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Elevation's business principles rely on the premise that the Internet service provider that provides the best quality service will rise to the top, while the others will fail and disappear. Elevation has the ability as a company to survive the pricing wars, growing pains, and constant industry changes, but only if we remain focused on providing a quality of service that buries the competition. We must never lose sight of what it was that brought us here, and what it is that will keep us ahead of the game for years to come. Given that, the differences that set us apart from everyone else are known as the Elevation advantage.
FLAT RATE PRICING:
Probably the first major principle that Elevation was base on, it included a belief that the customer should know what it was that they were paying for. Many times we have been asked for justification of our $21.95 rate, and the answer is simple: you get what you pay for.
One of the most threatening battles that Elevation has had to fight in it's young existence is the recent price wars generated by a number of ISPs who wanted to offer service at rock bottom prices. National ISPs paved the way for this trend, claiming huge numbers of sign-ups due to their $9.95 rate, and admitting that they wouldn't see a return on their investment for years (If ever).
Locally, some ISPs who attempted to offer service for cut-throat prices encountered problems early on. Many closed shop after only a few months of business, leaving their customers out in the cold. Some encountered revenue problems: as the user base increased, the available resources on their systems decreased, and without the available funds to reinvest in their infrastructure, they faltered. Busy signals, ringers, unreliable servers, horrible throughput, and frequent system crashes were the result. A backlash of dissatisfied customers changed ISPs quickly and often, searching for a reliable provider.
Elevation watched and waited, and although we were bombarded with questions about changing our prices, re recognized the problems that other ISPs were having and took the time to reinvest in our customers. Not only did we have the resources to provide great service, but we were able to ADD value added services. Many of the unsatisfied refugees from other ISPs flocked to us and a great majority stayed, recognizing that we are, in fact, the best ISP in the northeast. Even some of the "Discount ISPs" abandoned their pricing, admitting what we knew the whole time.
NO HIDDEN COSTS:
For the most part the Elevation pricing system is very straight forward, consisting of a few standard prices that we use for all our services. Unfortunately, many providers don't fee the same. While many can offer cheaper rates, they compensate on the cost for many of the value added services. Some providers charge hundreds of dollars for domain registrations and virtual web addressing, while our prices are $19.95 (one time setup fee) and $29.95 (monthly) respectively.
PERSONAL SERVICE:
The Elevation philosophy is that an ISP shouldn't subscribe to the clinical style of business and should always remain on a personal basis with our clients. Elevation has negotiated speed, reliability, and personality to make our customers fee more like members of a club instead of dollar bills in our wallet. We insist that when a customer calls, they speak to a friendly human voice, not a telephone menu. We use toll free customer service and have extended support hours to help you when you need it.
MEETING AND EXCEEDING STANDARDS:
The industry has been able to create standards over the years in order to measure the quality of service that ISPs offer. Westband meets or beats these standards consistently. We match the industry standard for modem to client ratio (10:1). We blow away the competition with email support with a 30 minute response time, while others struggle to respond within hours, days, and sometimes even weeks. We constantly monitor POP usage levels and add lines and modems with they reach certain usage levels. We guaranty that dialup accounts will be activated within two hours, or the activation fee is waived. We're even so confident that users will love our system, that we offer a 15-day cancellation period.
SUPERIOR EQUIPMENT AND REDUNDANT SYSTEMS:
Elevation has always made public the types of equipment and servers that we use. Quality service starts with quality equipment. All our servers are set up with redundancy, ensuring that in the unlikely event that one will go down, we can recover and compensate for it quickly, often without any interruption of service to our customers. We use equipment from the following companies: Compaq, IBM, Cisco and US Robotics.
AVOIDING NEW FADS:
While new technologies come and go, we want to be absolutely certain that the latest fad in information technology is the one that we really want to commit ourselves to on behalf of our customers. We establish test sites for new technologies and put all new servers through rigorous testing prior to making them available to our user base. Despite many questions that we receive about new technologies, we must constantly acknowledge that it is the customer's money that we are spending, and all customers want the most bang for their buck.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
While it's sometimes easy to get to be king of the hill, it's very difficult to stay there, so Westband has to keep looking forward, while holding on to the ideals that got us where we are today. Our company exists as a group of people trying to make something work, always trying to be bigger, stronger, and faster. And the real advantage to that is that we want our customers to come be a part of it.
Elevation Communications, Inc.
P.O. Box 357
Eastford, CT 06242
Phone: +1(860)786-0015
Email: sales@elevationcom.com
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