It seems like we live in a world of varying expectations. Each day we set out about our business with certain ideas about how people will act, businesses will perform, even how bad or good the traffic on the roads is likely to be. One area in particular where expectations are important is in a business relationship. It has been my opinion for quite some time that setting expectations appropriately and doing everything possible to exceed them is important. A recent experience we had with a vendor was the model of exceeding our expectations.

A few weeks ago we contacted he.net to inquire about co-location services. Their sales staff responded back and worked with us to address our needs. Eventually we toured their Fremont II facility, the location we were interested in acquiring some leased rack space. I met our sales person there at the facility and was given a tour. The facility was what you would expect a series of secured doors, hallways, rooms filled with rows of server racks, equipment buzzing away and air conditioners keeping things nice and cool. After our tour and within a few days we had made a commitment to lease a single cabinet for one year.

Before we came onsite to install our equipment we contacted support about getting some back rails and a shelf installed. They emailed us some forms and provided instructions. We filled out the forms and received confirmation later that day that the work was complete. That evening we packed up our equipment and headed over to perform the installation. Upon arriving we were escorted to our cabinet by the staff that was manning the front desk. Like the time before that I had been there two people were manning the desk. We eventually got our equipment installed and ran into some trouble contacting the gateway. I personally walked down to the front desk to request help. Right away the tech knew what the issue was and called someone to get the issue resolved. Within minutes the issue was resolved and we were live.

I have called tech support a few times since that day, they always answer their phone. A human being, a technician, someone that can help you. Wow, what a concept. Then something came up, a glitch, a problem. Monday we received notices from some of our customers that they could not send email to people at hotmail.com. After investigating things a bit, we had opened a ticket with Microsoft about the issue. We went back and forth several times with them. It then dawned on me, I should contact support at he.net about this issue. I opened up a ticket and followed up later that day when I had not heard any response (their system tells you they will respond within 24 hours, usually it's substantially less and they have a phone number to call if you need help right away). The response I received was a magic bullet to end the problems we had with Microsoft. This magic bullet was an email from their Abuse Coordinator, stating that we had only had access to the address that was being blocked for a few days. After receiving that email Microsoft promptly escalated our ticket to the filtering department and within 24 hours agreed that they should and would remove the block from our server.

I now realize what a great business decision I have made. The un-assuming, long term (our sales rep has been there 7+ years!), patient employees at he.net from sales to tech support are a strong and viable partner in our business. They have exceeded my expectations that unfortunately as a result of working in this field for over a decade at the helm of Managed Solutions have been suppressed by disapointing performance after disapointing performance. I have to applaud and recognize this valuable business partner and encourage would be he.net customers that this is a credible, fair and responsive company to work with. I hope that they continue to look to the future and continue to realize the importance of exceeding their customers expectations. As long as they keep their employees around for a long time in an industry where turnover is common, I see no reason why that would change.