I’ve seen that Godaddy has recently begun to work on their User Experience which is obviously the first step in the right direction, but there is still some way to go. Hopefully they can improve their service over the coming months.

One word for Godaddy: “Muppets” ;)

If Bob did mention specific tests they conducted, it’s slipped my mind. From what I’ve heard, they actually do usability testing, so maybe they’re doing more right that it appears.

It’s hard to say what GoDaddy is doing right and wrong for sure without internal data. We can only make guesses (I think most of the points in this article are very valid). One thing that seems apparent to me is that GoDaddy puts a lot of effort into making their business seem authentic and secure to people who aren’t used shopping online. They advertise during the Superbowl. They make their phone number readily available. They have more certifications on their front page than I care to understand. All of these are things I don’t typically look for in a website, but might be very important to GoDaddy’s goals.

On a different note, there was one other really interesting thing that stuck with me after the conference I attended. Personally, I dislike GoDaddy’s marketing. Apparently, I’m not alone in this regard… The first time they advertised during the Superbowl, they bought 2 ad slots, but only the first one aired. So many people complained, that the second ad had to be cancelled. Bob seems to attribute a lot of the initial GoDaddy buzz to news outlets and people talking about how offensive the ads were in the weeks following their first superbowl ad. Not much of a marketer myself, but I thought this was an interesting point all the same.

I suppose if you are managing 100+ domains there, the cost of switching would be quite high, but there are a number of registrars that would take care of the transfer process for you for a nominal fee. Supposing you were starting all over again, would you pick Godaddy still, or would you try and search out a site with a better UX?

You are right that perhaps we aren’t Godaddys’ target market, but would imagine technical, geeky people will often be the driving force behind the purchase decision in this area. Many people come to me and ask my feedback before buying domains and a range of other technical things, and Godaddy would never make the recommended list, and I imagine this would be the case for many others too.

A great point that we should try and learn from what they are doing well – did Bob Parsons provide any information on how much difference having the telephone number there made to their sales? What other things do you think they are doing right in terms of UX? This is a good way to try and look at things, and something I should learn as well – I was just so frustrated after dealing with them, I didn’t think about what they are doing right. Cheers.

@Vicky: Interesting that you’ve stuck with Godaddy after the initial disaster; are things working better for you since then? I have to say, I find the backend really confusing, and it feels like segments of it have been designed and deployed by different teams without communication, and thus are lacking coherency. There have been a few different suggestions for registrars in the comments if you are looking for an alternative.

Not related, but I know the pain of NZ broadband very well – fingers cross Sam Morgan and his bunch get a new cable or two across the Pacific and we can finally have unmetered broadband here, or at least half decent caps for a half decent price.

IIRC, someone got fired after that AA redesign story – hopefully that doesn’t happen to anyone at Godaddy. I can imagine there is a lot of bureaucracy there to deal with, but I do think to be a successful player in this industry you have to be flexible and keep up with developments; at least they don’t have a “This site should be viewed in IE6 a 640*480″ notice at the bottom of the page though.

But like it’s the cheapest out there. I’m prepared to deal with their sexist advertising (how about getting a girl geek spokesperson as well as the sports stars and randoms?), 2 emails a week, pleas months beforehand to renew my domains – until I find something better. If I were still in NZ I might consider Free Parking and Sitehost, in the UK (where I am now) I’m not sure.

Also, I’m reminded of the Dustin Curtis AA redesign story. Is the consumer the most important stakeholder here?