ISPs are kind of cute when they're little. They've yet to outsource their support, and investor demands haven't obliterated their moral compass when it comes to nickel and diming their users. What's more, executives are still in touch with operations and the public, and if they're good, they can resolve customer complaints quickly.

Over the past twelve months Canadian DSL provider TekSavvy has topped every other North American ISP in our customer reviews. How exactly is a small operator beating nearly every other ISP on the continent? They're actually giving decent customer service, according to our users.

One user says the company's recipe for success is simple: "They charge pretty much the lowest price, answer the phone when a customer calls, and try to help the customer if any issues arise." Genius! Yet looking at our review index, that's apparently harder than it sounds.

The result of TekSavvy's revolutionary concept is happy customers. And when we say happy, we mean bubbly. "The level of attention to detail of the people at Teksavvy is something I have never seen with any other ISP," one forum regular gushes.

TekSavvy's thirty-two-year-old CEO Rocky Gaudrault tells us that a major reason for their success is that the operation is family run. The Chatham, Ontario based company has but 26 employees, many of whom are consistently lending a hand in our forums -- including the CEO himself. Marketing is an afterthought.

We've gone out of our way to not only keep our techs in house, but also pay them a little more -TekSavvy CEO Rocky Gaudrault

His solution for competing with the larger providers financially? "Spend once on hardware, automate as much as possible and surround ourselves with good people," he says. "Larger corporations post employee numbers and focus on reporting to the bean counters -- We focus on keeping our house in order first and try as best as possible to practice what we preach: Be consistent...be truthful."

Of course as a company gets larger, this kind of personal service frequently evaporates into the digital ether. For instance Earthlink surely started with the same principles, but the need to please investors resulted in the company firing most of their in-house technical support and moving it offshore.

Gaudrault says that's not an option. "We've gone out of our way to not only keep our techs in house, but also pay them a little more," he says. "As much as tech support is seen by most providers as a baseline expense, we don't view it that way. They are just as much of a selling tool as they are an expense in our mind."