog. LONG STORY ALERT: if you don't want to read this, skip down to "---END LONG STORY---" to get to the point.

I was a Sprint PCS customer for nearly 7-1/2 years...was...nearly. After two years of off-contract month-to-month service, I decided I would purchase a new phone (at a discount) and re-up my contract. Now, Sprint has not been great to me (lots of telemarketing recently, some network issues, etc.), but they've been good enough for me to not bother switching.

I purchased my phone, contracted my plan, and went on my way. The phone was essentially DOA. The battery held a 15 minute charge and then died. I used it for a few days (plugged in mostly), went to return it, and instead of returning it, I ended up upgrading to the new UpStage - sweet phone!

Well, a few weeks go by, and I come to the realization I need a phone that has a full keyboard for business purposes. I also need to upgrade my plan (by ~$50/mo., up to ~$120/mo.). I went back to trade up, and got a nasty surprise. Since I had traded up once previously on that broken phone, I wasn't eligible to trade up again. What's more, including the time I spent using the broken phone, I was six days past the deadline to switch plans or back out.

No one at the Sprint store could help me. No one at Sprint customer service could help me. They insisted I pay $650 for the phone I needed, and I was on my own figuring out what to do with my UpStage.

I started shopping around. I looked at Verizon and AllTel. Verizon offered to sell me the phone I wanted for $150, plus they threw in a free belt clip, car charger and $100 bluetooth headset.

I called Sprint and told them after doing the math, even with the $200 disconnect fee, I was going to save hundreds of dollars by leaving them! I tried spelling everything out for them. I was a customer of more than seven years. I was upgrading my plan from $70 to $120/month. and I was happy to commit to a two-year contract. I was trading back the phone I had, which has some value to them. All I wanted was for them to roll back my status by six days so I could get the products and services I really needed and stay a Sprint customer.

They said they weren't authorized to do this.

I called one more time, this time to the department that handles account closures. I explained the entire situation, and that I was outside the Verizon store, about to leave Sprint. I told them I didn't want to have to leave under these circumstances. They said there was nothing they could do...except, perhaps they could work on plan pricing to make up some of the difference. Well, ok - that's a start. Sure, you can put me on hold for a couple minutes while you figure out what you're able to do. Waiting...waiting...waiting...click. Five minutes later, the line goes dead. I believe it was the network (if that's not a sign, I don't know what is). Still, I gave them 20 minutes to call me back and work with me. Nothing. So, I walked into Verizon, switched my service, bought my phone for $150, got my freebies, and a week of eBay later, I sold my UpStage (I paid $150 for it - promotional price) for $263, which easily covered the Sprint disconnection fee. All in all, I saved roughly $400 by leaving Sprint for Verizon.

--- END LONG STORY ---

That was a very long story, I know, but it comes with a very strong point. As a hosting company, (cue Pussycat Dolls) don't you wish your entire customer base was just like me ? Don't you wish every customer stuck around for seven+ years, through good service and bad, and didn't leave at the first sign of trouble or the first hosting deal that was $1 less per month than you charge? Don't you wish your customers would call you three or four times while considering leaving to give you the opportunity to keep them as customers under very reasonable terms? Don't you wish your customers would solicit you to work through any and every angle possible to remain your customers in the face of adversity?

You don't need me to tell you this, but most of your customers are not like me. They will leave a whole lot more quickly than I left Sprint, and they won't give nearly as much notice. Sprint failed me, not because they employed bad people, not even because they weren't right (I was technically past the switching date). Sprint failed me because they chose not to give their employees the power to keep me as their loyal customer. Sprint failed because they chose to implement a policy that leaves no room for people to make decisions that are best for customers and truly best for the company.

