Anything can be said in a marketing message – especially in today’s world where many companies are Internet-based rather than “brick and mortal” retail. It’s very easy to communicate messages that are not always accurate, and are sometimes flat out lies. And unfortunately it happens often.

I’m sure it happens in every industry but I don’t watch every industry, just mine, so that’s what I’m most familiar with. Almost daily I see things online from web hosts that is very deceiving and in some cases obvious. It is too bad because when people get burned by these messages, they tend to start grouping all companies in the industry together and the level of trust across the group lowers. It doesn’t just hurt the company that misleads, but it hurts everyone (and obviously the customer).

When I choose an auto mechanic or a home repair person, I do so by referral. I want confirmation that the person or company does a good job. When I purchase something online, I almost always go to Amazon and read reviews – even if I don’t purchase from Amazon in the end. (Sorry Amazon.)

Even online information has gotten harder to trust though because I now understand that people are posting “fake” reviews and testimonials. I have even seen blogs created by people paid by the company to post them. Blogs used to be a good candid source of review, but now some of them cannot be trusted either.

What can be done to build confidence that customers are making the right choice in their decision – whatever it may be? Well, I’m personally a huge fan of references. Not just a quote or a link to a site, but a real live person; preferably several people; preferably customers who have dealt with the vendor for a long time (the longer the better). I also want to know if the provided reference is getting any compensation from the company. A reference from a reseller, in my opinion, doesn’t hold nearly as much weight as a reference from a “normal” customer who has dealt with the vendor for five+ years.

The main thing that differentiates hosts today – unless you are strict price-shopping and just want the most goodies yet cheapest hosting possible regardless of other factors – is the service and support. Response times; uptime (of course); knowledge; experience; customer service skills; and the general feel of the interaction between the customer and the staff; these are the items that seem to vary the most. Power; rack space; bandwidth; these things are available with every host. I really believe, as do our customers, that the service and support is what sets company – especially service companies like web hosts – apart from each other.

I encourage you to check around, ask for references, and investigate when making a decision that can have a huge impact on your business – like selecting a managed hosting provider.

Happy Hosting.

~Brad