Today we have a guest post from the recently appointed Business Manager at Netfleet – Nikki Scholes.
Back in July, we announced her appointment here. At that time, we invited Nikki to do a guest post about her vision and objectives for Netfleet. She has now obliged. 🙂
Whilst NF scores 9 out of 10 as Australia’s predominant “drop catcher” and aftermarket platform, it’s fair to say that (past) customer service has been their Achilles Heel.
Speaking from personal experience, Nikki is definitely client focused. She has brought a breath of much needed fresh air to Netfleet in this regard. The “powers that be” are to be congratulated on her appointment.
My Vision For Netfleet – Nikki Scholes
Since joining Netfleet at the end of June, it’s been a blur to say the least! As Ned pointed out in his introductory blog about me, the domain name industry is a completely new challenge I’m looking forward to taking on! Why you might ask?
In the past, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the demands associated in working for a startup, having to learn a multitude of skills and ‘push’ to get things going. Although Netfleet might be an established and successful business, what caught my attention was the nature with which it operates like an agile startup, allowing me to take on different roles and add my own creative flair. I knew that joining Netfleet I’d be able to deliver value to the company and its clients, yet also develop my own skills learning from excellent mentors.
While every day I continue to learn more about the domain name industry, my initial impressions are that we have yet to see its full potential – there are great opportunities for all of us. Currently, not a lot of people understand the industry, and many companies lack the insight on how the right domain name can benefit their business. We hope to change this through education. Our content blogs have been a great tool in this area, with numerous articles planned ahead.
Although Netfleet provides the best catching service in Australia, we currently do not have strong relationships with our clients. As one of our priorities, I would like to close this gap and understand the needs of our clients, as well as the best way of meeting their needs. Over the coming months I plan to meet with some of our clients face to face (gasp!), or over the phone. I have already spoken to a couple of domainers and we are working on some great ideas!
In recent weeks I’ve received numerous emails from people who are excited about the changes to our customer service, including now having a contact to discuss their problems! Of course, while I take great pride in helping resolve issues, we do hope that customers can turn the page on any disappointing experiences they may have previously had dealing with Netfleet, and open up respectful dialogue.
We have also increased our social media output and plan to distribute regular newsletters to encourage interaction between Netfleet and domainers. Netfleet will continue to look for ways to open lines of communication with its customers and welcomes constructive feedback.
Most importantly, we are part of a great movement and conducting business within a growing industry, meaning we should all be excited about what the future holds.
If you have any questions or comments to put to me here, I promise I’ll do my best to answer them! Or you can email me directly.
Nikki
“my initial impressions are that we have yet to see its full potential – there are great opportunities for all of us. Currently, not a lot of people understand the industry, and many companies lack the insight on how the right domain name can benefit their business. We hope to change this through education.”
Well said, Nikki. That’s so true.
I think you were only on board a few days at Netfleet when I sent a concern through their usual process. I was very surprised to get an instant response and you sorted out my drama within a few hours.
Like Ned, I see you as a breath of fresh air for Netfleet and wish you well in the future.
ps – I’m sure you’ll be receiving a few more “drop” related concerns from me before the year is out 🙂
Hi Robert
Thank you, that is very kind.
I’m glad I was able to help.
Looking forward to it 🙂
waffle waffle waffle – wake me up when Netfleet does something other than *talk* about growing the aftermarket
why should it? suppression of aftermarket growth means more ‘backorder’ dollars for parent company Melbourne IT, which offers backorder services not only through Netfleet but through NetRegistry did you know -do these backorder services compete with one another? what happens when there are two backorders for the same name? which registry connections are used for each service? does this mean the success rate is reduced?
PS. The uninitiated should know that Melbourne IT is one of the most expensive domain name registrars in Australia, currently $153.98 for 2 years registration of a .com.au name.
By contrast its subsidiary NetRegistry charges $38.95 for 2 years (currently on sale at $29.89 for 2 years). Melbourne IT recently took over UberGlobal and Uber charges just $30 for 2 years.
Competitor CrazyDomains.com.au is also much cheaper, just $28.79 for 2 years (currently on sale at $22.98 for 2 years).
Competitor UniRegistry.com is also much cheaper, just $19.88 for 2 years (not sure if this is USD or AUD).
Competitor HostingAustralia.com.au is also much cheaper, just also much cheaper, just $22 for 2 years.