Smaller businesses typically don't have this problem as much as larger businesses. Either employees are given the power to make customers happy, or the decision makers/management are not so far removed from customer service that they are unavailable to make such decisions themselves. It seems the larger an organization gets, the harder it is to remember customer service is a very human process. No matter what size your business is, I encourage you to purchase a book called The Simple Truths of Service, by Ken Blanchard and Barbara Glanz (I linked to Amazon, but they may not have any copies available at the moment). The stories they share about good customer service are simply amazing! The book is short (you'll finish it in 20-30 minutes, maybe), but the lessons are profound.

Perhaps a small investment of time spent reading this book will equip you with the ideas and motivation to do things for your customers that will make them show the loyalty I showed Sprint up to the very end, and perhaps the actions you take will result in a much happier ending for everyone.

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==========[ MORE ABOUT PAUL ]==========
PaulHirsch.com . International Web Developers Network . Web Hosting Talk . Equentity Host

As a moderator and community member on WebHostingTalk.com, I come across discussions daily on the subject of overselling. For the purposes of this blog post, overselling is the practice of making more disk space and data transfer available to customers than a particular server, cluster, grid, etc. technologically has available to allocate.

My observations lead me to conclude there are three clear camps into which nearly everyone belongs (these are generalizations - there are flavors of thought within each one, but you'll get the picture):

1. Overselling is evil - this group believes you, as a host, are acting dishonestly if you sell resources to a customer that are not available at the moment you make the hosting account sale. In addition, many in this group believe the reliance on TOS-stated CPU load specifications to dictate limits misleads the consumer as well.

2. Overselling is fine - this group believes it doesn't matter what amounts you tell a customer they may receive, so long as in the end, their sites are up and servers are stable. CPU loads are an issue regardless of the amount of resources you sell a customer, and customers should be cognizant of this whether they use 1% of their resources or 100%.

3. A little overselling is fine - this group tries to straddle the two polarized groups. It believes a little calculated risk in overselling is acceptable, so long as hosts monitor use and the risks involved as they go. There's no set number for the amount of risk "allowed," but I've commonly seen numbers like 10% or 20% used. For example, if a server has 200 Gb. hard drive space available and 2,000 Gb. of available data transfer, this group would be fine with the server owner selling up to perhaps 240 Gb. of disk space and 2,400 Gb. of data transfer.

I think there's an issue greater than overselling at hand here that often does not get discussed. I've mentioned it within communal contributions I've made to the online world, but I'd like to call special attention to it here. I used to have a big problem with overselling. I firmly believed it was dishonest. I recently changed by mind.

Overselling is not a problem or even an issue. Overpromising is the culprit here! At the end of the day, all three camps are somewhat correct. It is dishonest to promise resources to which a customer will not be given full access. Yet, at the end of the day, the important thing is that customers are up and servers are healthy. As far as I'm concerned, resources do not need to be available at the time of purchase. They simply need to be available at the time of use. If they are not, a host has overpromised, and has served its customers poorly.

To the crazy overselling hosts pushing 1-5 Tb. of data transfer and 100-1,000 Gb. of disk space for a $5/mo. shared hosting account, if you have the ability to add the necessary resources into your hosting environment when your customers require them, and you can support your customers' needs at the time(s) they are needed, good for you! Oversell to your heart's content.

For those hosts who recognize they are wasting resources by allocating them to customers who don't use them, and who want to engage in calculated overselling to make the most out of their hosting system investment, you need to do a little math to ensure your customers are protected.

Get hard figures for data transfer overages, and costs associated with adding additional hard drive space to your system (remember, downtime - even scheduled downtime - is a cost!). Decide for yourself how much you're willing to wager should your customers blow through their limits, and oversell up to that amount. So, if you're willing to finance up to 1 Tb. of additional data transfer or perhaps a dedicated pipe, that's how much you oversell. If you're willing to finance a server hard drive upgrade from 120 Gb. to 500 Gb., there's your overselling threshhold. This is a very small-scale example, but the same principle applies whether you have one server or 1,000 in a cluster.

