What Really Sets GoDaddy Apart

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A lot is made about the tacky GoDaddy ads that cause a stir during the Super Bowl each year. GoDaddy founder, Bob Parsons, has indeed landed on a way to get attention. By polarizing and even infuriating some portion of his market he is able to live off the buzz and capture the noise of the crowd.

But, in the Web 2.0 world we all live in, what really sets GoDaddy apart is people. Even someone like me, who enjoys a dysfunctional relationship with technology wants to pick of the phone and talk to a real live person when something goes wrong. GoDaddy gets this like few others.

Heed this warning Web2.0ers, when you scale, if you don’t invest in people who can fix a client’s problem, the end is near. GoDaddy has over 1,000 customer service reps who can and will solve problems. I can overlook many of the obnoxious offerings they throw in my face as I register a domain because every time I pick up the phone and call the toll free number listed on the web site a real live person answers and helps in a matter of minutes – that’s why this little company is the world’s largest domain registrar. The TV ads are just proven window dressing used by advertisers for years.

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Posted by: John Jantsch on Feb 07, 07 | 6:06 pm
Category: online marketing | Tags:

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Robert Gorell

Great post, John! It's a bit strange that GoDaddy doesn't show some of the customer service benefits that go along with the brand.

The key piece for us at Future Now is how GoDaddy's ads only drove half the traffic they did last year. The result? Twice the revenue boost as compared to last year's ads. Why? Because traffic does NOT equal money.

Bob Parsons wrote an interesting piece in AdFreak about this, which spurred us to blog about why GoDaddy had more success with this years ads even though the ads were measurably far worse.

Last year, GoDaddy failed to create anything sticky. No tape whatsoever. Fortunately, we'd blogged about their poor planning last year, and were able to make a quick case study out of it on our blog (click my name to check it out).

Boris Bauer

hmmmm, I might be wrong, but as far as I know Godaddy is just a reseller (a big one) for WildWestDomains.com.

They use pretty much their standard interface for resellers. If you call tech support (480)505-8877 it is WildWest Domain.

I think the only thing thats sets Godaddy apart are rock bottom prices and their super bowl ads with the girl.

The tech support is WildWest and they can be good or bad (like anywhere else) depending on the experience of your support agent.

Anonymous

GoDaddy is a good source for managing domain name registrations for everybody. They are a good, low-cost hosting provider for beginners, but they are far from a serious Web hosting company. I have been moving most all of my smaller sites from GoDaddy. Where you may be able to get a person on the phone, it doesn't mean they can help you. When you call them with a simple "my site is down" you are almost insulted by the questions they ask you. You never get a suitable response or even notice when your site is back up. They have a long way to go for serious Web sites and consultants, and with the money they put into that lame commercial this year, maybe they can improve their processes.

Matt McGee

John, I hope you don't mind hearing the other side of the story. And I hope you don't mind a few links here in the comments, but small business owners really should be aware of how GoDaddy handles various issues in their "customer service" dept.

More GoDaddy Frustration
http://www.threadwatch.org/node/5542

Godaddy abuse department strikes again
http://www.threadwatch.org/node/5167

Godaddy Holding Customer Sites to Ransom?
http://www.threadwatch.org/node/3785

All respect to your opinion, and it's great you've had a wonderful experience with them. But they're the last registrar I'd recommend.

John Jantsch

Anonymous - I have not used GoDaddy for anything but registration but the hosting offering has never appealed to me.

Boris - GoDaddy owns WildWest and uses that sister company as it's reseller division of GoDaddy.

Mark Coker

I've got over 20 domains registered at GoDaddy. Their customer service is the worst i've ever experienced anywhere, bar none.

First of all, their cookies are all screwed up, so that they never correctly remember my log in information. And if I don't remember it correctly, after one or two log in attempts it locks my account without telling me. The only way to unlock it is to contact customer support. After about 24 hours, a robot then sends you instructions to email them the last four digits of your credit card, and then 48 hours later they unlock your account.

You'd think I should remember my passwords. I do. And I let Firefox remember them too. FireFox remembers them just fine for any of the other two dozen sites for which I have it save username and password info.

What if you have a hot domain you either need to renew before you lose it, or a domain that just became available that you need to buy? Tough luck.

If you're looking for good customer service, my advice is to avoid Godaddy. If you're just looking for cheap domains and don't mind their clunky web site and customer service frustration, then they're fine.

Vancouver Business Network &r

<pingback>...Marketing

...</pingback>

Jodi Kaplan

Any recommendations for a GOOD host?

Jacob Cole

I've heard the GoDaddy horror stories, and I'm sympathetic to all who have had bad experiences. However, I'm one of those who has registered dozens and dozens of domains for the last four years or so, and GoDaddy hasn't made any mistakes. And yes, I'm always able to reach someone on the phone, and they're usually very helpful.

The fact is that most companies have annoyed a customer at one time or another, especially companies the size of GoDaddy. And while this should be minimized at every cost, I think one has to exercise discretion before writing off a business who has had only a few problems with customers.

When you're talking about that kind of volume, I think it's safe to say 99% of their customers have been satisfied. Those odds are fine with me, and falling into that 1% is just the gamble I make.

Dawud Miracle

GoDaddy is great. All my domains are registered there. And I constantly refere clients there are well.

I do get a little bogged down with Bob Parson's marketing approach. Maybe he's got a thing with sex that I don't really care to explore.

But you can't knock their service, their security or the ease of use of their site. And it's great to have competent phone support when it's needed.

John Jantsch

Jodi,

I've heard good things about Bluehost and Lunar pages. I don't know enough about their service, but the packages they offer are great both in terms of features and price. In the end, it's almost always the service provided when you need help that sets one apart from another.

Tim Linden

Mark - I have a similar problem. The login page on the front page isn't https, but the next page is. It throws my password plugin off.

Experience 1 - I was told by Godaddy I would lose all my domains if I didn't pay $200 because someone sent a spam email with my domain in it. Even though they don't host me. I told them that the thousands I've spent on domains is good enough and haven't heard since.

Experience 2 - I was called by Godaddy because a bunch of domains were about to expire, and they gave me a special price to renew as many domains as I wanted for as long as I wanted, even ones that weren't expiring for a few years.

So there is the good and the bad but overall I've had good experiences (except with the abuse department, which thinks they own the internet)

Jodi Kaplan

Thanks John, I'll look into those two.

Amy Vercruysse

I've had a terrible time w/Go Daddy, including the cookies/passwords issue brought up here. Currently I'm trying to transfer to another host, and it's very problematic and exacerbated by the fact that this is a foreign language for me. I'm not a web designer, and Go Daddy has not sufficiently explained the problems in a non-expert way that I can understand. In sharing my experience with some other local business owners, I've gotten similar feedback. I will never use Go Daddy again and can't get away from them fast enough.

Lunarpages review

godaddy is good choice for domain, but if you wanna host, it is better to go with lunarpages

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