Customer interview when registering or transfering domains

This is our "best practice" guide for interviewing a customer about domains for their website. The guide helps you navigate the various scenarios involving domains and is a way to avoid email issues on an inbound transfer.

Submit transfer

• Verify contact information (see "Domain Owner Contact" below).
• Verify that the administrator's contact information for the domain is correct.
• All emails regarding the transfer will go to the current administrator's email.
• Unlock the domain name.
• If the domain has Protected Registration or Private Registration, you'll need to cancel it.
• If the domain is ordered without a FOA (Form of Authorization) email, you'll need the authorization code (also known as an EPP code or transfer key) from the current registrar.
• Inform customer about the ICANN validation process.
• Inform customer about FOA email.
• Inform customer that transfers can take up to 5 working days to complete
• Commit the transfer

Submit Transfer with updated MX Records

• Retrieve the MX records (see "Getting MX Records" below).
• Verify contact information (see "Domain Owner Contact" below).
• Verify that the administrator's contact information for the domain is correct.
• All emails regarding the transfer will go to the administrator's email.
• Unlock the domain name.
• If the domain has Protected Registration or Private Registration, you'll need to cancel it.
• If the domain is ordered without a FOA (Form of Authorization) email, you'll need the authorization code (also known as an EPP code or transfer key) from the current registrar.
• Inform customer about the ICANN validation process.
• Inform customer about FOA email.
• Inform customer that transfers can take up to 5 working days to complete
• Commit the Transfer with custom DNS using old MX records.   

Getting MX Records

You can retrieve MX Records by visiting https://mxtoolbox.com/

It's also recommended to ask for SPF Records, which are used to prevent spammers from using the email and the domain as their sender address. 

FOA email (Form of Authorization)

The FOA is filled in by the registrant (registered domain name holder) to confirm the intent to transfer the domain name

Register Domain

• Verify contact information (see "Domain Owner Contact" below).
• Inform customer about the ICANN validation process.
• Submit the Registration.

ICANN validation

gTLD (.com, .net, .shop etc.) domain orders needs to be ICANN validated. The ICANN validation must be approved by the domain owner. This applies in the following scenarios:

• A new domain is registered
• A domain is transferred to a new owner
• The ownership information on the domain WHOIS is modified

Read more about the ICANN validation process here.

Domain Owner Contact

Prerequisites for ordering a domain:

• Domain name
• Domain Owner's First Name
• Domain Owner's Last Name
• Domain Owner's Organization Name
• Domain Owner's Street Address    
• Domain Owner's City
• Domain Owner's State
• Domain Owner's Country
• Domain Owner's Postal code
• Domain Owner's Phone Number (using format +1.4165551122x1234)
• Domain Owner's Email (must be a current valid address)

Domain Redirection

Inform the customer about the DNS changes listed in this article, which are needed for redirecting the domain to their Mono website.

We don't recommend using an iFrame redirection as it prevents a responsive site from detecting mobile limits and isn't fully optimized for SEO.