I’ve been working on a project for a client this week, trying to get their hosting account set up, and I have experienced a myriad of usability issues with their system. The hosting company in question is Hostony. I picked them because they were the highest rated Windows Hosting service with MS SQL on Vista Intermedia Corporation, which I actually just happened to find on Google.
Some of the issues with their backend system include:
- Billing / Invoice gives no indication that your hosting plan is being processed
- The Windows HELM system uses a drop-down menu for navigation
- My plan included an MS SQL database, but there was no indication that one was installed, and the only place I could find info on the DB was the page to purchase more MS SQL instances
- There was no section on my DNS / NameServer info to update my DNS records with GoDaddy
- The “Online Help” was a collection of videos, using frames and iFrames with expanding tree menu navigation
This is just a short list of things I ran into while using the admin system. To say the least, I can’t wait to have the web site installed so I can be done with this stuff.
The largest perpetrator of evil from Hostony was their lack of a support phone number. The best you get is to either use the online ticket system which is a third-party system that they didn’t even bother to design their branding into, or to use Online Chat.
Since third-party ticket systems usually mean waiting around for a response, I thought I should use the Online Chat system. There was only one problem: it wasn’t online. In fact, it hasn’t been online yet!
Here is Hostony’s Online Chat button, which turned out to be green today, instead of grey:
And the resulting screen after clicking:
What’s this? Leave a message?
I didn’t click the online chat button to be able to leave a message. That’s what the online ticket system is for. I clicked online chat to talk to someone right away and get help. If your system can’t ever be online, then you should provide a 24 hour, 7 days a week Customer Support phone number.
Why? Because customers want their questions answered immediately. We don’t trust email and message systems. Any time a web site tells me to leave a message or send an email, I say “forget it”. What assurances do we have someone will answer our request in a timely manner?
Three reasons you should provide an 800 number to your customers and potential sales opportunities:
- Gives customers an easy, free way to contact your business.
- Lets you project a professional company image and make your business look big and stable.
- Makes your business more memorable, especially if you choose a “vanity 800 number.”
To Hostony’s credit, they have been extremely fast in answering my trouble tickets, even if messages are easily misunderstood because we aren’t speaking directly and efficiently. It’s been pretty good so far, but it could have been exceptionally better.
