If you are not using Epik.com for escrow, you are wasting time and money!

NetPark said:

This Escrow platform looks very successful and useful. But I think priority of your improvements must be CMR platform for contacting buyers, accepting and countering offers direct from Epik dashboard. Replying customers' inquiries through personal email addresses sometimes is not a best way. Also, current Epik marketplace dashboard sometimes do not show new inquiries or show after a long time.

Only the reason I do not use Epik landers is the absence of that CMR panel. I would like to move all my domains to Epik and use Epik landers - one of the bests on the industry. Because selling domains on the marketplace which has own registrar is the clever and best option for domainers in terms of dealing transactions quick and safely. Especially, on the marketplace which is managed by the honest and helpful person as Rob and other great staff we know from this forum. I hope you will complete that platform and some other little improvements on the Marketplace as soon as possible.

Click to expand...

I think about using your own email to answer inquiries is to keep an arms length distinction between owner, Epik, and potential customer. As sometimes inquiries can get heated, and Epik can’t police random incidents, and take negative feedback for non employee actions. So you want the customer to know your dealing with a credible company, yet they still need to keep the distinction, that these are individually owned domains, and contacts. Domains involve money, and sometimes things around money get heated, and words can be exchanged, Epik can’t take the black eye if someone decides to say something someone is insulted by, as some people these days tend to think they can say anything to anyone, and when one responds back they take offence. They have to protect their goodwill.

As for a inquiry panel within the platform, that can handle some kind of inquiry dashboard, and to be able to respond from there they would probably be acceptable to building that if enough users want it.

The new escrow page looks great...cant wait until I have the need to use it!

Honestly, buyer-seller communication / negotiation email platform is not what I'm expecting from a marketplace. Lets look at Uniregistry - most of the emails sent out in similar platform are ending up in spam folders. It is an art to promptly format and correctly deliver emails from such platforms, so a regular email (or some customer support / tickets / crm platform, there are 100% usable opensource onces) used by each seller independently will work better. As a seller, I'd prefer not to depend on things that are outside of my control (was an IP of another server in the same datacenter just blacklisted by spamhaus bot, together with innocent epik mail server? - just an example). So, should Epik decide to develop something like this - it should be optional for sellers, and it should be seriously technically audited before going live...
And, I would not even touch EU GDPR issues... Private contact and other details of EU-based buyers will then reside and be processed in U.S.?

NetPark said:

This Escrow platform looks very successful and useful. But I think priority of your improvements must be CMR platform for contacting buyers, accepting and countering offers direct from Epik dashboard. Replying customers' inquiries through personal email addresses sometimes is not a best way. Also, current Epik marketplace dashboard sometimes do not show new inquiries or show after a long time.

Only the reason I do not use Epik landers is the absence of that CMR panel. I would like to move all my domains to Epik and use Epik landers - one of the bests on the industry. Because selling domains on the marketplace which has own registrar is the clever and best option for domainers in terms of dealing transactions quick and safely. Especially, on the marketplace which is managed by the honest and helpful person as Rob and other great staff we know from this forum. I hope you will complete that platform and some other little improvements on the Marketplace as soon as possible.

Click to expand...

The CRM area should be live before NamesCon starts on January 28. We shared these previews back in November:

Homepage for general system notifications
https://invis.io/37UMIKKPWTF

Archive page for offers
https://invis.io/ZRUMILA2TVG

Offer Landing Page
https://invis.io/NYUMILHWZD9

Counter offer
https://invis.io/BFUMILRZTEP

Offer sent
https://invis.io/HRUMIM6BAET

Offer rejected
https://invis.io/E4UMIMANVP8

The CRM area is also going to have dedicated engineering, because in part of the following developments on the roadmap:

- Automated / Smart responders to inquiries to screen and qualify

- Ingestion engines for importing legacy CRM data, e.g. from DomainNameSales platform

- Automated remindering and chasing to keep inquiries engaged

There is more to come there.

The original plan was to have this live before end-Decmeber but we ended up prioritizing NameLiquiate.com as a fast-track project. Escrow dashboard obviously did go live along with many other deliverables.

So, look for CRM to be live in a few weeks and indeed tightly integrated with the Escrow Dashboard workflow to transition leads into either escrow or marketplace closing.

Anyway, I hope you will like it and I am pretty sure it will mature rapidly.

Adding to Rob post above the following
https://invis.io/VPUUK9XDNKB - which is Domain name offers history

Also here is a couple of mockups for Domain Escrow backend management tool
https://invis.io/YXV59EX3C4M <- Escrow archive page
https://invis.io/QKV59F8JGFR <- New Escrow from backend
https://invis.io/9YV59FGNPX3 <- Escrow Detail

We have a lot of new features in the works and coming soon in 2020.

