Last month, we introduced our first “Featured Client”, Nick. If you didn’t get to check that out, Nick runs a Web/WordPress Development Studio (called W5 Web Designs) that specializes in small to medium-sized business site development. Here at TurnKey, we appreciate each and every one of you TurnKey Turkey’s (hmm… that’s catchy)!  To show our appreciation, we like to highlight a client and give our friends in the World Wide Web a little background on what they do.  Nick was nice enough to give us a TON of info about his business, how he’s enjoys being with TurnKey, and even sent in a great photo of his family!

This time around we have our mate Darren who is from across the pond. And without further ado, here is a little info on our new Featured Client!

Darren is the founder and CEO at Torpix Network in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. While studying Media at college, he found a passion to work with computers and eventually became a computer technician in the UK. Four years ago, Darren began Torpix Network and offered IT services as a hobby. Since then, Torpix has turned into an active business.

Darren began as a reseller with TurnKey and has, within two years, upgraded to running his company on dedicated servers from our green data center in Latham, New York. “TurnKey has an excellent, true, 100% uptime,” Darren said. “They seem to never have any downtime, and if there has been, I’ve never noticed. When there is an issue either if it was my fault or a network issue, they go above and beyond the call of duty to resolve it, even though my services with them are self-managed.”

Aww shucks! Thanks, Darren.

If you want to learn more about Torpix Network, go check them out! If you want to be the next Featured Client, email dyoungs@turnkeyinternet.net or let us know on our Facebook or Twitter.

One of the biggest challenges for any web hosting company is reducing the rate of churn. Churn, or turn-over, is the rate at which customers cancel services. In the web hosting industry, churn can be alarmingly high, especially when economic times are difficult and customers are paying month-to-month. But, while all the big web hosting companies spend thousands of dollars getting customers in the door, really tackling the problem of churn is something many fail to do well. Fortunately, there are a few tried and true techniques for retaining customers and reducing churn that every web host could benefit from implementing.

Immediate Follow-Up

Every cancelation request is an opportunity. If you have an automated billing system for your company, you can start by scheduling an email cancellation message to send out to every customer that cancels her services. Compose a friendly message that politely asks why the customer cancelled. Ask if she was unhappy with your products or services. If you receive a response, consider it an open door. Send another email, offering to significantly reduce her monthly bill. Making less money is better than making no money. If you don’t receive a response, schedule another email for a week or two after the initial cancellation. In your second email, offer specials or deep product discounts designed to entice her back to your business. Make it an offer she can’t refuse. Don’t give up. A previous customer is an extremely valuable lead. Chances are good, if you’re consistent, polite and solicitous, that customer will think of you the next time she needs web hosting. Customer loyalty is a powerful thing. Make the most of it.

Appeal to the Businessman

One tactic I have found extremely effective is to appeal to the logical businessman in our customers. Web hosting is unique in that it is the portal through which our clients reach their clients. Without a website, most businesses will fail nowadays. Sometimes a phone call with a simple sales pitch works wonders. Not only is it harder to say no over the phone, a convincing voice explaining how important it is to maintain your business presence online goes a long way. Pair that with an unbeatable offer for discount services, and reel that client right back in.

Take it from the Salesman

A good salesman can convince anybody of anything. But when you have a great product with great service at a great price, you don’t have to be the best salesman in the world, you just have to tell it like it is. Get your message out there and be consistent. Like I’m always saying, success and hard work are the same thing.

Help Your Customers Succeed

According to a whole lot of industry experts, the main reason businesses fail online is bad marketing. You can’t sell something nobody knows about. It may seem obvious, but most hosting companies don’t go the extra mile to help their customers market their services and they lose customers because of it. Give your customers tips about how to get noticed. Put together an e-book full of marketing research and ideas. If your customers are successful, you will be successful. This is also a no-brainer when it comes to building brand loyalty. If you help someone make money, they are not likely to forget it.

TurnKey Internet is no rip off. The web hosting company gets consistently high marks for service, reliability and up-time.

How did you find this blog post? Did you run a search for TurnKey Internet Scam? If so, welcome! You’re my target demographic. This is part three of my SEO-fu experiment. If you haven’t read the first two posts, you can find them here (1) and here (2). Today, the focus is you, the customer, and how you browse, search and read. Understanding how you do these things will help us figure out: how to help you find us; how to appeal to you when you do; and how, as a business, to navigate this weirdo short attention-span information culture we all find ourselves living in.

Many people (myself included) don’t always take enough time to evaluate the sources of their information. We may read a review somewhere that effects our opinion of a company without ever wondering about who wrote it. Our decisions are snap, our time is valuable, and once we pick a company, we will tend to stick with it. It’s easier to stay where you are once you’re there—I think that’s a law of inertia or something. But really, market studies show, consumers demonstrate brand-loyalty online the same way they do in a supermarket or clothing store. So get those customers in the door, and you’re likelier than not to keep them.

Information is power. The trouble is: there’s too much of it out there (information AND power, but in this context I’m referring to information). Often, the first line of text that appears under the Google search result link is all a customer will read before making a decision. As a marketer, it is my job to make that text count—to curate my information into bite-sized pieces without sacrificing quality. This is extremely challenging when, say, you have like eight things to communicate and only room for four. Surely in this equation there is an inevitable sacrifice of information quality—you just can’t always cram everything you need to say into tiny spaces. In this case, language can’t keep up with progress. But there is hope! One positive thing about Google’s indexing of every word of text on the internet, is that every word counts. So you may not be searching specifically for “TurnKey Internet Quality” or “Marketing Philosophy” or “Web Hosting Masters” but goll durnit, you’ll find us! Of course, you may never know WHY you found us (unless you actually read this post) but, point is, my SEO-fu got you here, despite your 2010 attention-span.