We'll readily admit that we see clients making tough decisions on spending their online marketing dollars - check out Steve's earlier posting on the importance of keeping your marketing efforts moving in these tough economic times - and sometimes, we end up on the wrong end of that decision. It's never a question of quality, but usually budget and cost.
But we honestly and firmly believe in the statement "You get what you pay for". I personally have heard three personal stories from folks who are left stranded by their providers as they close their doors. Usually these are smaller one-man shops that do not have the cash flow or portfolio strength to stand up in the face of some VERY stiff economic winds.
Recently we had a long time customer head to a provider that was not as strong as Appian in terms of design skill, and whose shopping cart catalog throws an immediate error. The only thing I could do was sigh and wish them luck, hoping they will return when they have a future need. But this isn't a post intended to toot our horn. Instead, I'd like to suggest to anyone considering going the super low-cost route to consider all facets of your new provider... not just the hosting dollars.
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How much does it cost when a potential shopper clicks on your shopping cart catalog... and it breaks? Let's face it, you're working hard enough getting visitors to your site - why are you giving them another reason to go to your competition?
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What does your new provider offer in terms of design services? Are you sacrificing your business' look and reputation on the web in order to save ten dollars a month on hosting?
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What happens when your site goes down? Are you going to have to wait until business hours to get someone on the phone, or are you willing to pay the nominal extra cost for 24/7 technical support with trained engineers who can restore your site in hours, rather than days?
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What kind of redundancy and disaster recovery procedures are in place if servers crash, or networks go down?
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How SECURE is your site?
The last three questions are ones that I NEVER hear during kickoff discussions, and I make it a point to gently introduce the topic during these meetings. Security is the topic that is furthest on everyone's mind, until your site is compromised. Then you scramble for fixes and solutions, hoping to correct "who knows what". The vulnerability needs to be fixed. The site needs to be restored. But at what cost? Is your business' reputation damaged?
I mention this because I browsed the portfolio of the agency that took this long time customer and discovered a site they did for a Christian school in the Southeast. The agency chose to make their adminstration login visible on their client home page. Clicking it took me to a login page, and I was able to enter their administration area within 2 seconds by using a classic web vulnerability - SQL injection. Within seconds, I held the keys to their entire content management suite. I could add pages, delete users, delete pages, images - I could effectively destroy their site. If I can do it, anyone with the knowledge can do it. They may have saved a couple of hundred dollars a year in hosting or licensing fees for their content management tools, but if their site does get compromised, will it only take a couple of hundred dollars to fix their reputation, their peace of mind, and their confidence in their development and hosting provider? Probably not.
You definitely do get what you pay for.