Interviewed on 28 May 09
David Barber, Senior Product Manager
Established in 1995, Zen Internet’s mission is to provide the best ISP service in the UK.
With more than 200 ISPs in the UK, choosing the right provider can be a daunting task. With its complete range of tried and tested products and services, excellent reputation, first class network infrastructure and outstanding support, Zen fulfils the requirements of those businesses adopting the Internet as an integral part of their strategy.
Zen’s success and continued expansion has been based on implementing the most reliable technologies available. Zen has built on its strength as a highly respected Broadband provider to offer customers similarly high standards for its hosting services.
What unique selling points do you offer?
The factors that differentiate Zen from other Web hosting companies are those that have delivered Zen numerous awards in recent years; namely its first class network and its exceptional level of technical and customer support.
The network infrastructure has been developed over a number of years in order to enable Zen to deliver the very best services possible. The network is fully scalable and is built around a core of 10Gbps links and all Zen’s hosting services are now housed across three datacentres, two of which are fully owned and maintained by Zen.
Zen has an excellent reputation for quality within the marketplace and this is emphasised by the exceptional level of support that we deliver to our customers. Zen is a privately and independently owned company that is not governed by the demands of external shareholders and can therefore focus completely on service levels rather than on profit and cash generation.
Describe the services you offer?
• Shared Hosting (Windows and Linux)
• E-commerce Hosting (Windows and Linux)
• Reseller Hosting (Linux)
• Dedicated Hosting
• Managed Hosting
• Co-location Hosting
• Domain Registration (including .EU Domains)
• Dedicated and Shared SSL Certificates
Describe your target market?
Zen’s main target market comprises of UK Businesses and this is reflected within our growing portfolio of business products and services. These range from high speed broadband and leased line connectivity through to Web hosting packages and secure colocation services.
However, due to the nature of our portfolio, Zen also has a small proportion of residential customers using our services, most notably our broadband and Web hosting products. These types of customers demand a premium service and support package as opposed to a more ‘cheap and cheerful’ option.
How is your company planning for the future?
Zen has made huge investments in all areas of our business so we can continue to offer the highest levels of service in a competitive but growing market.
In order to address the continued growth of the Internet, Zen is further developing its network infrastructure, to not only make it faster, but to make it easily scalable without adversely affecting any of its services. In addition, we are currently investing almost £250,000 into a highly resilient storage system designed to provide our hosting customers with ultimate reliability and backup of their websites.
More visibly, Zen recently moved into a new Headquarters at Sandbrook Park in Rochdale, which not only provides the home for its new colocation suite but provides the space to grow the workforce to more than 1000 employees. Zen is continuing its recruitment drive to identify and employ the very best technical and professional individuals.
Since Zen was established in 1995, our mission has been to provide the best ISP service in the UK. The Company’s rapid growth and the long list of awards it has won demonstrate that it is succeeding in this mission, especially broadband. With the investment and renewed focus on hosting services, Zen intends to replicate that success across its entire range of services.
What benefits can you offer your customers?
Offering Web hosting means enabling our customers to own webspace, without having to understand or touch most of the technology behind it. This means providing all the tools to not only create a Web site through a choice of content management systems, photo galleries or blogging software but to manage it effectively via, traffic monitoring reports, domain name and e-mail account management, Web site security, data back-up and the provision of FTP functionality.
At Zen, we aim to provide an uncomplicated but comprehensive Web hosting service backed by our experienced and highly dedicated technical support and customer service teams.
How do you support your customers?
Here at Zen, providing high quality support is a key focus of our business and we pride ourselves on the levels of service that we are able to deliver to customers on an ongoing basis.
Zen’s Technical Support team is provided at no extra charge and is available from 8am to 8pm, Monday to Friday, and from 9am to 5pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
Zen does not implement any call handling or query-answering quotas, allowing the technical support team to fully address customer enquiries in a professional and friendly manner.
Responses to all enquiries are usually within just a few hours, whether this is by telephone or by e-mail. We also provide Web forums, tutorials and a comprehensive knowledge base for our hosting customers.
Zen ensures you are speaking to the right person rather than being passed from one department to another. Training and experience are used rather than reading from scripts and employees are focussed on resolving issues first time and restoring service as quickly as possible.
This year Zen has been awarded its 7th Best Buy from Which? In 2008 Zen won Which? Best Broadband and PC Pro Best Broadband ISP for the fifth year running as well as receiving a highly commended for PC Pro Best Web Host. Zen was also awarded North West Business of the Year by the British Chamber of Commerce.
Zen’s mission is to provide the best ISP service in the UK and these awards demonstrate its commitment to delivering excellent service, quality and reliability to our customers.
