This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
I think the tech guys at Liquid Web may think I’m a little crazy.
Why?
Well because at the end of almost every phone call, I tell them how much I love them.
I think most of my conversations have ended with me gushing and saying something like…
“Thank you again soooooo much for all your help. You guys are amazing and I absolutely love you. I went through hosting hell before I found you and I really appreciate all you do!”
Generally the tech guy on the other end of the line is rather surprised as I suppose not many customers take the time to confess their love.
But I do, because I’ve had the alternative. I know what it’s like to be with other hosting companies… and I know that I’ve found something good.
We switched to Liquid Web in March 2008 after our previous hosting company basically held our site hostage during the traffic spike and subsequent crash of the Ultimate Blog Party 2008.
(All we needed was a server reboot and they refused to do it all night long. Crazy I know… basically I think the tech guy I was talking to was ticked off that I asked to deal with someone else after he’d been condescending and rude to me. Since it was a small company, I had no way to escalate the issue properly. It was the last straw in a long and painful hosting experience.)
As tough as it is to hold my tongue, I won’t mention the name of that company. They’re pretty small and likely you’ll never bump into them anyway.
Before that hosting nightmare, we followed a recommendation on WordPress.org and hosted 5 Minutes for Mom at a huge, well known hosting company.
While that company might be a fine solution for many sites, it did not meet our needs. As our traffic grew and we required more from a server, they basically told us we should go somewhere else because they did not offer the type of virtual private server that we needed.
(It was actually more stressful than that and included them constantly locking our account and showing “Account Suspended” pages at our url when our traffic jumped up.)
And before that, we had launched 5 Minutes for Mom with some small hosting company that a friend had recommended. The server was terribly slow though and we soon realized that we needed a better hosting company.
So after that looooong road, when we finally found Liquid Web, we were desperate for a better hosting company. We didn’t believe it could actually happen. That a company could anticipate our needs and help us keep our site online and performing as well as possible… and be polite and respectful the entire time.
It’s not like our site never goes down… 5 Minutes for Mom often gets sudden traffic spikes such as during our Ultimate Blog Party or when a site like Huggies links to us from their Facebook page. And sometimes those traffic spikes crash our site. But, the tech support team at Liquid Web is phenomenal at monitoring and fixing such issues.
For example, the other day our site went down because of the surge of traffic for our Huggies giveaways, and before I could even notice and contact them, Liquid Web had already seen the site was down and restarted the server.
When I called them to discuss the issue and figure out how to improve performance further, they analyzed our statistics and we decided together that our site has outgrown our current dedicated server and we decided to upgrade our server to more powerful hardware.
Liquid Web handles backups, upgrades and trouble shooting without extra cost and I know I can trust them throughout it all. Every time I call whether it is 3 pm or 3 am, I never have to wait longer than two minutes and I always have a helpful tech guy or girl on the line who stays with me until we’ve solved the problem.
I honestly can’t even begin to explain how grateful I am that a hosting company as dedicated to outstanding customer service exists and that I found them. Perhaps you need to have lived through the horror we endured to appreciate the good on the other side.
But in case you don’t want to take the hard road, and you want to get started with the right web host, you can take our word for it. We host 5 Minutes for Mom on a dedicated server with Liquid Web and we love them.
By they way, the links here to Liquid Web do contain our affiliate link, but as you can imagine, our love for Liquid Web is much deeper than any affiliate code. We’ve sung their praises many times over the past two years, and we truly want you all to know how highly we recommend them.
Thanks Liquid Web, we love you!
Written by Susan, co-founder of 5 Minutes for Mom.
Tweet with us @5MinutesForMom
Jennifer-Eighty MPH Mom says
LOL what a cute and sweet post. Liquid Web sounds absolutely wonderful (I am laughing so hard at all of the links – isn’t it fun to yell it to the world when you love something?). I will keep them in mind if I never need a new hosting company – you have me sold!
Anne says
I bet they are thrilled to have you as a customer – it seems like taking the time to say thank you is becoming obsolete.
I wish I would have heard about this company a few weeks ago. We ended up going with Bluehost and have been very pleased so far, but Liquid Web sounds great!
I hope that they continue to knock your socks off.
Cheers,
Anne
Angi says
I’ve done many tech support gigs in the past and it’s amazing how many times, I’ve worked, fought, scratched, and what not to resolve a customer’s issue only for them to say ‘oh thanks’ and then hang up. Keep telling them how much you appreciate them. It truly does make a difference in their day.
Louise says
When you love the customer service it’s a great thing. I worked in tech support and was never thanked, so I’m sure they appreciate you telling them that you love them when they fix something. All I remember was being yelled at ;-). I don’t think I could go back to tech support EVER!
KC says
That’s good to know about Liquid Web. We use Knowhost for managed VPS and they’ve been terrific and the price is awesome. If they ever stop being awesome, though, I’ll know to look at Liquid Web. Thanks for the tip.
rc says
Great article and hosting company!
Eileen says
I have NO idea what you are talking about, as I am not a blogger. LOL! But this post gives me new appreciation for what you do AND the people behind the keyboards/monitors we burn out while having fun on your blogs! Seriously…mine gets SMOKING hot!
You are very diplomatic and your professionalism with your blog shines through, especially while applauding the host you have now and yet NOT naming names of past ones. YOUKNOWYOUWANTEDTOO! haha…you’re a bigger person than most! Nice job!
Susan says
Thanks Eileen! And you’re right, it is really tough not to name names about the other companies… especially the one who wouldn’t reboot our server.
Nolie says
It is so sad that good customer service is so rare these days that when we find it we sing praises forever.
Susan says
I know it is crazy how few companies actually take customer service seriously these days.
We find the same thing with our online toy stores… we make a huge effort to provide outstanding customer service and our customers are so surprised by it. Nobody is used to being treated with sincere care and concern.
Jennifer says
That’s awesome Susan!
And yes, with 5minutesforbooks on the same server, I have to say that it’s been great! We did have a few glitches last week and I didn’t know why, but it must have been the Huggies thing.
Susan says
Yes, the link love from Huggies has been great, but it has caused huge traffic spikes that have taken down the server.
Liquid Web’s monitoring team has noticed it each time even before we’ve called and they have restarted the server each time.
At their recommendation, we are now in the process of migrating the site to a newer faster server, but that migration won’t be complete until Sunday night.
Susie's Homemade says
After everything that you guys have been through, I would be in love with them too:-)
Susan says
Yes… it has been a rough road. You feel so helpless when your site is down and you need someone on the other end of the phone helping you solve it immediately.
Becky says
It’s not wrong at all. One day when Crafty Betty blows up, I’ll be hunting for a tech company and recall your wise advice. Thanks!
Susan says
Thanks Becky. Good to hear my love is not out of line.
Definitely make note of Liquid Web and when you’re ready, check them out.
Kat says
It’s not wrong … not at all 🙂 LOL
I absolutely adore my web hosting company… well, MOST of the time. I have a tendency to blame them for the little 5 minutes glitches I see from time to time, but I know technology can’t be perfect. I’ve been with mine for going on 6 years and although I can’t say I’ve never CONSIDERED switching, I’ve only gotten to that point twice in a 6 year period and I can’t really say I’d ever gotten close enough to actually doing it.
I’m SO glad you’ve found a “home” for your site that meets your needs and works out your kinks before you know that they exist 🙂 That’s lovely!
Susan says
Kat, I’m happy to hear you’re with a good hosting company too. You’re right that switching web hosts is a significant effort and so you want to make sure you choose a good company right from the start.