You have data. What's next?
It is fashionable these days to talk about the AI revolution. A few years ago the theme was Big Data. Before that? Who cares. Despite the talk about using computers to do marvelous things, many organizations are still crunching data in their spreadsheets that are sent around by email.
I am also sure that you, my dear reader, have been around when somebody in a meeting says 'we should be a data driven company.’ A day doesn't go by where somebody says 'if I only had access to better data'.
Here is a real, short story for you about one company which even with tons of data and millions of dollars still can’t get right.
I've been involved in many projects and had many ideas that all required a web presence. Whether to be a simple page or a web based application, it always required a domain and an email address. For many years, I've used GoDaddy for a very simple reason: it allowed me to do a quick search for available domains. Then, after I registered a domain, I was able to create an email forwarding to be able to register for various online services.
The domain registration was about $25 per domain per year and the email forwarding was free. All together, we are talking about 50 domains. That's about $1,250 a year. And due to inflation? It is now $30. That's almost free money for a company with $4 billion in revenue with estimated 21 million customers.
A few years ago, GoDaddy decided to change its email infrastructure and moved everything to white-labeled Microsoft Office 365. It was announced well in advance and a few regular email accounts I had there migrated without a problem. But the email forwarding function was discontinued. A quick call to support and I was informed that in order to keep the functionality, I have to obtain email service for each domain for about $7 per email per month. From $0 to over $3,000 a year was something I couldn't justify. The value proposition didn't align with my needs.
With a quick search and evaluation of my options, I've decided to switch to Google. With a few clicks, most of my forwarding emails start flowing again.
In the bigger picture, it seemed like GoDaddy didn’t care about my business. So, I started moving it away from GoDaddy. When my domains were about to expire, I started transferring them from GoDaddy to Google Domains. The same registration is now only $17 per domain per year and the management associated with it is simpler and straightforward.
What GoDaddy is experiencing is the textbook example of customer churn. You gain some, you lose some.
Every single time I am transferring the domain, I have gone through several steps.
Select a domain to transfer
Obtain a transfer key
Final approval for the transfer
Each step is done on the Godaddy website and for each step I receive an email.
Now for the interesting part. After I do the final step, I always receive an email like this
Not gonna lie.
We hate to see you go.
We're sorry to see you’ve transferred your domain names away from GoDaddy. But thanks for choosing us in the first place.
If this transfer was a mistake or you’ve changed your mind, please call 1-866-938-1119 to have it fixed. And if you’re interested, we continue to offer low prices and C$26.99 C$14.99 transfer rates on some domains.*
We’re always launching new promos and products — make sure you regularly visit our site to see our best deals. You never know what you might find.
This is $4 billion company, where:
The marketing department sends you sorry email after the transaction is done
The marketing department thinks that after 3 steps where you have to explicitly click 'I Approve' button that it was a mistake
The marketing department tells you to keep searching its website for deals, because you never know what you might find.
The marketing department can't run reports on who's most likely to cancel the domain renewal or create offers well before the domain expires to keep their customers
I guess they don't care, since they are a $4 billion company. If people think that only large companies can afford and take full advantage of data analytics, it is a myth.
The recurrent pattern? No amount of technology and AI will ever replace smart people. But smart people with the right technology will get people to the moon.