This is the second and final article the covers the results of the annual domain parking attitudes and experiences survey for 2008. The first article may be viewed at:Part 1 - Results of the Domain Parking Attitudes and Experiences Survey 2008
How would you rank your parking company's support?
There are some really positive results around this question for parking companies. None of the respondents answered "terrible" in 2008 as compared to 2007 7% of people indicated that their parking company had "terrible" support. In fact, all of the results increased dramatically towards the "Excellent" end of the spectrum.
Likewise, when respondents were asked whether they believed problems were addressed quickly 38% indicated in the affirmative. There was a consistent decline away from the negative direction towards the positive direction for great support.
Well done to all the account managers and support teams at each of the parking companies. Keep up the great work!
Do you think that your parking company pays you for all of your traffic and is your revenue share fair?
Once again there has been a dramatic turn around this year as compared to 2007. Just under 60% of respondents indicated that they believed that they were paid for all of their traffic. In 2007 this was around 26% and represents a massive swing in opinion of domainers towards their parking partners.
Although not as dramatic a move as the previous question 15% more domainers in 2008 believe that their revenue share is fair compared to 2007. It is still a great result for parking companies.
Are parking statistics correct and do templates really work?
An increase of over 20% for 2008 as compared to 2007 of respondents believed that their parking statistics were correct. Their has been a big jump of 23% in confusion surrounding the effectiveness of templates.
I must admit it that after getting to this point in the results I began to get suspicious as to whether parking companies had told all of their employees to answer the survey. After digging back into the statistics I've come to the conclusion that this is NOT the case. The results are from genuine domain owners.
Do you feel that you are in a close partnership with your parking company?
In my opinion the answer to this question is critical as it summarizes whether a domainer views their parking provider as a supplier or a partner for their business. The great result for parking companies is that almost double the number of respondents from 2007 indicated that they had a close relationship with their parking company.
What is the biggest issue for you with parking in general?
Once again the much maligned issue of transparency is predominant in the minds of domain owners. Just on 40% of respondents in 2008 (up from 23%) indicated that this is their number one issue with parking. I think that the company that takes a stand on transparency will likely scoop up a large number of customers that are frustrated by the lack of action in this area.
The other major issues flagged were "lack of standards" (which is tied to transparency) and EPC rates trending downwards.
Conclusion
After digesting the survey I would have to say that on the whole during the past year the parking companies have really cleaned up a lot of their past practices in the minds of domainers. This is a great positive step for the industry.
Even though it is clear that the parking companies have been hard at work on internal processes, support etc the major industry wide issue of "standards and transparency" is still yet to be addressed. I believe that there is a real opportunity here for the ICA to provide a leadership role for the industry and introduce standards and levels of transparency that will help the domain industry reduce the length of time it remains in its current mini-recession. Once again, many thanks to all of the people who answered the survey, your commitment to the domain industry is truly inspiring!
If you would like to receive a powerpoint copy of the presentation which compares 2007 to 2008 figures then please contact me by emailing me on this link . There will be a small charge of $25 per report that will help support additional analysis on whizzbangsblog.com.
Source: Posted on WhizzBangsBlog by Michael Gilmour -- Reprinted with permission -- November 3, 2008