Bad CRM and Network Solutions

Since losing its monopoly as a domain registrar Network Solutions has steadily hemmoraged customers and they wonder why. Beyond a history of oxymoronic "customer service" they also suffer from lousy CRM.

A few months ago their President claimed in an interview that "There were a lot of people who had not gotten over the monopoly mentality. . . Those people are no longer with us." Whatever.

First and foremost, their prices never changed to reflect what is now a competitive market. Elsewhere, prices average perhaps $20 per year, with bargains available for half that. The median is about $15. Netsol customers are stuck at $35. Unless you renew for 9 years, in which case you get your domain for about $15 per year.

Lousy business practises ahead: Another way to get the $15 per year pricing is to transfer your domains away from Netsol. When two of my domains were about to expire last year, I transferred and received a "we want to keep your business" message offering a deep discount. Too little, too late, I switched to the company that gave me good prices up-front.

CRM Quiz: You have a customer who just moved 2 of his 8 domain subscriptions to another vendor. The other 6 domains expire in 3 months. What do you do?

a) Be proactive and offer a competitive discount on the remaining 6 accounts.
b) Nothing. Offer the same pricing for the remaining accounts and hope you made the transfer process difficult enough that the customer doesn't want to go through it again. And make sure they order more colourful hats for the next shareholders meeting to lift everyone's spirits, unhappy investors are such downers, dude.

Again, this is about bad CRM. As the domain registrar with the most CRM data to mine, Netsol seems content to use this trove to send "Final Renewal" notices several months ahead of domain expiry dates. No one likes spamvertising, so why not provide some sign of appreciation to existing customers --like an incentive to stay. Even more obvious, once you've tipped your hand that lower prices can be had, why not offer them for the customer's other accounts?

It ain't rocket surgery. Your exercise for the week is to sit down in a quiet place and figure out what you could be doing better with your own CRM data.

Do you have a story about lacking, misused or under-used CRM data? Does your company use SQL Server Analysis Services for good or evil? Comment below!