I recently purchased the “5 for 5″ deal with Confluence and Jira from Atlassian, but I wanted to use it for something useful rather than just run it on a local server. So then I had to go through the usual process of finding some kind of hosting service that will allow me to run java apps. Let me tell you, I have had experience with a few of these in the past, and in short, it has never been fun. Usually, the support process is a total nightmare, and rather than something that should take 20 minutes to deploy, it becomes 20 days.
But not this time!
In my quest to find a better provider, I got a twitter response from Neosurge Web Solutions that started telling me about their offering. Let me just say that I generally like when someone pro-actively approaches me in response to a tweet, even if they are trying to sell me a service, because in reality, it is reactive marketing. Marketing that is targeting me in response to a need I have right now. And if its not a Bot doing it, I am in favour of it.
I was still sceptical, but after some initial investigation, Neosurge had some of the most competitive pricing available. But what really sold it to me was the response I was getting via twitter. All my questions were getting promptly answered and it helped my decision along.
But it didn’t stop there. When I went through the process of setting up my VPS (Virtual Private Server), I was getting quick feedback and response to any issues I raised. For the first time, my support experience became conversational rather than log it and wait and see. It was Support 2.0. This was fabulous! I had some hiccups that I believed were around memory, in the past, I would have got a run around blaming me that I have not correctly configured ordeployed the application, or at worst, just ignore the real question. Neosurge helped accommodate my issues, if I needed to up the memory, they did that promptly. If it worked, fine, I get billed for it. If not, roll it back, no harm done. Are you serious!! I have never had support like this, so I had to tell them about it.
If a business is providing a good service, I believe it is my duty as its customer to tell them that. That is the best metric for them to know that they are doing the right thing, and its the same level of feedback I expect. Through the process, I met Brian, who was helping me with my support.
I thought Neosurge was such an exception to all the hosting providers out there, that I asked Brian if I could interview him and publish it on myBlog. Now, anyone that follows my blog, knows that I have never done an interview, but it is something that I wanted to do for a while. So making Neosurge the first, I believe is a testament to them.
First a quick disclaimer; Although you will see that I have a link at the end of this post where I have signed up to Neosurge’s affiliate program, this is not the reason I did this (Brian offered this to me after the fact). My main motivation was that I wanted to spread the word, and make sure Neosurge hangs around. I believe some of the bigger boys can learn a lot from this company.
The following is an interview conducted with Brian from Neosurge over Email;
RJ: Tell me about What Neosurge is?
Neosurge: Neosurge has been providing a variety of web hosting services since 2002. Initially for the first couple years, the focus was on providing web hosting and domain registration services. As business grew, I was able to expand into offering a wider range of services. Today, we provide complete web hosting, reseller hosting,VPS, dedicated servers, collocation, bandwidth services, domain registration and more. The goal is to provide a complete range of services to allow individuals and small to medium sized businesses the tools they need to establish or expand their web presenceaffordable, reliably and with as little hassle as possible.
RJ: What motivated you to start Neosurge in a market that has lots of hosting and data center competition?
Neosurge: In 2002, there were less providers then there are today. There was a noticeable lack of professionalism and focus on providing small businesses and consumers with what they needed to get their visions realized on the web. After many bad experiences with various hosts, I eventually got a job working with one of them.
This job with a now defunct web host that was very careless and not dedicated to providing customers with a reliable and complete experience. One day the owner of this company disappeared without even letting me know (his primary employee) he was leaving it became obvious the way forward was to build a company to deliver the level of service and reliability that is needed to provide people with the framework for successonline.
RJ: What makes Neosurge different from the competition?
Neosurge: In the day of big players in the web hosting services industry, there is less emphasis on the “service” aspect. Providing complete customer satisfaction is paramount to the success of Neosurge. Our complete range of servers give customers the ability to start small, and receive support through the initial process from concept to full fledged server farm.
RJ: What plans have you got for the future?
Neosurge: Moving forward, the focus is always keeping a keen eye on industry trends. Continue to automate processes and ease the technology curb for customers. But of course, the prime focus is always on customer satisfaction and service in the hosting industry.
RJ: What challenges do you think are facing your industry, particularly with the state of the economy?
Neosurge: Though some sectors of the hosting industry are experiencing growth, no one is immune. In the recession many large businesses are scaling back, budget cuts and consolidation continue. This is a rough time for many organizations around the world, all the more reason to focus hard on core business values and make the best of each day that comes.
Rob, thank you for taking your time to interview me. I enjoy gaining from your excellent writing and experience on your blog.
END OF INTERVIEW
If you are looking for some hosting from a reliable provider with unprecedented support, please check Neosurge out!
