I now think your internal
communications may be a bigger problem than (or perhaps the root cause of)
any problems communicating with your customers.
A lot of truth, but also as much as they talk from calls that I have
gotten from OpenSRS, nothing, "NOTHING" has evolved from it. No referrals or
nothing. Just empty commitments.
--
Mike Allen, 4CheapDomains.Net
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.4CheapDomains.Net
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Chuck Hatcher" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "elliot noss" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, January 13, 2003 11:31 AM
Subject: Re: Future of Tucows/OpenSRS
> Elliot, I appreciate your willingness to respond to the list. I wish I
> could say your response adequately addressed my concerns.
>
> >Today each of account management, product management,
> > marketing, support and compliance have significant interaction with
> > resellers and we capture and share this information where possible
> (although
> > hoping to keep improving at this). Thus, if the list is the only prism
> that
> > you view this issue through it may appear that way, but to us it is not.
>
> "...but to us it is not." To US? So if YOU don't have a problem with
> communication with resellers, then there must not be a problem?
>
> > Also, and probably more importantly, to me the numbers and the merits
> should
> > rarely if ever diverge. In the short term there may be advantages to be
> > gained by making decisions that are somehow "wrong" (against the
"merits")
> > but never in the long term. We (you and I) may not always agree on
whether
> > something is "on the merits", but we can agree that we will always try
and
> > make decisions on that basis.
>
> "...we can agree that we will always try.." Actions speak louder than
> words. I have been told at least a dozen times since last Friday that
> "Tucows cares about every reseller." This is very easy to say. But
saying
> it means very little. It is your action on which you will be judged.
Good
> communications does not mean soothing ruffled feathers.
>
> > Next Chuck says "the link between customers and management has grown
> > weaker". In my view it the lines of communication have grown stronger.
>
> Yes, I believe that in your view they have. In fact, I believe that some
of
> your customers have a better experience than others in this regard. After
> having received a number of private responses, I now think your internal
> communications may be a bigger problem than (or perhaps the root cause of)
> any problems communicating with your customers.
>
> > Chuck next uses the referral list as an example of this. What is ironic
> here
> > is that what makes the issue of dealing with the referral list on
discuss
> > list difficult is the fact that the organization has matured. The
> difficulty
> > of just saying "we will deal with it in this way" is that it touches
many
> > depts (sales, marketing, product management and then dev and the whole
> > qa/mis/ops process) which work together and no one manager wants to bind
> the
> > others without talking.
>
> How long does it take to get all your ducks in a row and make a public
> statement? This is not a new concern. Many more people read the list
than
> actively post to it. There are many waiting for a response, even if it is
> bad news for some.
>
> > Now, Chuck, you then jump to the Verisign SMP program which, IMHO, has
> > absolutely nothing to do with the issues being discussed and you use it
to
> > "prove" the above-noted points. I find the argument flawed. AFAIK, no
one
> > other than you, OF OUR THOUSANDS OF CUSTOMERS, has been asking about
this.
>
> I only brought up SMP because it was in regard to SMP that I was told that
a
> small number of resellers leaving Tucows would not affect the bottom line.
> I thought this was a prime example of the "numbers mentality". I have
been
> made painfully aware that I am (currently) in the minority when it comes
to
> my opinion about SMP, and I would have been satisfied from day one if
> someone had just told me Tucows will not be offering SMP because nobody
but
> me wants it.
>
> > Chuck, the easiest kind of service for us to roll out is one
> > offered by VGRS. These are virtually plug-and-play.
>
> I would think offering SMP through resellers would be a major challenge,
and
> far from plug-and-play. That's why I tried to bring up the topic early on
> instead of waiting until it was live. Playing catch-up could be costly.
>
> > remember SMP and most any other secondary market
> > solution needs near ubiquity to be important.
>
> Is it a chicken, or an egg? It sounds like Tucows is waiting to see how
> successful the product is before committing to it. I don't want to debate
> the merits of SMP, because it really wasn't the point of my post. (Maybe
> this is a case of "not invented here" syndrome.)
>
> > Next, I don't agree AT ALL that "the core function of a registrar is to
> > provide registry products efficiently". First, this is very business
model
> > dependant. For us, for example, renewal functionality is extremely
> important
> > as is tranfer functionality yet these are the furthest things from
> "registry
> > products" (in fact today the registry, at least VGRS, makes them quite
> > difficult).
>
> I consider a domain name to be a registry product. Registrations,
renewals,
> and transfers are at the heart of what a registrar does. Tucows may be
more
> than just a registrar, but these are core functions. Let's not get bogged
> down in semantics. My point was that registrars provide registry products
> that cannot be obtained by non-registrars. If a registrar chooses not to
> offer a registry product that its customer needs, that customer must
become
> the customer of another registrar. I question the wisdom of making
> decisions that force customers to leave.
>
> > Lastly, thanks for taking the time to write such a long, thoughtful
email.
> > Thanks for being a customer for so long (and I hope for much longer).
> Thanks
> > for giving me an opportunity to say some things I have been wanting to
> say.
>
> I wrote a "long, thoughtful email" not because I am bored, or because I
> wanted to bash Tucows, or because my inbox was empty. I wrote it out of
> sincere frustration. I am no less frustrated now than I was before, but
at
> least I am more confident that I have the facts I need to make an
> intelligent business decision moving forward.
>
> > Today is the 3rd birthday of OpenSRS (born January 12, 2000) so to all
of
> > you I raise a glass tonight. Thanks to all of you for allowing us to do
> what
> > we do. We hope, I hope, that you always care enough about this and about
> us
> > to raise these issues.
>
> Congratulations to OpenSRS on its first three years. May the next three
be
> even better! And may the growth of Tucows not affect its ability to see
> clearly, move with agility, and serve its customers and shareholders with
> integrity.
>
