Greg's request sounds reasonable and fair. Is their a reason why his and other smaller sites are not being referred to?
Swerve > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Fri, 29 Nov 2002 00:21:41 -0600 > To: "Elliot Noss" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: what we think and what we think to > > Elliot > I must say that is one of the best most honest notes I have ever seen > written from a CEO to there client bases. It is showing more respect than > one ever sees from most SUPPLIERS. > I feel strongly though that you did miss one sore spot with me and many > on this list. The referral system you changed this year. You give us (the > small Guy/Gal ) credit here but you have taken away one of the absolute best > sources of on line revenue that many of them had. We support you (strongly > and faithfully ) and did not leave even with that. We felt and still do that > you showed your favouritism of only the big guys who already have the > connections and client base. Please re address this issue....its the small > folks that need the exposure of our connection to you to grow. It is not > enough to have our connection to you on our site it should also be on your > site to "PROVE" you are also proud of your association with us as you claim > to be!. > To let you know why I feel strongly about this and have bitched at times > loudly about it . Until your removed me from your site I was receiving 20% > of my new domain and cert revenue from your site directly!. THAT IS NOW > GONE. Yes I know my volume doesn't get that large but it grows yearly and my > retention is super strong as you attest is with many small firms. I am > forced to work much harder than the big guys to get back that lost source of > revenue....We have less staff to help and our time is much more valuable as > there is far less of it. > One point I fell strongly about is your view about our ability to gain > and keep clients affordably. Our company goes along way to prove that. In 5 > years of business we have only lost 12 client out of the over 1000 we now > have. Of the 12 we lost 9 are off the web completely and not participating > in web in any business what so ever (there Lose). The balance (3) well in > all honest if they hadn't left we would have likely asked them to . I don't > know what that related to for numbers on your model but to us our clients > are the first priority...... > All I ask is that tucows/OpenSRS shows all there clients the same > respect as you currently show only a select few. Exposure your relationship > to ALL or NONE! Besides if you analyse the $ you will likely find those big > guys cost you more, return you less (they usually are discounted in prise) > And more often than not are more ready to switch to other suppliers when > they feel your stepping on there toes with things like the email service, > Which by the way is a super idea whose time has come. > These are only my thought and Elliot I know as always your open to > hearing them. That's why I'm here the best TEAM I have ever seen from top > down! Tucows does listen and does care, And has always proved that to me. > Your techs in the past have referred clients to us for the local touch, have > even set us up with contacts we needed for services we needed from others. > That is customer service to me... > > Greg Makuch > Whatever Computes Ltd. > http://www.whatevercomputes.com > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > phone: 306-569-4174 > Toll-free: 1-877-291-3269 > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Elliot Noss" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "discuss" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Thursday, November 28, 2002 4:24 PM > Subject: what we think > > >> To all: >> >> INTRODUCTION >> ============= >> I wanted to send an email message to all of you reviewing my thoughts on > our >> relationship, your businesses and the future. Normally I like to talk in >> terms of "we" in my communication. Today I will often speak in the first >> person quite purposely. I note that our customers form such a > heterogeneous >> group that it is difficult and dangerous to generalize, but I will do so > to >> some extent here. It is the similarities, not the differences that are >> important. >> >> I apologize for the length. I have included headings to allow for easier >> skimming. >> >> What I will try and do in this message will be to provide context. I think >> it is important that you all understand the way we see you, what we think >> makes you successful, your place in our world, our view of our place in >> yours and how we think we can best help. To be clear upfront, help means >> help you win the battle for customers, to run and build successful >> businesses and to do it all in a way that can be enjoyed. >> >> First, let me thank you all for being involved with us. You are an amazing >> group of people who are in the main intelligent, thoughtful, know how to > run >> a business and have a strong positive ethic. This last point is most > brought >> home to me whenever we take the high road on an issue and you, as a group >> respond positively and in an appreciative fashion. I get the opportunity > to >> interact with many of you and nothing makes me prouder than when you tell > me >> what a great group of people we have. Believe me, it happens often, and it >> never fails to warm me. >> >> WHO YOU ARE >> =========== >> Often when describing who our customers are to third-parties I will >> conveniently say "small and medium-sized ISPs and web hosting companies". >> While this captures the two largest groups