Why anyone, whether they are a mum and dad business or a large corporation, would choose to blow $120+ more than they need to on domain name registration every 2 years is beyond me.
Readers of this blog should note that most domain name buyers are unaware of cheaper domain name registration options that are available.
Explaining these options makes the prospect of buying a second, third or tenth .com.au or .net.au domain name much more palpable to many.
How do these comments relate to Netfleet and the installation of Nikki? – Nikki, if you are interested in improving customer relations you need to understand the beast *behind* Netfleet – Melbourne IT. Domainers are tired of the waffle and their primary concerns when it comes to Netfleet centre on the development of an aftermarket including aftermarket auctions.
That Netfleet lists more than 50,000+ domain names for sale but only sells 2-3 above the $1,000 mark in each calendar month is downright ridiculous. Please explain why Netfleet inventory does not feed into Melbourne IT, NetRegistry, PlanetDomain, TPP and Uber domain availability checks? Oh that’s right, Melbourne IT prefers to sell ‘backorders’, which means it doesn’t have to share its profits with domain name owners.
Hard for readers here to believe your installation at Netfleet will result in any significant changes at all.
Hi Mark
Good to get this out in the open.
As you said, there are cheaper options in the market. Businesses are free to transfer their domain names to their preferred registrar, at no cost. There isn’t a monopoly in the market, auDA is very conscious of this.
I have been in contact with Melbourne IT and am yet to witness ‘the beast’. However, we are all entitled to our own opinions.
Netfleet’s focus has been on drop catching, we don’t actively market the domain names listed for sale. Moving forward, we will consider doing this for certain domains being sold on our website. If you are ever interested in this please let me know.
Regarding the availability checks, in the past we have allowed domainers to do bulk searchers once logged in. There is no reason why we can’t add this functionality to our portal and I’ll definitely look into it.
I am always open to discussions and on ways of improving. Ned has kindly provided my contact details, feel free to contact me to discuss further.
Kind regards, Nikki
Hi Nikki,
Agreed, no monopolism here. Crazy Domains, GoDaddy and others keep the .au marketplace reasonably well-balanced. ‘Beast’ is simply used to describe the dominant and powerful nature of Melbourne IT, which is a large non-human entity (corporation) that has its own will and interests.
The point made is that it would be hard to imagine that Melbourne IT strategies didn’t affect what goes on at Netfleet. And you have here confirmed that Netfleet, “Australia’s No. 1 Domain Trading Platform” DOESN’T “actively market the domain names listed for sale”.
You can see why readers here and the owners of those 50,000+ domain names listed for sale might be upset with Netfleet’s failure to do this in its own interests -as head company Melbourne IT profits from backorders via its subsidiaries and as Netfleet instead directs investor dollars to the ‘drops’ (where it does not need to share profits with domain owners). Such a shame as despite this failing Netfleet is very usable as an aftermarket platform esp. with full escrow and automated CoR functionality.
PS. It’s Matt, not Mark. Did Mark Lye tell you what to say?
My apologies…Matt
The domainers don’t advertise their own domain names to be sold yet they still receive inquiries on a daily basis. Are you a domainer?
You are entitled to your own views. I’m only interested in facts and constructive dialogue.
Kind regards, Nikki
waffle waffle waffle
Like I said, domainers are sick of the “dialogue”, they want a healthy aftermarket with aftermarket auctions. Can this be spelled out any clearer?
Just do it. Cut the waffle and do it.
.au domain values will continue to languish while Netfleet continues to occupy the “aftermarket” space and does a terrible job at it by failing to actively promote names and by failing to conduct aftermarket auctions.
Thank you for the input Matt.
All the best
Best wishes Nikki. You certainly have some ground to make up.
Could you tell me why you changed fonts and formats on your auction page? I reckon previous version was much better and clearer. Stats also seem to be continuously wrong?
Hi Jeff
Thank you
The website is a work in progress at the moment. Thank you for your input, it’s really important to see our website through the domainer’s eyes.
I agree, the stats don’t seem right. We’re working on it.
The website will be improving over the next few days, please keep me updated on your thoughts.
Thanks again
Hey Nikki
Thanks for the post and i can see the action on Social Media look forward to seeing further gains. One thing that would be great to see is a phone number to call some of us have serious dollars invested in this game
regards
Carl
Hi Carl
Thank you for connecting on LinkedIn. We generally try to keep all communication online, I have given out my mobile number a few times but will consider adding it to the website.
Kind regards, Nikki