My business partner and I were looking for a hosting company for our new website. We looked around and settled for some seemingly good folks here in Toronto. After a confusing sign-up process, we realized that we had failed to input the new domain name. No biggie.

So we emailed them the next day and informed them of our little problem. They told us, that it would be a six dollar charge to change it because they had already created an account for us at http://ourcompany.webblahblah.blah. We protested:

Us: But we didn’t tell you to put it there!

Them: Well we can’t guess your domain name!

Us: Either set it up for free or refund our money.

They promptly refunded our money.

This just doesn’t make any sense to me. We were trying to establish a working relationship with a new company and they were having none of it. It was their process that was confusing and besides what’s a measly six dollar customer acquisition fee! For us the six dollars was significant because it was an indication of how we would be treated. It wasn’t the money — it was what the fee indicated about these businesspeople.

You can run your business as if each customer has her own Income Statement. Sometimes you’ve got to lose a bit of cash to keep a customer happy — but I think it’s worth it. When customers are happy they tell other customers about their experience and your business grows. This isn’t rocket science. What the heck is wrong with these people?

PS — Psst. Host guys if you’re out there please read this.

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