Feedback: Hosting locations of customers
I've been thinking about things we can do at https://autopilot.host to stand out further from other managed hosting providers that don't provide the same level of hands-on website support and interaction we do. One idea is an interactive map or pinboard of the locations of our clients (exact location for those with public stores/offices/etc, and just city/suburb for those that don't have public locations).
Included with their location, obviously links to their website and a little about what they do, their industry and that sort of thing. Perhaps also some stats on typical performance metrics for their website. Maybe even add some 'directions' to make it like a network map connecting their websites to our datacentres. In a way, it's probably more of a novelty than anything else, but part of our goal is to literally network our clients together and support their business growth, so it does make sense to list their sites in a way that helps to facilitate connections.
I'd love to hear what you think about it! Is this something that you would be interested in seeing on a potential web host? Does it add value for a web host to provide some kind of referral network between the websites that they host? Any feedback or thoughts are appreciated!
Hey, I like the idea of a loss leader product/feature to differentiate and to get new leads.
For me the value add here is that you are proving your reputation by showing that you are trusted by other companies.
The negative is that you are opening yourself up to competitors to undercut your business.
I like the idea of showing how many companies you are hosting and your metrics around that, but not sure if I would want to publicly display their business info.
Thanks for your feedback Ian! I appreciate it. I don't know if it really bothers me or not that they could be contacted by competitors. I might have a play with the concept without actually including specific info and see how it looks and works. Afterall, the concept should still look pretty similar with a map of general locations for each customer - eg city or suburb location markers for each customer, along with applicable metrics. I'll have to think about the possibility of competitors reaching out to them directly some more. Thanks for raising that risk!
No problem!