Way back in 2009, a famous web hosting book was published: “Getting & Managing Your First 1,000 Clients in Web Hosting” by Abrahim Ikasud. HostGator used to give this book away if you bought a reseller account.
The book was great, though its technical advice is dated now. It walked a new reseller through configuring WHCMS and WHM/cPanel, and then went over some common strategies such as setting up packages, prospecting for customers, and handling problems.
I don’t know if anyone ever got 1,000 clients by following the book, and to be honest, by 2009 the prospect of building a successful reselling-based business had long since expired, so it was somewhat of a marketing gimmick for HostGator.
However, there are some gems in this book which I think are very relevant today. In particular, one chapter is entitled “FACING A FURIOUS CLIENT – THE KUNG FU WAY”.
Pearls of Wisdom
Here’s an important word of wisdom, which may not have originated with Ikasud, but is true nonetheless: “Never treat your existing client as a thing of the past”.
This is so true! In everything from life insurance to car sales to web hosting, your book of business is incredibly valuable and you should never treat it as old news or “in the bank”. They are a powerful source of referrals, reviews, and new business.
Ikasud has a great quote:
Always treat every single client support ticket as you would treat a pre-sales ticket and see the magic happen as your web hosting business grows beyond your expectation
His style of writing is a bit enthusiastic, but the point is very valid.
What is suicidal is taking the attitude “well, sorry you had an issue, but if you don’t like our service, walk away”. Yet, even though many providers don’t say that, the way they respond to complaints telegraphs that message. The customer is enraged and you’re giving them a weak “sorry”.
When you get an angry customer – either because your firm has screwed up, there was an unavoidable technical issue outside your control, or the customer is just bent, Ikasud’s advice:
Treat these furious clients as your most precious jewels. The secret is, when one is easily triggered emotionally in a negative way, one would also be easily triggered emotionally in a positive way.
If you just say “sorry, we’ll fix it” you may mollify them. But Ikasud offers a way to “convert this one furiously angry client to become your heat seeking missile marketing agent“.
How?
Here’s what Ikasud recommends you send to your angry client:
Hello sir, please do accept our sincere apology for the terrible outage which has caused severe down time to your website. It was beyond our power to immediately fix the outage since it required a third party engineers to remedy the situation.
The outage has now been resolved and all services are back online. as a token of our sincere apology, we would not continue to bill your account for future services. our management has decided to continue your hosting services for free when your current billing period ends.
Thank you for your kind understanding and we hope that you would enjoy our services for many years to come, it’s on the house.
Ikasud’s argument is that if you have someone who is so easily triggered with negative emotions, they’re likely easily triggered with positive emotions.
The customer who had the problem feels aggrieved and feels you’re being unjust. With this move, you completely pull the rug out from under this argument. Now you’re being more than fair and the customer is likely to tell his friends. You’ve changed his perception of your company from a firm that is unjust to a firm that is more than just.
Of course, some caveats: if someone signs up and starts spamming or otherwise violating your TOS/AUP, you don’t need to do this. But of course the spammer is not responding emotionally – he’ll just move on to the next provider.
Also, while high-margin, low-cost shared hosting allows you to give away an account easily, this won’t work if you’re selling $300/mo dedicated servers. However, you don’t have to go whole hog. A $25 or $50 credit on the account can be just as powerful.
Remember, the complainer wants to tell his friends (or just himself) that you didn’t deliver what you promised. Once you hand him something for free, that argument is…well, it’s more of a judo throw if you think about it.
What do you think? How do you handle angry customers? Let us know in the comments below!
I also enjoy using LEBs! I have an empire of little guys for VPNs, larger guys for apps, and big guys for databases and storage. When I'm not in front a screen I'm into German Shepherd dogs, quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop roleplaying games, and forest hiking.
I enjoy writing technical articles here on LowEndBox to help people get more out of their systems. You can find me on LowEndTalk @raindog308
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