Set the funds aside; pretend they are already spent. Now, you've created an environment that supports your desire to oversell without putting your customers at any risk whatsoever. Sounds like a good plan, right? You tell me! Comments are welcome :)

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==========[ MORE ABOUT PAUL ]==========
PaulHirsch.com . International Web Developers Network . Web Hosting Talk . Equentity Host

<rant>

Ok folks, it is high time we had a little discussion about what it means to be a small business owner in the Web hosting industry.

The other day, I was in the position to act as a gatekeeper for the publishing of a "press release" written by a new "company," the "company's" "chief marketing officer," no less. It was immediately apparent upon reading the release that "chief marketing officer" was a made-up title (I'm certain this "company" does not have officially installed officers and an elected board of directors installing them, or a similar setup). It was also immediately apparent that the person proclaiming to be the last word in this "company's" marketing program had no formal training and at best little real world marketing experience. The site referenced in the "press release" corroborated my suspicions.

Wow - that's a lot of quotes in that last paragraph. But yeah, anywhere you see quotes, insert the words "so-called" in your mind. That's pretty much the long and short of it. Basically, what we're talking about here is a kiddie host.

There's nothing wrong with having little experience, but there's something wrong when you don't know how much you don't know, and you're not willing to learn. Obviously there's a little more to the story than just what I posted above, and I don't want to go into any more specifics because I'm not trying to cast shame on a single person or point a finger at a specific "business." I'm trying to make the following point. The hosting industry has gotten to the point where practically anyone can open a Web hosting business about as easily as you can open a lemonade stand.

The best case scenario involves a fairly responsible, adult-minded (and probably adult-aged) person, who has purchased a reseller account to host a small network of sites, or to help his or her friends manage their sites and make a little profit from it. Extra kudos if they have a business plan that clearly takes them through a series of reseller levels and eventually into a more complete hosting environment (dedicated server(s), dedicated grid space, what have you).

More often than not, you get "summer break hosts," kids who are out to make a few extra bucks while school's out, and are not particularly interested in maintaining a customer base once they're back in session.

A good Web hosting business has to start with the right mindset and a heart for customers. It needs a solid plan, and the development of at least a basic support structure to get things off the ground. There has to be a convenient way for people to pay. There had to be a convenient support mechanism. There has to be disaster contingency plans. There has to be...dozens of other elements taken into consideration (legal, business registration, taxes, etc.).

In one sense, I respect the entrepreneurial spirit of those who are honestly trying to create something new and good. In another sense, there isn't room within this industry for hosts who have set themselves up for failure because they didn't take the time to plan for their business's needs, or worse, because they didn't really care in the first place.

As Web hosts who provide reselling to the public, there's something we can do about this. For those of you who are more interested in seeing your customer's grow and less interested in making a fast buck wherever you can, look for ways you can contribute to the growth of your customers. Seek out business partners your customers can use at favorable rates. Publish items of interest, basic hosting articles, checklists and to-do lists for new hosting businesses. Set up special business support in addition to technical support and customer support.

One day, you might find yourself competing against one of your own customers, who you've helped grow into a respectable host. If so, congratulations, and don't feel bad about it. The hosting world is a sea of abundance for those who play well within it, and actively helping others become successful will come back to you. I do believe in professional karma!

And to those of you who have little interest in being a legitimate hositng provider, keep your enquiries coming and make your presences known, so those of us who know the difference and can do something about you will have the opportunity to burst your bubbles and send you home. It sure would be nice to have a hosting business certification body of some kind...

That is all.

</rant>

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==========[ MORE ABOUT PAUL ]==========

PaulHirsch.com . International Web Developers Network . Web Hosting Talk . Equentity Host

This isn't meant to be an "I told you so" type of blog post, but it might come off that way. I guess it can't really be helped.