of customers, it doesn't > describe >> nearly half of you. You are an incredibly heterogeneous group. You are >> located in over 110 countries around the World, can provide marketing and >> customer service in just about every conceivable language and have a great >> appreciation of your users issues. You innovate and problem-solve. >> >> The definition of a reseller that I find most accurate is "companies >> building recurring revenue streams over the IP network by providing > Internet >> Services". >> >> What I most like about this definition is it captures the important fact >> that the services that are provided is a dynamic and changing set. This is >> extremely important in understanding what I view as our role as a > supplier. >> >> GROWTH IN INTERNET SERVICES >> ============================ >> Going forward, I forsee huge growth in the market for Internet services. >> People's interaction with the Internet is on the cusp of exploding. I > expect >> the number of personal web pages to increase dramatically. I expect >> personalized email to increase dramatically (spurred on by the recent > moves >> by Yahoo, Hotmail and othersto limit free service). I expect the number > and >> use of domain names to increase dramatically. All of these trends bode > well. >> In addition, I expect a whole new raft of services to emerge. I cannot > tell >> you if it will be music subscriptions, IP telephony or something none of > us >> have yet conceived of, but I do expect a continuing stream >> of innovation. It has always been the case in the Internet economy, and >> IMHO, we are barely at the beginning. >> >> It is also extremely important to understand that in my view todays > Internet >> Services become tomorrow's commodities. As an ISP in Toronto in 1995 the > key >> differentiators were i) no busy signals ii) being able to provide good >> scripting for Trumpet Winsock iii) having a great library of init strings >> for those lovely 14.4 modems. The value of all of these things was gone >> within a couple of years. >> >> All of us in the Internet Services business have watched today's > innovation >> become tomorrow's commodity. The only constants are innovation and the > fact >> that these innovations make most users feel stupid. That is why customer >> service is, IMHO, the key to a successful Internet Services business. The >> provision of any technical service is about solving problems, not brand > and >> not feature comparisons (think about how people sell hosting today and > this >> point is especially stark, they sell it like it was a database circa > 1993). >> There can be no bigger problem than "I don't get this!". Solve it, and > keep >> solving it, and you have a customer for life. >> >> LONG-TERM OUR CUSTOMERS CAN AND SHOULD WIN >> ============================================ >> I believe that you all make up potentially the most powerful distribution >> network in the Internet economy. You each touch thousands of end-users who >> look to you for the most important Internet Services today. You have an >> ongoing financial relationship with your end-users and provide first-touch >> customer service. These last two characteristics combine to give you a >> unique ability to sell additional services to your end-users. >> >> In my view retail Internet Services businesses are about attracting and >> retaining customers. Marketing and customer service. This view comes from > my >> years of doing it and years of supplying into it and watching who has won >> and who has lost. >> >> The biggest fallacy, IMHO, is that customer service for Internet Services > is >> viewed as a commodity. Customer service is incredibly differentiable. >> Customer service is best served in small increments. It is not amenable to >> scale. Systems that help support customer service benefit from scale, but >> they are much less important than effort and attention. They also tend to > be >> too far removed from understanding the real problem when employed by large >> companies. If you want to convince yourself of this point think about the >> customer service that you provide or that you believe many of the folks on >> this list provide. Now think of the customer service provided by telcos or >> cablecos or AOL or............ >> >> WHO OUR CUSTOMERS WILL BEAT >> ============================ >> It is clear to me that the competition here, in the near term, will be > AOL, >> Microsoft and Yahoo. The good news is they have little to no idea they are >> competing with you, and even if they did they would neither fear nor > respect >> you. This is always an advantage when competing, believe me. >> >> It should also give you confidence in that two of the three are known for >> poor customer service and the third has never provided any. >> >> WHY OUR CUSTOMERS WILL BEAT THEM >> ================================= >> I believe our most successful customers are those that focus on attracting >> and retaining customers. Thus, marketing and customer service. I know many >> of you have different businesses and business models, so please do not > take >> any of this to be exhaustive. I generalize quite conciously here. >> >> Great customer service leads to high customer retention ratios ("CRR"). >> Great customer service leads to a higher degree of word-of-mouth customer >> acquisition and word-of-mouth customer acquisition costs nothing. The more >> of this you have the lower your customer acquisition cost ("CAC"). One > thing >> I know for sure, any Internet service retailer that has a relatively low > CAC >> and a relatively high CRR will be very successful. This is easy. If