We know there are an abundance of hosting companies out there for you to choose from. All it takes is a search for “hosting companies” to make your head spin! And even if you refine that search to “WordPress hosting companies” or turn to your blogging buddies and ask for their recommendations, you’re sure to get many options.
So what sets Agathon apart from the others? In a nutshell: the support we offer our clients.
That sounds great in theory—what company out there doesn’t claim to offer great support? But let’s take a look at what it really means!
Before we do that, I should give you a little bit of background. As the Director of Marketing, it’s kind of my job to share the Agathon story with people, both on this blog and elsewhere. But what you might not know is I was an Agathon client for more than seven years before I joined the team. During that time, I raved about Agathon—and specifically their support—to pretty much anyone who would listen. This is a topic I love to talk about because I’ve experienced the Agathon difference firsthand!
We know our clients by name
We’re a small team, and we pride ourselves on knowing our clients by name. True, that was easier when our one and only WordPress client was related to Joel. But it’s something that remains true to this day with hundreds of clients.
Of course, as our hosting business has grown, we might have to look up your client account or support history to refresh our memories on all of the details. But we always take the time to do that. More importantly, we treat each client as an individual, never like a number.
We also care about the details of our clients’ lives. When we notice something on social media or someone mentions something in an email (whether it’s the birth of a new baby or a serious illness in the family), we share that news with the team. This not only gives us important context for future conversations, but also reminds us of the lives our clients are juggling alongside their blogs, which helps us be more empathetic in our interactions.
Our support team has expertise
Caring about people as individuals definitely impacts the experience of our clients. Without the expertise to back it up, though, it wouldn’t mean nearly as much. We combine the genuine care we have for our clients with true expertise. Our team knows WordPress and how it works. We pay attention to site speed and security trends. We have a lot of experience helping clients improve the performance of their sites. We’ve worked with a lot of the plugins available. And we know how to evaluate others when a client asks.
Outside of WordPress itself, our team’s expertise ranges from server administration to software development. We pride ourselves on being able to solve sticky problems and translate technical mumbo jumbo into digestible information clients can understand. Perhaps most importantly, we work together behind the scenes to coordinate sticky issues together rather than passing clients from one support department to another. (You’ll never have to re-explain your issue to multiple people in the hopes of finding someone who can finally help you!)
We provide personalized support
The support we provide is tailored to your needs and your specific setup. While there are situations where an automated response could probably address your needs, we always make sure the details make sense for the specifics of your server, your WordPress site, and your business. We treat your needs as our needs, giving them our attention, not a one-size-fits-all quick fix.
We’re available 24/7
Our support team is available 24/7 to deal with urgent issues. (As a client, I called and spoke to someone in the wee morning hours more than once!) Rather than sending you to a call center in the middle of the night, you often get Peter—an Agathon partner and the CTO of the company—so we can address your problem as quickly as possible.
We provide more than just server support
Because we truly want to see each and every one of our clients succeed, we provide more than just server usage and support. We’re happy to jump in and take a look whenever a client is experiencing an issue. And we can quickly address many issues—things like adjusting permalink structure, identifying plugin incompatibilities, or looking for ways to improve site speed. When we can’t help, we’ll work with you to find someone who can so you’re not left hanging.
But what happens as Agathon grows?
Agathon’s hosting business has grown 295% over the past two years, and we don’t expect that growth to slow down anytime soon. You may be wondering if that means the level of support we offer will change in the future. While things may need to change, our goal is to streamline things that can be streamlined while continuing to offer the high level of personal, expert support clients have come to rely on. That means building tools, systems, and processes to help our team do their job better. It might also mean bringing on additional support staff with the expertise to serve our clients. What it doesn’t mean is reducing the quality or availability of the support we offer!
Want to learn more about the Agathon difference? We’d love to answer all of your hosting questions! Shoot us an email today.
With 10 years of experience as a professional blogger—and as a former Agathon hosting client herself—Mandi’s passionate about the good work Agathon does and sharing that message with more people.