About two months ago, I made a private appeal to Tony to work on clearly defining the path that will take the association from the planning stages to completion. Here's what I said:

I started a discussion on this a while back, trying to figure out how we get from where we are today to a complete association. I think we've seen and felt the effects of not having a clear roadmap over the past two months. Tony, I'm appealing to you here. If we have a strategy for launching the association with clear steps, deadlines and expectations of what must be done in order for a step to be complete, then we'll have a clear vision of the end result and how we get there. I'm sure you can see it clearly in your head, but until we agree on the road we're taking, we're all going to see it differently, and we're not really sure how we fit into the grand scheme of things. PLEASE look at that thread, give consideration to exactly what needs to take place, the order in which everything must happen, how much time you anticipate will be necessary to complete each tasks and what resources are available or must be found in order for each task to be completed.

Right now, we're a handful of guys floating around in this limboistic idea of an association. I lost sight of it for a while, because I really didn't know where to go with it next. I don't see any clear direction, and frankly, if we don't clearly see how specific efforts on our parts are going to make a difference, we're wasting our time. Use that roadmap discussion as a basis, show us how to get from right here right now to the finished product, and then tell us what you need along the way to complete each step.

I wish I could say I know the road from A to Z here, but my predictions to Tony have come true. No strategy and no vision threaten to entirely bury this latest effort, if it's not dead already.

This is a shame, because I planned on using the occasional blog post to chronicle the progress being made by the International Hosting Association. Unfortunately, there's no progress to be chronicled.

So, assuming this effort is dead (which may or may not be the case, but let's assume so), what will it take for such an organization to be formed and to have longevity? Here's a better question - how much does the industry really need/want an association of its own?

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==========[ MORE ABOUT PAUL ]==========

PaulHirsch.com . International Web Developers Network . Web Hosting Talk . Equentity Host

HostingCon 2006 played host to the first step in the creation of an industry association that certifies business practices and ethical standards, gives members consolidated buying power, legal clout, "big business" benefits and preferred treatment by vendors.

Some very prominent names in the industry, such as 1&1 and Microsoft have expressed interest in supporting such an association, and many hosts and hosting industry vendors seem to warn up to idea whenever it is mentioned.

If you're wondering when we can expect to see the IHA come to fruition, ask Tony Holloway of Mad Rooster. He is the chief proponent and project leader for the association. He'll probably tell you the time period necessary to complete the formation of the IHA is inversely proportional to the number of people who volunteer to help get all of the components into place. I'm assisting in these efforts myself (I'm the resident pest - Tony probably hates me by now), and I would love to see more people take part in these formative stages. The association will only be as good as the efforts of the people who help create it, and right now, there's a lot of room for more of those efforts.

Take a look at ihaweb.org and see what's taking place. The answer is not much at the moment. Will that change? The answer is partly in your hands!

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PaulHirsch.com . International Web Developers Network . Web Hosting Talk . Equentity Host

Visa and Mastercard say "prove it!"

An increasing number of businesses have been spotted sporting a button on their Web sites asserting their sites to be hack-proof. These buttons are made available to sites that have been scanned for vulnerabilities by independent security auditors, and serve two purposes; they prove compliance if the issuing auditor is certified by Visa/MC to do the appropriate testing procedures, and they may serve to give site visitors a little peace of mind.

Visa and Mastercard have been mandating heightened security for merchants for a while now, but the Visa Cardholder Information Security Program (CISP) has been updated recently, so it's time to check your compliance.

If you store customer credit card information, you need to be aware of Visa CISP and Mastercard Data Security Standard (.pdf). Fines and account termination are possible consequences for noncompliance. A big thanks goes to Corey Bryant of Card Service International for bringing this to my attention.

As a quick aside, I recently participated in an online discussion about a merchant who used a non-secure form to send credit card information as plain text to her email address to be processed manually. Her justification was thieves target sites with secure certificates on them, and by not installing SSL and using proper processing procedures, she was avoiding their detection. If this leaves you in awe, you're not alone!

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PaulHirsch.com . International Web Developers Network . Web Hosting Talk . Equentity Host