Scout for Success

Great Service Providers Online

Like many small business owners and entrepreneurs, I have a tendency to keep odd hours and workdays. That’s one of the reasons it’s very important to me to be able to rely on the service providers I utilize for my web-based applications, hosting services, and domain registration, no matter what the day or time.  Yes, it’s a 24-hour world and a majority of providers have some level of support around the clock - but the quality of service and wait time can vary greatly from company to company.

Over the years I’ve been fortunate in locating and working with some excellent online service providers. The list below represents just a few of them, and I’ll add others as the list grows:

DomainDiscover
DomainDiscover has been my registrar of choice for more than eight years.  Not only are their account management features user-friendly and intuitive, they have always been accessible whenever I needed them. That includes the middle of the night, weekends, the wee hours of the morning and even once on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.  Help staff is always reachable by phone within a very reasonable time frame, ever courteous and friendly.  I also appreciate the phone calls or voice messages (in addition to multiple email alerts) when one of my many domains is near to expiring.  AAA rating from Scout!

InMotion Hosting
New service provider for Scout, with the advent of this Scout for Success blog, and very impressed so far.  I like the walk-through video tutorials and the comprehensive knowledge base for self-help and delving into  new (for me) areas of of programming and file management.  Ever striving to be the ”good customer,” I nearly always fully explore the available online support before resorting to a phone call; when I did need to make a call, wait time was minimal and assistance was fast and friendly.  Another Scout AAA.

PayPal Merchant Account Services
My first experience with PayPal had been way back in the early days they were first starting, when (to the best of my recollection) you had to fax or snail mail an authorization in order to establish an account to pay PayPal-only online retailers through their accounts.  What a difference a few years and many leaps of technology make.  Now a boon to both neophyte and seasoned online merchants, PayPal brings a full menu of ecommerce transaction options to the masses, and provides solid customer support while they’re at it.  The PayPal merchant website generally does a good job of steering you through the basics of account set up and maintenance; the couple of occasions when I have needed to call them directly, support staff have been friendly and were able to answer all my questions without jumping up to the next help desk tier.  A solid AA rating from Scout.