Customer support survey
The research targeted 50 major web hosting companies from all five continents:
|
country |
number of web hosts |
|
Australia |
2 |
|
Canada |
7 |
|
Germany |
1 |
|
Malaysia |
1 |
|
South Africa |
1 |
|
United Kingdom |
13 |
|
United States of America |
25 |
Testing
e-mail requests were sent during November 2006. First e-mail was sent during
office hours, another one in the night and the last one at the weekend. Incoming responses from the web
hosts were then assessed according to
five-point scale together with the response
time determination. The average score and the average response time represent a quantification of the quality of the web host's customer support.
Almost half of web hosts fail in providing efficient customer support
Three web hosting providers reached the absolute average score (equal to 5). While 16 percent of the web hosting providers met excellent
customer support standards
(the average response quality 4.5 and above), another 46 percent of the web hosts were unable to deliver
an effective help (score below 3.5).
How fast did the web hosts reply to the testing e-mail questions?
Taking into account web hosts that answered all 3 testing e-mails the top average response time is 11 minutes. Only 12 percent of the providers answered to each testing e-mail with the average response time below one hour. Some 8 percent of web hosting providers needed more than 24 hours in order to respond to the testing e-mails.
The worst average response time equals to 102 hours (slightly more than 4 days).
The following ranking shows the surveyed web hosts along with the average response
quality, the response time and the percentage of unanswered e-mail requests:
| |
web host |
response quality |
response time |
unanswered e-mail percentage |
|
| 1 |
MochaHost |
5.00 |
0
hours
24
mins
|
0 % |
|
| 2 |
Intermedia.NET |
5.00 |
3
hours
31
mins
|
0 % |
|
| 3 |
NetRegistry |
5.00 |
5
hours
52
mins
|
0 % |
|
| 4 |
HostMySite |
4.66 |
0
hours
14
mins
|
0 % |
|
| 5 |
CrystalTech |
4.66 |
0
hours
15
mins
|
0 % |
|
| 6 |
DiscountASP.NET |
4.66 |
4
hours
14
mins
|
0 % |
|
| 7 |
WebFusion |
4.66 |
6
hours
52
mins
|
0 % |
|
| 8 |
Inweb Networks |
4.66 |
11
hours
40
mins
|
0 % |
|
| 9 |
HostGator |
4.33 |
0
hours
52
mins
|
0 % |
|
| 10 |
Website Source |
4.33 |
1
hours
24
mins
|
0 % |
|
| 11 |
Hostpro2u |
4.33 |
1
hours
36
mins
|
0 % |
|
| 12 |
Ethical Hosting |
4.33 |
1
hours
42
mins
|
0 % |
|
| 13 |
WebServe Canada |
4.33 |
2
hours
36
mins
|
0 % |
|
| 14 |
Brinkster |
4.33 |
5
hours
54
mins
|
0 % |
|
| 15 |
Easy CGI |
4.33 |
5
hours
58
mins
|
0 % |
|
| 16 |
NetBenefit |
4.33 |
13
hours
23
mins
|
0 % |
|
| 17 |
Zenutech |
4.33 |
17
hours
6
mins
|
0 % |
|
| 18 |
Host Color |
4.00 |
0
hours
11
mins
|
0 % |
|
| 19 |
Traverse Web Hosting |
4.00 |
2
hours
42
mins
|
0 % |
|
| 20 |
iWeb |
4.00 |
4
hours
49
mins
|
0 % |
|
| 21 |
Ilisys Web Hosting |
4.00 |
10
hours
7
mins
|
0 % |
|
| 22 |
StartLogic |
4.00 |
34
hours
24
mins
|
0 % |
|
| 23 |
Afrihost |
3.66 |
2
hours
33
mins
|
0 % |
|
| 24 |
Active 24 UK |
3.66 |
102
hours
39
mins
|
0 % |
|
| 25 |
SJK Hosting |
3.66 |
4
hours
5
mins
|
33 % |
|
| 26 |
Host Europe |
3.66 |
17
hours
56
mins
|
33 % |
|
| 27 |
AT&T Web Hosting |
3.66 |
19
hours
24
mins
|
33 % |
|
| 28 |
midPhase Services |
3.33 |
0
hours
23
mins
|
0 % |
|
| 29 |
eMonsterHost |
3.33 |
2
hours
16
mins
|
0 % |
|
| 30 |
eHosting |
3.33 |
3
hours
56
mins
|
0 % |
|
| 31 |
CWCS |
3.33 |
8
hours
50
mins
|
0 % |
|
| 32 |
Protec Web Solutions |
3.33 |
0
hours
11
mins
|
33 % |
|
| 33 |
HostICan Services |
3.33 |
0
hours
21
mins
|
33 % |
|
| 34 |
KnownHost |
3.33 |
0
hours
27
mins
|
33 % |
|
| 35 |
Pipe Ten |
3.33 |
0
hours
45
mins
|
33 % |
|
| 36 |
StormWeb |
3.33 |
9
hours
19
mins
|
33 % |
|
| 37 |
Verio |
3.33 |
62
hours
59
mins
|
33 % |
|
| 38 |
Hostway |
3.00 |
1
hours
5
mins
|
33 % |
|
| 39 |
Hyve |
3.00 |
1
hours
9
mins
|
33 % |
|
| 40 |
Omnis |
3.00 |
2
hours
10
mins
|
33 % |
|
| 41 |
UKHost4u |
3.00 |
4
hours
23
mins
|
33 % |
|
| 42 |
Lunarpages |
3.00 |
7
hours
18
mins
|
33 % |
|
| 43 |
Fasthosts |
2.33 |
0
hours
7
mins
|
66 % |
|
| 44 |
Ez Web Hosting |
2.33 |
0
hours
17
mins
|
66 % |
|
| 45 |
ISQsolutions |
2.33 |
1
hours
40
mins
|
66 % |
|
| 46 |
1&1 Internet UK |
2.00 |
5
hours
6
mins
|
33 % |
|
| 47 |
NetNation Communications |
2.00 |
78
hours
5
mins
|
33 % |
|
| 48 |
Edgewebhosting.net |
2.00 |
0
hours
3
mins
|
66 % |
|
| 49 |
Global Gold |
2.00 |
11
hours
46
mins
|
66 % |
|
| 50 |
SimpleNet |
1.00 |
|
100 % |
|
We sent out three testing e-mails to each of 50 web hosting providers which means
150 requests altogether. Sequentially 49 web hosts replied
to our testing questions. The number of replies reached 121 (81 percent).
The pie charts shown below provide further insight into a qualitative structure of the web hosts' replies:
Content of the web hosts' responses
Extent of the web hosts' responses
Friendliness of the web hosts' responses
