As our dear Snappy rings in his 13th birthday, it’s a time of great joy and merryment at Hostgator offices across the world. Celebrating his birthday the team looks back at the last 13 years and ponders over all the great things we’ve learnt along the wayIt seems like only yesterday, Snappy was just a little hatchling learning the ropes in Brent Oxley’s basement. Growing to the gynormous size, him and with the whole team have picked up a few key learnings along the way. These are our yardsticks, our lessons, things that keep us grounded, things that allow us to grow, to look beyond and to continue Eating the competition.Let’s take a look at 13 Lessons we’ve got to share:
1. Strive for Happy Customers: At the core, we believe in truly caring about the customer’s experience. This probably is our biggest driving factor. Starting from our revamped Support Center to Interactive Guides in the control Panel, a significant amount of time is allocated in figuring out processes & products that will help make our customers HAPPY!
2. Be Available: One of the things about providing good support and making customers happy is just being there for them. It’s really that simple (or that difficult). We learnt a long time ago, we’ve got to be there for our customers, at all times.
3. Become a True Site-Kick: Ok, we admit it. We just had to get Site-Kick in there. 🙂 but in all honesty, that’s where the idea comes from. We had to be more than just a hosting provider to our customers, we wanted become their Hosting partners, a Site-Kick if you will.
4. Work Hard, Play Hard(er): Work Hard, Play Hard this adage holds true for Snappy and the team here. It’s critical to stay focused and that much more important to take time to blow off steam – All work and no play, does make Jack a dull boy
5. Be Humble: We couldn’t agree more with the folks at Zappos on this one. Despite all the awards and accomplishments under Snappy’s belt we see the need to stay grounded. Success is great but being Humble is the way to go.
6. Progress, not Perfection: Learning never stops for us at Hostgator and there’s always room for improvement. With that in mind, we say, forget about perfection, aim at bettering yourself everyday.
7. Change is the Only Constant: Things change. We learn, that’s pretty much how we sum it up.
8. Honesty is Indeed the best Policy: Sure, it’s easier said than done. But in the long run, honesty does get rewarded. Our customers deserve the truth and we believe in giving it to them. Non Sugar-coated.
9. Have your Ear to the Ground: Adding Value to your customers begins with first understanding what they need. We believe in having our ear to the ground, listening to what customers are talking about. If Support needs to be fixed, fix it. If a new product is needed, add it. Listening to customers ranks fairly high in our books.
10. Evolve: Snappy sure has evolved over the years and he’s made sure everything else did too. Keeping up with the times, we’ve made our business to add products that support the ever-growing needs of our customers. This has been one of our core strengths and an area we actively focus on.
11. Connect with the Customers: We believe in truly connecting with your customers. We learnt about their challenges, we experienced their hurdles and then we developed solutions that helped them overcome those challenges.
12. Stay Local, Stay Focused: We wanted to be where our customers are, we are a global brand in the we are so much more local. We are where are our customers are.
13. K.I.S.S. We want to make Going Online, Simple. That’s what it all comes down to in the end, everything we create, we do is with a clear intention of helping customers go online.
