Lets get communication rolling! Your input is requested. :)

Good evening,

I'm back again with a few thoughts on how we could improve the communication with Hostgator 10 fold!

As great as it is already I do think it's lacking in a few departments: Reseller and Dedicated.

While we make every effort to ensure that everyone is kept 'in the loop' I believe some of the following would be great, let me know your thoughts:

1. A completely 'optional' reseller mailing list. Any reseller servers that have problems that extend beyond 1-2 minutes will receive notification via the list to all of those who subscribe.

Within the list we'll detail any issues that occurred, a fairly thorough description of what we've done to avoid it in the future and if the issue will last for any lengthy period of time a 'guesstimate' of how long the issue will last.

We'll post frequent updates (minimum of once per hour) during any extended problems to keep you up to date on what exactly is occurring.

We all know the forum is an excellent source of information as are our chat and support representatives but I think it's still not thorough enough.

2. A 'unofficial' client monitoring system for dedicated servers.

An optional system that allows us to 'add' snmp monitoring to your server alongside a notification system that dedicated clients will be able to add e-mail addresses, sms and other methods of contact your system becomes unreachable for any length of period beyond 5 minutes.

3. You decide: You're the client! Tell us what you want and we'll endeavour to ensure the system is implemented.

Thoughts?
Post away!

[Serra]

Thanks. It will be great for NEXT YEAR when my current monitoring system contract expires....

[osirion]

That certainly does sound great!

One other 'communication' suggestion I could put forth is:
When a resellers client is causing 'server issues' and you have no choice but to suspend the clients account/script/etc.; please inform the reseller that "account abc" or "script xyz on account abc" had to be suspended because of "reason zzz".

Thanks again for trying to make HG better

Originally Posted by osirion

That certainly does sound great!

One other 'communication' suggestion I could put forth is:
When a resellers client is causing 'server issues' and you have no choice but to suspend the clients account/script/etc.; please inform the reseller that "account abc" or "script xyz on account abc" had to be suspended because of "reason zzz".

Thanks again for trying to make HG better

Exceptional idea. It actually is one of the existing rules we have in place for technicians as far as I am aware: All clients should be notified before their service is disrupted on a long term.

Something like suspending a script (e.g. chmodding it to 000) generally goes with no communication though.

As far as improving goes: I think this is one of the best providers on the planet (and I've worked for quite a few now) in quite a few areas but I think potential is still one of our largest.

[cshep]

Originally Posted by osirion

That certainly does sound great!
One other 'communication' suggestion I could put forth is:
When a resellers client is causing 'server issues' and you have no choice but to suspend the clients account/script/etc.; please inform the reseller that "account abc" or "script xyz on account abc" had to be suspended because of "reason zzz".

I agree. Resellers are trying to run a business, and it just looks bad when a client contacts us claiming that their site (or script) is not working and we have no idea why. If an issue is detected please give the reseller a chance to fix the issue (if appropriate) for our client so that their service is not interrupted and we aren't left "holding the bag". Its been my experience that most clients don't do things to purposely cause "server issues" (I host "by invitation only"...sites that I or colleagues have designed). If informed of the issue, most resellers would be more than willing to cooperate in finding a solution to the problem. Of course, a script or process "gone wild" needs to be dealt with immediately, but please take the time to inform the reseller what was done and why.

Some day I will go with a dedicated server, but at this time it is not financially feasable. Some day it will be...then I'll be able to rest a little easier.

[Kimbot]

GatorDave.

I think that point 1 would be of great help to resellers. I remember being a reseller of shared hosting and the problems I had with NOT knowing what was going on.

On point 2 for dedi servers, excellent if we could be monitored and notified of problems.

I use some external testing stuff already to monitor the service, but another service coming from within HG would certainly add to my feeling of "security".

It would be awesome to be able to get SMS messages when someting comes unstuck on your dedi server!

One thing may be good to let the resellers (and others) know. Make sure they care clear that it is a good idea to use an email address that is NOT on your server at HG. Otherwise, obviously, when the server goes down you loose contact with support. I went thru this before when I used an internal email address. When the server went down I was stuck for a while because I could not respond to help via my usual email address.

Now I use a yahoo mail address for ticket and support. Maybe suggest this to new users too?

Oh yeah, and thanks for helping out with my DNS problems last night!!

Cheers!

Originally Posted by Kimbot

GatorDave.

I think that point 1 would be of great help to resellers. I remember being a reseller of shared hosting and the problems I had with NOT knowing what was going on.

On point 2 for dedi servers, excellent if we could be monitored and notified of problems.

I use some external testing stuff already to monitor the service, but another service coming from within HG would certainly add to my feeling of "security".

It would be awesome to be able to get SMS messages when someting comes unstuck on your dedi server!

One thing may be good to let the resellers (and others) know. Make sure they care clear that it is a good idea to use an email address that is NOT on your server at HG. Otherwise, obviously, when the server goes down you loose contact with support. I went thru this before when I used an internal email address. When the server went down I was stuck for a while because I could not respond to help via my usual email address.

Now I use a yahoo mail address for ticket and support. Maybe suggest this to new users too?

Oh yeah, and thanks for helping out with my DNS problems last night!!

Cheers!

Kimbot,

You're more than welcome with the DNS issues.
The other points you've made are fairly good and the last tip about e-mail is something I don't think we can ever stress enough!

It especially causes problems with new signups.