you >> manage to these two variables, either explicitly or implicitly, and you do >> well at them you will win. >> >> By being closer to your customers you will provide better customer > service. >> This may be because of unique language needs. It may be because of unique >> usage needs. It may be because of persoanl relationships. There are >> countless reasons. I do know that the closer you are to your customers, > the >> better you will appreciate their problems, the more you are able to solve >> them. This is simply innovation existing at the edge of the network. This > is >> the beauty of the Internet. >> >> WHAT WE DO, WHAT YOU DO >> ======================== >> So here is the meat of the issue. If you are in agreement with the general >> thesis above than the below will hold together well for you. >> >> What we do is manage data for you and simplify complex business processes >> while providing a high-level of customer service around the tools we >> provide. We provide tools that are hopefully infrastructure or building >> blocks as parts of Internet services, but not "finished goods" in and of >> themselves. For instance, it is extremely difficult, bordering on > impossible >> for an end-user to become a reseller for their own purposes unless their >> volumes are very high and their level of technical sophistication or > access >> to same is also very high. Virtually all of our wholesale domain >> registration competitors offer "plug-and-play" solutions where they often >> take the credit card and provide end-user customer service. This makes no >> sense to me, for us, if you play it back against the thesis above. I am >> unclear as to what value-add those resellers could really provide to their >> customers in the long run. Therefore I am unclear as to what they could >> provide as business partners for us in the long run. >> >> There are many elements of your businesses that can and should be thought > of >> as repititive, best centralized and therefore prone to outsourcing. This >> obviously applies to many elements of domain registration like base > renewal >> messaging functionality or implementing a new registry protocol. Why > should >> 5,000 people do this when it can be done once and generalized. That is >> efficiency. I love to think about spam filters like this. Spam filters are >> not about brilliant technology, but are about keeping a constantly > evolving >> set of rules fresh and updated. 5,000 companies need not do this. Imagine > a >> service built on Spam Assassin rules as a base and supplemented by the >> experiences of the 30-40 million end users that we collectively reach. Now >> that is magic. >> >> We should enter areas where we can provide value based upon the > above-noted >> premises (manage data and simplify complex business processes) as well as >> where we can bring scale to pricing or regulatory issues. This does NOT > mean >> we will neglect important innovation or functionality in our core domain >> services. It does mean that we need to do everything we can to help you > all >> maximize your customer relationships and build long-term businesses for >> yourselves. >> >> That is what we do. You in turn provide your end-users with the highest >> level of service possible. Internet services are not dial-tone. They are >> complex and becoming moreso. End-users interaction with the Internet is > not >> simplifying, but is instead becoming more complex. Complexity requires >> service. It needs love and care and you all can provide that. This is why >> the markets for web services have NOT been dominated by large telcos and >> cablecos, but are instead all empirically extremely competitive markets. >> >> I will expand a bit in the next section on what this means and what it >> doesn't. To me, the most important point is you have the opportunity to be >> extremely close to your customers and to know what their specific issues >> are. This means you have the greatest ability to address them. Remember > that >> today most users (individuals and businesses) have multiple suppliers of >> Internet Services. You need to be the one that is thought of as the > "problem >> solver". Sometimes this may seem thankless, in fact often it is thankless, >> but it is also the role that makes you indispensible. This is what >> guarantees not just your survival, but your success. >> >> "MARKETING" and "CUSTOMER SERVICE" VS "TECHNOLOGY" >> =================================================== >> I want to direct special attention to a point that I felt was implicit in > a >> few of the initial comments about our new email service which seemed to >> imply that I felt that your role was to answer the phones, smile and be >> nice. I spent many words above talking about marketing and customer > service. >> Let me be as clear as I can be. I do NOT in any way suggest that this >> obviates the need for technical skill on your part. It does not "level the >> playing field" for any "Tom, Dick or Harry" to offer services. Many of our >> competitors do this with their "insert logo here" offerings. We are not >> really looking for those folks as long-term customers. >> >> I would strongly argue that the points I make above infer a PREMIUM on >> technical proficiency. >> >> Let me be more specific. It is the case with Internet services that things >> that are magical today become commodities or irrelevant tomorrow (see the >> Trumpet Winsock example above). Things are innovative in these > marketplaces >> ever so briefly. You guys have to be the ones running at the front of the >> pack. >> >> It is the case that there has been virtually NO