How online services can help you to service your customers Our online service has been available for our registrars since May 2006. We have completed our data restructure and made substantial additions to the service, which affect both registrars and registrants. As part of the online service, registrants are given access via passwords to their own online accounts. This enables them, if necessary, to manage many aspects of their domain names. Previously, registrants could only use online services to: - confirm their details - change registrar - pay an invoice By expanding the services available, we now give registrants the opportunity to: - update their contact details - add additional contacts - amend their account name - merge their accounts - transfer domain names to another tag - pay an invoice Later this year, registrants will be able to use their online accounts to cancel domain name registrations and to transfer them to other individuals or organisations. We believe that our account based data structure is improving data accuracy and can offer a fully integrated view of customer information. The new structure enables us to further improve and increase the functionality of our online service. We are continually developing our services in response to customer requirements and will be automating more of our manual systems. Please note that, if you did enable the 'auto-merge' facility through your account in our online service or did use the automaton command 'reg-ref' before 29 May 2007, your registrants' domain names will have been merged into single accounts if they met the necessary criteria. However, if you as a registrar did not enable the 'auto-merge' facility through your account in our online service or did not use the automaton command 'reg-ref' by 29 May 2007, none of your registrants' domain names will have been merged. Each domain name will have its own separate account. Welcome emails Whenever a domain name is registered, renewed for the next period or has its contact details changed, we will send a welcome email to the admin contact. We will only do this if we have not already sent one to their email address. Our welcome email gives instructions on how the admin contact can log in to their account. Some registrants may decide never to use this facility. For those that do, we are taking every opportunity to remind them that they should contact their registrar if they are ever in any doubt about what action to take. If the email address of the admin contact is the same for more than one account, the user will only receive one welcome email containing their log in details. They will then have the chance either to merge their accounts into one account or to ask you to do this for them. From 18 March 2008 you will also have the option of customising the welcome email that is sent to your registrants. This will enable you to enter some text that could promote your own service or direct them to a specific landing page for further information. Full details of the welcome email system including instructions and guidance on how to use these new features has been published on our web site: http://www.nominet.org.uk/go/welcomeemailguide Using the information from a previous confirmation letter If registrants still have the confirmation of registration letter that we sent to them previously, then there is another way for them to log into online services. When logging in, registrants may select 'Use your Confirmation of Registration letter' to gain access to their accounts. They can enter their domain name and the security code printed on their letter. We will then ask for some contact information for their new login details and will deactivate the security code. Re-establishing the identity of the account holder (registrant) If an account holder is unable to login to our online services, they can: - use our 'reset your password' service - get in touch with you and ask you to amend their contact email details - speak to another admin contact on the account If these options fail, the registrant will need to re-establish their identity. For security reasons we do not make this simple. To initiate this procedure, the registrant must complete the process found on the login screen under 're-establish identity'. There is a non-refundable administration fee of £10+VAT for this service. Merging registrant domain names into a single account If registrants have more than one domain name and several accounts, they can use the online service to combine these accounts together. All domain names with the same or similar registrant name in the 'for' field (previous template) and 'account- name' field (current template) can be merged onto one single 'account'. The criteria for this are: - account name must match or is similar - contact email address and password must match - accounts must be on the same registrar tag There are major advantages to merging single domain names into one 'account'. By making a change to the main account details, registrants can update all their contact names, telephone numbers, postal and email addresses, and add more contacts without difficulty. They can also easily check the renewal dates of all their domain names and they may then contact you so that you can take any appropriate action on their behalf. Adding new domain names to a registrant's account If all the domain names for a particular registrant have been merged into one 'account', then you need to complete the 'account-id' field in the request template with the account number each time you register a new domain name for them. You may find it useful to notify each of your customers of their account number so they can include it on any future emails or purchase orders. Changing Registrar If a registrant wants to change their registrar, we ask them to contact you first so that you can move the domain name for them. Most requests to move domain names are carried out by registrars themselves. Occasionally the registrar is unable or unwilling to assist, so the registrant may ask us to intervene. In these cases, the registrant can log into their account and select the 'registrar change' service. There is a fee of £10+VAT for this service. Payment of fees Some of the processes that we perform on behalf of account holders (registrants) are chargeable: - re-establish identity - change of registrar As these processes are now automated we are unable to accept payment by cheque. The account holder can only pay these fees at the time of application by either credit or debit card. Keeping your customers' contact details up to date We are aware that many of you are responsible for keeping your customers' details up to date. However we are occasionally notified that contact details for an account or domain name are incorrect. If we are unable to contact the registrant, we will give you and the registrant 30 days notice to correct the contact details, otherwise the account or domain name will be suspended and subsequently cancelled. By encouraging your registrants to check that their contact details are always up to date, we hope that we will rarely have to take this action. If you need further details of any of the above procedures please contact our Registrant Services department on +44 (0) 1865 332244 or email nominet@nominet.org.uk Nominet Minerva House Edmund Halley Road Oxford Science Park Oxford OX4 4DQ t. +44 (0) 1865 332211 e. nominet@nominet.org.uk http://www.nominet.org.uk/ Doc ref: RRD11V1