Ten principles of Hostinger: The drive behind Customer obsession 

Helping customers to become successful is what many companies want to achieve, but very few truly manage to accomplish. To do that, you need to follow a more empathetic “walk a mile in your client’s shoes” approach, which must be incorporated into a broader organizational culture. 

This is the essence of what we at Hostinger call Customer obsession – one of the main principles of our company. As a Chief Customer Officer who started as a Customer Support Agent, I believe I can tell a lot about applying this principle. 

Change of approach

It all starts with customers; without them, there is no business. 

So, you need to build your company around your customers – develop the product for them, work with them, earn their trust, get their feedback, and constantly improve for their sake. Every process or function in the company must take into account the customer.

A few years ago, this belief encouraged me to pursue a new customer support concept that would place Customer obsession at the core of Hostinger’s DNA. To reflect this change, we renamed our Customer Support team to Customer Success. 

When I started at Hostinger almost 11 years ago as a Customer Service Specialist, I noticed that we were communicating with our customers in really complicated technical terms. I felt that this type of language does not really get through to our clients. All of us at Hostinger understand the technical side of our products to a certain degree. Our support was based on the presumption that our customers also do, so detailed technical answers were the norm. 

But that wasn’t enough to really help clients.

Helping a customer like a friend

I thought that if we talked to our customers with more empathy in a simpler and friendlier way, it would make their lives much easier and make them happier with our products. At the end of the day, our goal is to make our customers successful and not to overwhelm them with all the technical stuff.

We must guide our customers, ensuring they can easily solve their problems and use our products. It’s as if you were trying to help a friend – that’s the customer service standard we aim for. And we can see the results. Most of the feedback we’re getting is positive. 

When I started as a Customer Service Specialist, the net promoter score (NPS) at Hostinger was 21. Now it’s 58. 

Much room to improve still, but it shows that we’re becoming better and better at listening to our customers. 

Customer obsession is one of the things that sets Hostinger apart from competitors. It helps the company stay on top of things and create better tools for customers. 

A source of motivation

Customer obsession can also be a powerful motivational force. For me, one of the most rewarding things is when customers love our product and use it smoothly, even if some questions come up.

If we, as the Customer Success team, can help make sure that the client’s website is hosted with us and not somewhere else, it brings joy to me. So, it encourages me to give 100 % without settling for good enough. 

I’m okay with a customer contacting me directly via LinkedIn or wanting to call me personally by phone. If that’s what it takes to solve the problem, I’m ready to engage in that way. The point is to really care about the customer, not just pretend you do.

Talking to customers daily

Customer feedback is valued at Hostinger, as it leads to better decisions. Even when everything seems to be working, customers can suggest how to improve our products.

We seek feedback through public channels and comment sections and proactively ask for their opinions during Client Interviews. This initiative enables all of our colleagues to talk directly to any customer around the world and hear their feedback. It gives us a chance to get to know our customers better, learn about their challenges, and strategize on how to meet their needs better. 

Another customer-oriented initiative at Hostinger is Meet the Client. It gives our colleagues an opportunity to try clients’ services and hear their opinions about our products firsthand. The good thing about Hostinger is that there are no strict rules, so you can try a lot of new things. You learn and improve by doing, and this encourages innovations for customers just by understanding them better. 

A customer-centric approach

Since I started as a Customer Service Specialist, I have never stopped learning and growing, always keeping customers in mind. 

I got promoted to Sales Manager, but even in this role, I was thinking of ways to improve customer experience. After another year, I became a Team Leader for one of our brands, and eventually, I got his current position as Chief Customer Officer. 

At the time, Customer obsession was an idea that was gaining momentum, and I helped cement it into our culture.

What pushed me forward all these years? It was the desire to do more and to improve things. A customer-oriented organizational culture was very beneficial. The best thing is that everyone in the company can have a positive impact on customer experience by suggesting their ideas and implementing them, and that gives everyone an opportunity to grow.

AI – a mean, not an end

Since I started his journey, a lot has changed in customer service, particularly the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, such as the recently presented Kodee, to help customers faster and more efficiently. 

AI gives us the opportunity to focus more on product development and technical aspects. It gives us more time to make sure our customers are happier by bringing them better solutions. AI is helping with some of the time-consuming tasks and takes some of the workload, allowing us to focus more on how to improve technical things and services. That is clearly a positive impact. 

At the same time, personalization and genuine care are a big part of our efforts, and AI has yet to gain such qualities as empathy or kindness, if it ever will. Therefore, it is up to each of us to ensure these fundamental aspects and embed Customer obsession in our daily practices.

With Customer obsession as one of our guiding principles in everything we do, we start with the customer and work hard to understand them better and earn and keep their trust. This approach helps us succeed as a company and helps each of us grow personally.