Your feedback is welcomed as always .. feel free to share any suggestions or comments

Ala

Rob Monster said:

The CRM area should be live before NamesCon starts on January 28. We shared these previews back in November:

Homepage for general system notifications
https://invis.io/37UMIKKPWTF

Archive page for offers
https://invis.io/ZRUMILA2TVG

Offer Landing Page
https://invis.io/NYUMILHWZD9

Counter offer
https://invis.io/BFUMILRZTEP

Offer sent
https://invis.io/HRUMIM6BAET

Offer rejected
https://invis.io/E4UMIMANVP8

The CRM area is also going to have dedicated engineering, because in part of the following developments on the roadmap:

- Automated / Smart responders to inquiries to screen and qualify

- Ingestion engines for importing legacy CRM data, e.g. from DomainNameSales platform

- Automated remindering and chasing to keep inquiries engaged

There is more to come there.

The original plan was to have this live before end-Decmeber but we ended up prioritizing NameLiquiate.com as a fast-track project. Escrow dashboard obviously did go live along with many other deliverables.

So, look for CRM to be live in a few weeks and indeed tightly integrated with the Escrow Dashboard workflow to transition leads into either escrow or marketplace closing.

Anyway, I hope you will like it and I am pretty sure it will mature rapidly.

Click to expand...

It looks excellent! I liked it.
Because buyers' details like email address, IP also will be shared on the panel, sellers as @wwwweb @tonyk2000 could also contact buyers as usual

NetPark said:

It looks excellent! I liked it.
Because buyers' details like email address, IP also will be shared on the panel, sellers as @wwwweb @tonyk2000 could also contact buyers as usual

Click to expand...

Of course -- we don't plan to hide that inquiry information. We believe it is essential to know the identity of the buyer in order to inform the negotiation strategy and to know if there are potentially other names to sell.

Ala Dadan said:

Adding to Rob post above the following
https://invis.io/VPUUK9XDNKB - which is Domain name offers history

Also here is a couple of mockups for Domain Escrow backend management tool
https://invis.io/YXV59EX3C4M <- Escrow archive page
https://invis.io/QKV59F8JGFR <- New Escrow from backend
https://invis.io/9YV59FGNPX3 <- Escrow Detail

We have a lot of new features in the works and coming soon in 2020.

Your feedback is welcomed as always .. feel free to share any suggestions or comments

Ala

Click to expand...

@Ala Dadan It will be good if you worked also on simplifying Epik website. There is some extra or confusing buttons and weblinks. Look at attachment. There is 6 My domains page links on the Registrar page

@NetPark thank you, yes we are working on an update for the user backend view. Will create a thread here once we have the mockups ready to share

Ala

is it possible to create an Epik button that I can use on my own landing page?
I believe escrow.com offers a solution for that called " Escrow Button".
Please advise

Escrow services for Epik now live here:

https://escrow.epik.com/

It is an easy to remember, stand-alone portal for escrow services with fast, intuitive navigation that works for both registered users and guests. Just fill in the email address.

Transactions are updated in real-time through the Epik dashboard with increasingly levels of process automation for blazing fast closing of transactions.

All done with concierge engagement from start to finish across time zones, geographies and currencies.

It would be good if this part of website been deleted. It gives the image like this is not a developed website yet.

NetPark said:

It would be good if this part of website been deleted. It gives the image like this is not a developed website yet.

Click to expand...

Interesting perspective -- will have @Ala Dadan do a design review.

Rob Monster said:

Escrow services for Epik now live here:

https://escrow.epik.com/

It is an easy to remember, stand-alone portal for escrow services with fast, intuitive navigation that works for both registered users and guests. Just fill in the email address.

Transactions are updated in real-time through the Epik dashboard with increasingly levels of process automation for blazing fast closing of transactions.

All done with concierge engagement from start to finish across time zones, geographies and currencies.

Click to expand...

When we get an inquiry for a name, would it be possible for us to fill out our portion of the escrow info and sent the potential buyer a link that would bring them to the partially completed escrow page for them to just enter their email and submit it. I am asking this because a lot of times an inquiry only includes their email without any phone number to call them and I want to give people the chance to impulse buy immediately rather than cool off or buy another name before I have the chance to have a conversation or negotiation with them.

Many times buyers are in a different time zone and I have had people make $1,000 offers while I was asleep and they had already changed their mind and bought a different name by the time I woke up and accepted their offer.

