OpenSRS Web Host Survey: The Results Are In

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By: OpenSRS Team on August 25th, 2008
Posted in: General
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Comments: 3

At HostingCon 2008 we asked visitors to fill out a survey about their business relationship with their service providers and some of the trends and changes to the ever-changing Internet. Much like OpenSRS employees, our resellers work and live online.  Earlier today, we released the results and wanted to share them with you.

Our survey findings revealed web hosts are missing significant business opportunities to tap into social network users. Many use social networking tools for friends and family, but not for business. Of the respondents, 60% have their own blog or personal website, and nearly three-quarters use social networks like Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and FriendFeed to share information with friends and family.

Despite the majority of people using social networking services, 81% of the respondents in the web hosting industry do not believe these “web 2.0” or functional-hosting businesses could hurt their business.

This is definitely an opportunity to grow for web hosting companies.

Also, the more people use social media tools to share feedback and experiences, the larger your pool of understanding is to better serve customers. Listening and incorporating information related to your organization can be a business advantage.

The voices of your customers (and your competitor’s customers) are available online in a greater capacity than ever before. Knowing that someone is mentioning your organization online is invaluable. It means that you can respond. At OpenSRS, we monitor to ensure that we are current with the industry news and all types of conversations. We often share findings in our blog posts. Also, we frequently respond to articles and blog posts with our perspective or further details to keep the conversation flowing.

So, what can you do to address this changing dynamic for your business?  First, you can set up alerts using Google, Technorati or other free or paid-for services. These can be simply use basic keywords of your company name or your specific Internet industry focus. There are alerts for blogs and Twitter, too. You can receive these via email, text or RSS. The tools that work for you will depends on the adaptability to your workflow and your business needs. Our team tests lots of tools. Some work for us, and others don’t.

Survey respondents advised that their top complaint about their current provider was poor communication and/or support. Listening (also known as reputation monitoring) can provide another feedback loop for your customers.

Ken (our VP Product Management & Marketing) was quoted in today’s news release about the survey:

“It’s important that as the web hosting industry moves forward, we understand that Internet users are seeking a customized, personalized, Internet experience for both personal and professional reasons. Ultimately, it’s about customer relationships. Providers and resellers need to work together to provide the support, services and infrastructure that give users the best experience.”

Other results of the survey revealed that 73% of all domain name resellers enjoy working with their provider. In addition, three-quarters of domain name resellers believe their provider understands its needs and nearly one-half have no complaints with their provider, but of those that did, the top complaints were poor communication or support and lack of the full range of services their customers want.

Ken said it:

“It’s always great to receive positive feedback from the industry – OpenSRS has made a strong commitment to our reseller community because they have been incredibly supportive of us. By making it easy to sell and manage the highest quality Internet services, we give our resellers the tools they need to be successful.”