Making a reseller's service offering sticky

Deploying "sticky" services is a main goal of any Web hosting reseller. By attempting to build services that are extremely useful and captivating to the consumer, resellers can increase their customer retention rate.

Let Rackspace make the difference with reliable managed hosting solutions backed by Fanatical Support.™ 100% Network Uptime Money-Back Guar., 1-hour hardware replacement, 24/7 LIVE, MS and LNX certified technical support.

Unfortunately, due to the large number of competitors within the SME hosting segment, many resellers find that their percentage of customer churn is high. With many other hosting companies and resellers offering basic hosting services at "bargain basement" prices, most typical firms will only retain 80 per cent of their clientele over the course of a fiscal year. Most of these customers will be lost to competitors who offer a better or cheaper roster of service.

Resellers can combat high levels of customer churn by providing their clientele with services that impart a tremendous amount of added value. Value in the form of time and cost savings are highly appreciated by Web hosting customers and encourage them to "stick" with a hosting service provider due to their added functionality. Some customers will even pay a premium in order to obtain and retain the extra services a reseller provides.

One of the most popular "sticky services" that Web host resellers offer is online Web page authoring tools. Larger Web host reseller operations will obtain and integrate private-label Web site publishing tools into their hosting offerings to help their customers create professional sites.

An extremely popular selection for larger service providers is the Trellix Hosting Platform. The Trellix platform allows service providers to offer small businesses and individuals a suite of tools that lets them easily create and promote Web sites through the use of a click-in-context, Web browser-based editor, which allows anyone to build compelling Web site without knowledge of HTML or graphic design. Such a service is sticky because most end-users find it compelling.

According to user surveys, Web site building platforms have a 92 per cent satisfaction rate among builders. Small business users become attached to using the platform, accessing it at least seven times a month, and spending over 30 minutes per building session, generating at least 8 pages of content. Individual consumers also enjoy such services: publishing their sites over 5.6 times a month, and spending over 28 minutes per building session.

This continued use of the online Web building platform encourages an ongoing relationship with your Web host reseller operation's brand, promoting higher levels of customer retention.

Control panels can also be considered "sticky" services that entice your customers to select and retain your hosting services. Most consumers will demand sophisticated browser-based tools to manage their hosting account. Consumers want the option to create new e-mail accounts, aliases, and auto-responders and manage their system resources at will in real-time. Control panels give users the opportunity to obtain valuable site traffic information; control, upgrade and modify their sites; and even establish a turnkey e-commerce operation.

Indeed, the capacity to access a Web-based control panel along with Web site publishing tools on a single, integrated Web hosting platform can be considered the best method to make a reseller's service offering sticky. Such technologies should be pursued by larger hosting reselling operations in entrench customer retention.