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Sep 29, 2020

How Offering A Cloud Email Service Helps ISPs Make Their Customers More Sticky

As long as there’s the Internet, email is going nowhere, despite the continuous rise in the adoption of collaboration-based communication platforms such as Slack, Google Hangouts, and Microsoft Teams. In fact, 86% of professionals still prefer to use email for business purposes.

But just because email is here to stay doesn’t mean that your current email infrastructure will survive the times also. Cloud technology has penetrated every aspect of our lives, and today everything is backed up and accessible from the cloud. So upgrading your tech to a cloud-native email infrastructure is also no longer an option but a necessity if you want to remain competitive. 

ISPs that offer a cloud email service are able to:

  • scale whenever necessary, without major changes to the environment itself;
  • improve uptime, thus allowing more optimal email usage;
  • save money on server maintenance and IT staff;
  • simplify administration;
  • offer superior AntiVirus and AntiSpam protection;
    improve support for mobile workers.

But probably the most important aspect, it will help you make your customers sticky.

Customers won’t leave you if that means they lose their email address

Imagine using the same email address for decades. Everyone knows how they can reach you, and you’ve also set up countless other accounts. Changing it means not only losing access to your email communication history but to any other online services too. 

Most of the time, it’s quite easy for customers to change website hosting providers. But when it comes to email, they’re not that eager to make changes. And that’s precisely why you want to keep offering your customers an email hosting service.

Your customers are willing to pay more

If their website is down for half a day, they don’t call Support (they might not even notice). But if their email service is down for even 10 minutes, you can bet your Support Department will be working at full capacity. 

That’s because email is indispensable to your customers, which makes it a service they’ll be willing to pay big money for. But not too big. 

Big providers usually bundle all types of services together, which means costs add up fast (they’ll pay for each additional mailbox). But as an ISP, you can offer small businesses unlimited email addresses for a fraction of what those providers ask. However, they’ll be willing to pay more if you can make sure spam doesn’t reach their mailbox, and you prevent attacks and their accounts getting compromised or blacklisted.  

Add to this the fact that some services won’t even let their users sign up with free email addresses - they need to use ISP provided ones. So depending on the industry your customers are in, it’s almost guaranteed that they won’t be able to leave you (unless they choose another ISP provider, but that gets us back to our previous point - they’ll lose their email data).

A cloud email service means less / easier maintenance

Now, a counter-argument for offering an email service is the cost of infrastructure and staff. Indeed, as an ISP, building and maintaining your own infrastructure can get pretty pricey when you think about rack space, bandwidth, power, etc. and the estimated staff-hours both in terms of managing the servers and supporting the customers.

BUT, this is where a cloud-native email server comes in. Developing your email service on a cloud-native email server means you get to keep your customers close and offer them everything they need at competitive prices while also keeping your costs minimal. With proper automation and supervision, you could provide the same service level as Google Mail or Office365 for much less than they ask.

ISP-provided email also means more control over data for your customers

You also need to think about your position - without you, your customers will probably be forced to opt for Google or Microsoft. Depending on the size of your customers, switching to one of the two giants is not only extremely expensive for them, but they also have to give up their valuable data. 

That’s a powerful enough reason for them to want to stick with you for as long as possible. And not only that, but the type of customers who are usually bent on not changing providers are usually high-volume ones. Guess what this means for you in terms of profit.

Customer loyalty and security should always be your main priority. Don’t let anyone convince you that you should forfeit this service - switch to a cloud-native solution instead. 

Email service is an ever-green service

Last but not least, we reiterate one of the points we’ve made at the beginning of this article - email will always be used. No matter how many other means of communication we have available, email will always be needed. So why cut a stable source of revenue?

Why you need to build your email service on Axigen’s Cloud-Native Mail Server

So, have we convinced you to keep providing your customers with an email service yet? If yes, here’s why you need to consider upgrading to a cloud-native infrastructure once you do the switch.

Cloud technologies allow companies to tap into new markets and renew, innovate, and scale at lower costs. To safely navigate the cloud transformation process, you need providers and integrations that offer cloud-native solutions.

Here’s what cloud computing can offer:

  • On-demand limitless computing power
  • Pay-as-you-grow business model
  • Reduced IT spend (lower barrier to tap into new markets)
  • Increased speed and agility
  • Automation
  • Faster integrations.

Most probably, your current infrastructure is not up to standard. You need a solution that can be easily scaled and automated, and a feature-packed email hosting service over which you have complete control.

In short, you need a solution like the Axigen Cloud-Native Mail Server. Ours is a secure, growth-oriented email server, based on Docker & Kubernetes containers, that allows Service Providers and Telcos to navigate the digital transformation process.

The Axigen Cloud-Native Mail Server was designed and architected specifically for high-volume service providers and their customers, helping them save money, time, and improve security.

With the Axigen Cloud-Native Mail server, you get:

  • full automation; 
  • increased agility; 
  • infinite scalability; 
  • elevated performance;
  • 100% security.
 

Increase efficiency and reduce business costs with the
Axigen Cloud-Native Mail Server


Find out more

 

About the author:

Bogdan Moldovan

In my career of 25 years in IT, I’ve gathered vast experience & know-how in everything related to software development, telecom, VoIP, business development, sales, management, and more. My articles are generally technical & tailored to the email geeks out there — but I also like talking about thought leadership ideas and management topics from my unique perspective as CEO of Axigen.