Why my 12-year-old daughter has more business sense than a large Australian public company

We had some friends for dinner a few years back. During the course of dinner I said something particularly stupid. (Yes, I’m sure you’re shocked at that!)
My daughter Laura, who was about 7 at the time, turned to me and whispered:
“Daddy, why don’t you think about things before you say them?”
Melbourne IT should snap up the services of Laura…..and here’s why.
Melbourne IT is one of Australia’s biggest registrars of domain names – a top level one. We register, on behalf of our clients, many, many domains with these people.
There are cheaper registrars around.
But I’ve stuck with Melbourne IT for years because we know their interface so well, and how to manage our client’s domains with the minimum of fuss.
But we’ll be changing. And we’re changing because they don’t think about what they are doing.
We recently registered a domain name for a client. We are listed as the Technical Contact for that domain name.
Today I received an email to that domain name address from Melbourne IT trying to onsell services – such as domain name forwarding. That’s fine. No problem with that. But then they went a step further.
Melbourne IT have used the contact information I gave them in registering that domain to recommend another company for the development of the web site!!
“HAVE A PROFESSIONAL WEB SITE BUILT FOR YOU.
We recommend XXXX, by XXXX for only A$599 you will receive:
* A four page professional web site designed for you that can be expanded or upgraded to suit your needs
* 12 months web hosting
* An easy to use interface to update your web site
* An email address
* Check out an example of a web site recently built by XXX for a customer on the standard A$599 package: www.XXXX.com.au.”
So, as a web developer I now have one of my “partners” recommending an opposition firm to the very same clients whose details I have given them! Crazy.
Why don’t they think of things before they do them?
I’d guess that the majority of people that register domains are businesses like ours doing it on behalf of clients. And I’d guess a good % of these people won’t be using Melbourne IT from now on.
The lesson here is that we all need to think about the possible implications of the strategies we use. Sure, it might be nice to generate extra income by recommending a web design firm. But not if it alienates a good % of your current customers.
Cheers
Brendon