How long has it taken you guys to get a solid business together and word of mouth to start taking effect.
Ive been open just over a year now and im starting to get more and more word of mouth referrals.
I have also noticed that quite a lot of customers seem to want to change things about their account this year or add more accounts /domains

As we were developing software for a good few years before we opened a hosting co, we managed to aquire a few clients from bespoke work and it spread. I wouldn't say that AGCC World was anywhere near where i want it in terms of promotion atm, i only know of about 3 forums where people have recommended us, when it gets to the point when someone in .net says "i need a host" and 5 people respond with "AGCC" i will be happy

The secret is to give the best support you can to your clients 24 hours a day and within 6 months your business will reach the sky!

That completely depends on your ability to keep your current clients, offer a high level of support and encourage them through offers, new features, referral bonuses to tell their friends. It took us about 3 months to gain a loyal following - after that about 1/3 of new orders came from referrals.

We're now in our second year as 101SiteHosting, and i'd say more than half now refer their friends, family and clients to our service - and the neat part is they're happy to do it without any reward. In fact they feel like it's their duty to tell others about our service. It takes going that extra mile for just one customer, and they can bring in 5 more to you, willingly.

You know you've done a good job when people start posting reviews on hosting review sites, forums, news groups....etc. without pushing them into it....it's at that point where sales increase exponentially due to the ever increasing internet population. It's no longer local word of mouth - now you have worldwide recognition.

Ever since the creation of my company (February) we have only now begun to see word of mouth coming in much more as sales are picking up. What did we do? We had good uptime reports, quality customer assitance, and a friendly attitude with each customer on an individual basis. So I would say about 6 months you will start seeing increase in sales. The previous company I worked for before I went to create my own, didn't see this sort of effect until 1 year. It really depends on how your play your cards right.

Its not about time, its about how good your service is. My website has been open for a month and all my business has been referals