significant innovation in >> the marketing of domains or web hosting in the last 24 months. There has >> certainly been some evolution, but nothing that looks like revolution. > This >> is astonishing. To me, if Tucows is removing the need for you to run a > mail >> server and operate spam filters, for instance, that time can now be spent >> working on the following: >> >> - what other services can I include in a standard domain name or hosting >> package that provides more value to end users? >> - what tools can I create that will incent my customers to make more use > of >> their domain name/email box/website (because usage is the greatest >> determinant of renewal)? >> - what tools can I employ to help me interact more with my customers so I >> can better understand their problems? >> - what tools can I employ to either make my direct marketing more > effective >> or to allow me to get started with some direct marketing (think here about >> measuring conversion and numerous other variables and think about Overture >> and Google and local and....)? >> - what tools can I push out to my customers that will reduce my customer >> service costs and increase my customer satisfaction? >> >> and there is of course much more. Any of you who say "I don't need to do > any >> of that or don't want to do any of that" are fooling yourselves. That is >> where the winners and the losers will be determined. There will be > elements >> of the above that we can and will assist with, but again it will be in the >> form of tools (think about useful data that will make some of the above >> tasks easier) that you will need to supplement. >> >> We need you to deal with local language, local marketing, currency and >> taking payments, helping us understand and respond to local issues (and > this >> is local as opposed to global not national or regional). These are all >> non-trivial. >> >> I really want all of you to be able to look at a new service like email > and >> say "great, I can offload this burden and spend more of my time innovating >> and differentiating". I know that I am both a purist and an optimist, but >> such is my curse. >> >> DISCUSS-LIST AND NEED FOR ALTERNATIVE CHANNELS >> =============================================== >> I do want to talk a bit about discuss-list and other means of > communication. >> First, I am perhaps the luckiest CEO in the World in that I am able to see >> every day what my customers are thinking about in real-time. This is a > huge >> benefit. I appreciate that any list has its share of lurkers and folks who >> are very vocal. This is simply a filter that need be placed on the data. > The >> list is an invaluable resource to me and the rest of the folks here, as > well >> as to all of you IMHO. That being said, it is now a much broader community >> than simply OpenSRS resellers. Most every competitor, competitors > customers, >> suppliers, registries, regulators, press, analyst and other folks > interested >> in DNS issues now either subscribes to the list or reads it in archive > form. >> That can make communication a little bit more challenging for us. We need > to >> find a way to keep the list the vibrant community and resource for our >> customers that it is, while finding a way to discuss other issues in a > more >> discrete environment. >> >> With email, we engaged in surveys, held focus groups at a few different >> stages and had a number of one-on-one discussions. We plan to do much more >> "offlist" communications going forward. This is not to replace the list, > but >> to supplement it. If you EVER want to be more involved or more aware of > any >> issues I encourage you to speak to an account rep to and let them know you >> want to do focus groups or simply to have a dialogue. >> >> CONCLUSION >> ============ >> I want to stress that the comments above are truly macro comments. We have >> thousands of customers so I have no choice but to generalize. There are of >> course exceptions. This is akin to someone being a great golfer with an >> unconventional style. Please take these comments in that spirit. They are >> macro not micro. >> >> Many, if not most of you are able to do work you enjoy on your own terms. >> You are able to help many people, employ others and make a good living > while >> doing it. Anyone in this situation is indeed very lucky. I know I feel >> lucky. There is no question in my mind that an entity providing a full > suite >> of web services to a few thousand people is a viable business and can >> support a nice life. >> >> I believe, we believe, that you can win the battle for the hearts, minds > and >> wallets of end-users. Our role is to bring some of the elements of scale > to >> you so you can compete on a more even footing. >> >> I am very excited about the future. I have seen extremely positive signs > in >> the last little while that lead me to believe you will all be able to > expect >> an even higher level of service and innovation than you have received to >> date. Remember that while Tucows has been around a long time as a > business, >> OpenSRS and Internet services are still relatively new (a couple months > away >> from celebrating its third birthday).We all truly believe that our > business >> is simply an extension of yours. By thinking about the health of your >> business we are taking care of >> ours. >> >> While I know all of you will not agree with the above, I hope it will at >> least help you understand our thinking. As always, please pile on with >> comments. Thanks again for being part of us. >> >> Regards >> >> Elliot Noss >> Tucows inc. >> 416-538-5494 > >
