How to Select a Web Hosting Company

What is the most important thing you look for when choosing a web hosting provider? Is it price? Control Panel? Bandwidth? Although these are all important features, the most important characteristic of a good web hosting company is one that handles tech support issues in a timely and satisfactory fashion. It's a web hosting company's true test to see how they react during down times. If your website goes down, or your email address is firing back undeliverables, how long does your web hosting company take to solve these problems? If they only have an online ticketing system, this is unacceptable. Many major companies will only let you send in a support ticket and they'll send you several automatic emails about how they are "escalating your service ticket" and "we'll contact you soon". This is not only frustrating, but now the issue is completely out of control. You can't even get the right person on the phone who is actually working on solving the problem.