Understanding the product.
WHAT THE CUSTOMER BUYS
Disk space and bandwidth, nominally.
What they actually buy is the assurance their site stays up and that someone answers when it does not.
WHAT THAT MEANS
You are selling support and reliability. The technical resource is almost incidental.
A customer who never needs support does not notice what they bought. A customer who does need it judges you entirely on that moment.
WHAT THIS IMPLIES
Competing on specifications is a losing strategy. Someone always offers more disk space for less.
Compete on being reachable, responsive and honest.
WHAT SMALL RESELLERS CAN OFFER THAT LARGE HOSTS CANNOT
Knowing the customer's site personally Answering quickly, in their language, in their timezone Fixing things rather than explaining that it is outside scope Being one person they can call
THAT IS A REAL ADVANTAGE
Many customers would rather pay more for someone who answers than less for a support queue.
WHAT YOU MUST NOT PROMISE
Uptime you do not control Support hours you cannot sustain Unlimited anything
