How to Lose My Business – Lose My Trust

My Supersonic Googling Skills

They have me over a barrel, and I just hate it when that happens.

My lead-ins tend toward the long side, but this will eventually morph into a message about customer service and about honest and fair dealings.  I see parallels to our business, but I will mostly leave you to draw your own.

Back in the stone ages, I secured my first domain name. In those days, Network Solutions was the only choice. At least, I thought they were my only choice. You see, I had yet to fully hone my current day, awe-inspiring Googling skills. So my research consisted of polling my neighbor, Fred. While I had just spent the entire month of 1999 looking for a parking place at the mall, Fred had successfully filled all of his Christmas gift orders on Overstock.com in one glorious afternoon of wine tasting from the comfort of his back yard patio table. His geek credentials spoke for themselves.

Sign me up!

Me: “Where can I buy a domain name?”

Fred: “I don’t know. Hey, look at this Allen wrench set I just scored!”

OK, Fred wasn’t much help, but the nice man who was teaching the class on the importance of having a web site was. He was so helpful, in fact, that he signed me up on the spot for KrisBerg.net. “Everybody is searching for your name. It is therefore critical if you are to achieve your long-term goals of representing everybody in the purchase and sale of their homes that you buy yourname dot whatever is available lest they are unable to find your name. That will be $99.” I couldn’t whip my checkbook out fast enough.

Oooh, I’ll take four!

A year later when my name came up for renewal, imagine my surprise. Only $35? Thank you, Network Solutions. At that price, I’ll take four. And I did.

I have gotten smarter over the years. I had to. These days I tend to accumulate domain names like I do shoes, in both cases the vast majority of which I will never wear, but I have learned that GoDaddy charges a quarter of what I was previously paying. The problem is that my earliest secured URLs, including a couple that are kind of important (like SanDiegoHomeBlog.com) are still parked at Network Solutions. When a few of the not so important ones came up for renewal, ones I greedily reserved simply so no one else could, I decided it was time to move them.  That’s when I found myself staying at the Hotel California. I had checked in but it seems checking out would be somewhat more challenging.

I went to their web site where I was treated to pages upon pages of simple instructions on how to move a domain to this provider. So I narrowed my search. “Transfer domain from” brought me right back to the same happy pages about moving domains to, not away, from this place, with each page reminding me about their superior service. So I called. And I navigated the hierarchy at the gates of call forwarding hell, six deep at last count, to be met by a testy woman who took me through the ten simple steps online to complete my order, clearly disgusted that I was unable to visualize their secret site map without help.

And then came the zinger…

“Why are you moving your domains?” she challenged. “Because you are expensive” I confessed. “We know times are tough so, if you renew with us today, I will give you the unpublished annual rate of $8.95” she said, digging deep for her best BFF tone.  “Then why am I paying $35 a year for the other ten sites parked with you?” I asked.  “I can give you the same rate on those – if you renew today!” Now, I’m suspicious. “And what happens a year from now? Am I back to the rack rate?” Back to testy mode, she informed, “You can renew for up to nine years to lock in this rate. Up to you.”

Needless to say, the domains are in transit. Of course, this trip will take a week or more, because like returning the deposit check to the buyer who cancels escrow, there really isn’t any great desire at this point to make things easy. I’m being punished. And my important, live domains are still being held hostage. I can’t afford a dark blog or website for a week. Or can I? If the published rates went up to $350 tomorrow, I would be somewhat stuck. Or would I?

The path of least resistance only goes so far…

I promised to let you draw your own parallels, but I’ll go first.  As a consumer, I cling to the familiar and to the path of least resistance, but only to a point. This company which once had a monopoly on their product is becoming antiquated yet, rather than adapt and offer their clients a better, more competitive service, they cling to the notion that their world is still flat and that their audience is captive. The audience is not.

Secondly, the whole triple-secret cost structure reminded me of something Russell Shaw once wrote about the way we treat our fees. It was something along the lines of this: Decide what you are worth, establish the fee below which you would be willing to walk, and stand by it. His remarks were more about the importance of our resolve where our value is concerned, but having seen the waffling from the consumer’s point of view, I find anything less than full resolve to be dishonest. While I may have scored a temporary win, the “company” has lost my trust and my respect. In the process, they have lost my future business.