Face-2-Face vs Anonymous sign ups; what's your %'s

[theLarry]

No need to disclose trade secrets or business models here (unless you want to!) but we're curious as to what percent of your customers are actually known to you or you've had direct contact with and what percent are anonymous (organic) or what we call "drive-by's. We are mostly relationship oriented, knowing or having direct contact with probably 95% plus of our clients, through site design, account management or over web services we provide. We've always been a bit weak on the drive-by side.

So, what are you're percentage of Face-2-Face vs "drive-by's"?

[clivejo]

Here on RSP, 100% are face to face. I actually disabled the order form on my reseller site and provide a "Contact me back" form as I like to talk over a customers requirements before hand. This works best for me.

[theLarry]

thanks for getting the ball rolling clivejo! When we were cpanel resellers we provided only MANAGED hosting and used the same model. If, we ever find the need to go into the self-supported cpanel world again, we'll go back to that model so we understand completely. So do you do support for your folks are do you have the fine folks here at RSP do your support?

Also, you reply hints that you might have another brand out there where you do more anonymous marketing/sales?

[clivejo]

I try to do most of the support myself, but sometimes it requires opening a ticket to RSP support. This is where the reseller login for the Hepsia is invaluable to me.

[theLarry]

thanks again clivejo... sure wish more folks would jump into this... come on guys, you know you want to....

[doneritehosting]

I am examining other service options for face to face at present.... since RSP established a presence in miami florida USA its kinda impossible for me to remain competitive locally due to tax... No fault of RSP's, just USA's laws... clivejo can probably relate though his is on a bigger scale, like world wide....

Hostgator deals with the same senerio in texas

I'm organic
RSP does my support.

[theLarry]

So donerite... if someone buys from your shop, sales tax is added to the order? That sucks but you can't be alone there.

[doneritehosting]

Yup, but like I said it's no fault of RSP, It's state tax laws.... there is nothing to be done about that senerio. On the other hand it is nice to know that if I want to make a phone call and say hey or Merry Christmas to them it's not international anymore Florida is a small drop in the lake for marketing.... I'll just have to setup something else for local.

[clivejo]

Join the extra taxes club!! Just for having a UK based address there is a 20% VAT added on at the checkout. People in the UK are used to having quoted prices with VAT inclusive. Therefore if VAT is only added on at the last minute it is seen as being very sneaky and underhanded. I therefore have two stores, one which I pull my UK prices from to display on the store, but this means the standard order form will add on ANOTHER 20% at the checkout and this is the reason I have it disabled. I have been thinking of using the API to control this, but never got around to it.

[doneritehosting]

Hmm I was looking in the store setup features, Looks like the feature would be there to show vat added to plan and domain pricing but its not..... course the option to show tax for florida residents is not there either Might could do some script mods or DB changes to show it but that would be a lot of custom work just for all of it to be written back to default with the next plugin update. Tell the truth I'm suspecting that to even attempt that, I would have to create another site on a subdomain, mod it to show taxes and then figure out a way to redirect just florida residents to the modded site..... I don't know if thats even possible cause florida is a state within a country, And country specific redirection wont work. I'm really not looking forward to trying all that anyhow....

A mod like that Might be feasable on your end though clivejo... just would not be able to update the plugin anymore after doing it which puts you at a dead end for future improvements and services..

[clivejo]

It should be easy enough to modify the plug-in. If there was a text box in the plugin setting which you could enter the percent tax to be added onto all the stores prices, so its just adding it on to the display prices. Then when your customer places the order, it shouldn’t be a shock when the VAT or tax is added to the checkout total.

But again, as mentioned before. RSP are global and have to try and accommodate all resellers. I noticed in the States it is common for prices to be quoted minus the taxes and people know to "expect" it, same as "tipping" which I didn’t know about and soon learned!

[doneritehosting]

Truthfully clivejo, we are not long before some kinda tax will be collected on all websites worldwide soo it wont shock anyone anymore.... Amazon just recently moved a warehouse in to florida so i pay taxes to them now too.... LMAO...
To expand, you are right in local US businesses 99% advertise the prices then tax is added as the trusty cash register... on taxable merchandise that is. having the tax added to the merchandise when you pick it up off the self would be so much lees complicated... Bout the only product in the US that tax is not added at the register is fuel for automobiles and trucks. (that comes to mind)

Most people that I know shop online to avoid sales taxes over here

[vlasi47gr]

For me it has always been face to face. Well let me clarify that. Let me say it has always been direct contact either by actual meeting with my client or by email or phone. I have never marketed myself as solely a hosting provider.

I tried uploading a photo but I get an error message that says I am not authorized to create this post. Any suggestions?

[Tom Alexander]

Hello.

@vlasi47gr - Do try again now please... Of course, issues after every vBulletin update

Best Regards,
Tom.

[kuerten]

I think right now, everyone is trying to migrate to Xenforo. Should I do the same as well?