Actually, it is fine to fill in the escrow form on a pending transaction. We help with the closing and amend the transaction details up until both parties have accepted the terms.

It is a bit beyond the scope of what is customary but we are familiar with the process of helping buyers overcome objections about buying digital assets, especially when the seller is an emerging market seller.

Our escrow team is 24/7.

Also, we just added someone special:

@MayC18 - May Chen who some folks here might know from her run at Uniregistry working out of the Newport, CA office.

She officially starts with on February 1 as our first Country Manager for China. In case not aware, China is an enormous market for escrow transactions.

@Ala Dadan There is little coding bugs on the titles of landing page source. You can look at and fix it when you have time.

1. Title of Portuguese landers showing "domínio.com" as a domain name for all landers.
2. Term "domain" on Russian landing page must be start with capital letter "D"

Screenshots of bugs are attached

NetPark said:

You can look at and fix it when you have time.

Click to expand...

As well as similar linguistical issues reported 2 weeks ago on https://www.namepros.com/threads/discuss-your-epik-experience.1146613/page-37 - still not fixed

NetPark said:

@Ala Dadan There is little coding bugs on the titles of landing page source. You can look at and fix it when you have time.

1. Title of Portuguese landers showing "domínio.com" as a domain name for all landers.
2. Term "domain" on Russian landing page must be start with capital letter "D"

Screenshots of bugs are attached

Click to expand...

Portuguese typo fixed

tonyk2000 said:

As well as similar linguistical issues reported 2 weeks ago on https://www.namepros.com/threads/discuss-your-epik-experience.1146613/page-37 - still not fixed

Click to expand...

.in domains can't be added to marketplaces, it's a registry rule
But if there is anything else, we are here to help

Thanks,
Gube

Gube said:

.in domains can't be added to marketplaces, it's a registry rule

Click to expand...

I was referring to typos in Spanish and Russian texts

Rob Monster said:

Escrow services for Epik now live here:

https://escrow.epik.com/

It is an easy to remember, stand-alone portal for escrow services with fast, intuitive navigation that works for both registered users and guests. Just fill in the email address.

Transactions are updated in real-time through the Epik dashboard with increasingly levels of process automation for blazing fast closing of transactions.

All done with concierge engagement from start to finish across time zones, geographies and currencies.

Click to expand...

Restrictions
*This service is not available to residents of Idaho, Texas and Washington

How can Epik’s home state be exempt from escrow, Will this change in the future ? Lots of potential buyers in Seattle’s tech heavy market.

wwwweb said:

Restrictions
*This service is not available to residents of Idaho, Texas and Washington

How can Epik’s home state be exempt from escrow, Will this change in the future ? Lots of potential buyers in Seattle’s tech heavy market.

Click to expand...

We cannot call it "escrow" in certain markets while we finish conversations with a short list of state regulators about whether or not we are engaged in activity that might be subject to licensing. This may become a Federal case before all is done and we are prepared to go that route if that is what is required to keep folks in their lane.

As has been discussed elsewhere in this thread, we are operating as an accredited registrar and marketplace like Godaddy, Sedo and others. We are also not selling physical goods where there may be an inspection period needed. We are able to do this with low overhead and low risk, which is what allows the ability to do it efficiently and often without fee.

For the very short list of markets where there is a licensing discussion in progress, we are able to complete transactions as marketplace transactions where Epik buys the domain and then sells the domain. There is slightly more risk involved there so a commission may apply there. However, for most markets and situations there is a free escrow option that is still fast, secure and compliant.

Second escrow transaction at Epik, this time as a buyer. Super pleased! Concierge treatment, lightning fast (ended within two hours) and no fee. It's like a parallel universe where escrow transactions don't have to suck. Kudos to Rob and the entire Epik staff!

Rob Monster said:

@MayC18 - May Chen who some folks here might know from her run at Uniregistry working out of the Newport, CA office.

She officially starts with on February 1 as our first Country Manager for China. In case not aware, China is an enormous market for escrow transactions.

Click to expand...

Excellent move! Congratulations on May Chen. We are still in the early stage of the domain market and Epik's innovations will push it to the front.

Kassey Lee said:

Excellent move! Congratulations on May Chen. We are still in the early stage of the domain market and Epik's innovations will push it to the front.

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Thanks Kassey.

@MayC18 is on a beach in Cancun with her family but will be hitting the ground running soon. I get the feeling that May will be a force based on her initial interactions with the Epik team even before her official start date. We like self-starters at Epik and I get the sense that May fits right in.

Sufyan also on vacations?