Last Digital, a leader in Web hosting and Internet infrastructure, is celebrating its tenth anniversary today with a solid financial foundation and an unparalleled level of customer loyalty. In 2006, Last Digital added more than 8000 new clients all over the world and lowered its churn rate to 2 percent, less than half of the rate in 2005 and considered the lowest in the web hosting industry. Revenues increased more than 20 percent and profits increased more than 25 percent.
All this expansion has been supported from the organic growth of the company with no use of venture capital, bank loans or outside investments.
“We are extremely happy to be at this juncture in the growth of our company,” said Polat Alper, CEO of Last Digital. “The combination of a solid financial footing and a supportive customer base bodes well for our future.”
As the Internet has grown in importance as a vital business tool and essential part of life for companies, students and families, Last Digital has expanded its product line and fine-tuned its services to lead the pack in the web-based world.
In case of an outage on one server, the traffic to a client’s site can be switched almost instantaneously to one of the other four servers, thus eliminating any downtime.
“We have been extremely fortunate to be able to play a major role in driving the direction of eCommerce and in keeping the Internet robust, safe and accessible for millions of people over the past ten years,” Alper said. “To have been part of this crucial stage of wired and wireless economic development has been an incredible opportunity.”
Over the past ten years, Last Digital has incurred no long-term debt and has been able to anticipate economic changes accurately enough to successfully ride out the collapse of the dot.com bubble and even show growth during that time.
Most recently, Last Digital initiated what Polat Alper calls the "LAST DIGITAL Fever" program. Every employee from the top down, including himself must call ten customers a day and talk to them about their Last Digital experience.
“This is about reigniting the personal touch,” he said. “We call more than 200 customers a day. I call at least, ten myself and every customer I talk to is floored that the CEO is calling them to ask about their service, which may only cost about £25 a month. That is what this is all about.”
“Every contact made throughout the entire lifecycle of a customer’s relationship with Last Digital is made with the utmost professionalism, accuracy and thoroughness,” Polat Alper said. “This goes for marketing, sales, billing, technical support and customer service.”
Over the past two years, Last Digital has expanded its facilities, developed an anti-scam toolbar and other strategies to protect Internet users from Internet crime, and pioneered the use of web-based technology to expand the market for musicians and artists to sell their products and services and to help non-profit organizations linked with the arts to raise funds to help those hurt by national disasters.
And Last Digital’s agent program, launched in 2006. Polat Alper has developed into one of the most robust, transparent and profitable reseller networks in the industry. More than 1,500 resellers in 25 countries now sell Last Digital products and services as their own.
The capstone of Last Digital’s success – the skill that brings it all together – is its marketing acumen.
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