This work by Matt LeVeque is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Jan
13
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Bottlenecks | Search Engine Reps Create Idle-Time
January 13, 2008 |
One of the things that I am focused on this year is creating continuous flow throughout the entire PPC process. What I mean by that is not just looking at all the steps or tasks needed to complete a new PPC account set-up or managing an existing PPC account and making that seamless. The true way of making PPC operations seamless is to take a look outside of my daily PPC responsibilities at all the other departments/parties involved (executive staff, sales, software development, the client, etc.) and understand how to continuously improve the flow of information between us in a way that is completely transparent to the client.
Part of this flow of information also includes one group in particular that I did not mention above - Search Engine Representatives. In my opinion, since Search Engine Marketing agencies and individuals managing PPC are an extension of the Search Engine business, Search Engine Representatives should be flawless, or close to it. And I can honestly say, that from my experience, Search Engines that draw millions of revenue dollars from paid search advertising need to improve their customer service process and empower their Search Engine Reps to make the decisions needed to help agencies create one piece flow of information back to the client. If the Search Engines can improve this process, they will see the results in the form of more satisfied customers and more revenue dollars.
Not All Search Reps Are Created Equal
My intent with this post is not to place blame on the Search Engine Reps, but to identify a problem in the process and see this as an opportunity for improvement. With that said, I want to clarify that not all Search Engine Reps work within a system that lends itself to poor customer service. Regardless of whether the persons I deal with are Search Media Specialists (MSN adCenter), Account Managers (Yahoo! Search Marketing) or Account Coordinators (Google AdWords), it’s clear that some Search Engines have better processes in place to create the continuous flow of information required than others.
Specifically, I hardly ever have problems with Google Search Reps. I may not necessarily get all the information I need due to the mystic of Quality Score, etc., but when I need to get information for a client there is little, if nothing, my rep cannot answer.
The MSN reps in Redmond, WA are also empowered, like the Google reps, to make the decisions and provide the correct information needed to satisfy both me (the agency) and the client - both of which are customers along the flow of information. MSN Reps in New York, however, are not quite up to par with their Redmond colleagues. Maybe this has something to do with the fact that the New York office is 3,000 miles from headquarters?
Saving the best opportunity for improvement for last, the Yahoo! Search Marketing reps are, in my experience, terribly inconsistent and generally lack the empowerment to make decisions that their counterparts at Google and MSN can make. Yahoo! reps are friendly and generally go above and beyond when it comes to providing proposals for new clients or helping with a bulk-upload sheet, but there are times where there response rate is so poor it not only creates a bottleneck resulting in idle-time, work itself comes to a complete stop.
For example, I have a new client who needed to have their MSN & Yahoo! account master id’s and billing information transfer out of their last agencies name to the clients name - preferably without loosing the historical data. My MSN rep knew immediately that the account could not be transfered without losing the data and sent me an IO to begin the transfer which showed up in my email box before I hung up the phone. I posed the same question to my Yahoo rep who told me that he and his supervisor would need to check in with someone at a higher pay-grade to provide me with an answer. I was promised to have answer later in the day which I then relayed on to my client. As of today, I have waited 4 days to get an answer from anyone at Yahoo! regarding my clients account so I’ve been at a stand-still, not being able to do the work I need to on this part of account.
The disparity in responses between MSN and Yahoo! reps answering the same question is pretty mind-blowing. Maybe the reason that MSN is better at this is partly influenced by MSN having the smallest market share in paid search advertising compared to Google and Yahoo!. It’s reasonable to suggest that MSN has a better chance of gaining market share on Yahoo! than Yahoo! does of catching up to Google. Sometimes being the middle child lends itself to identity issues which, for Yahoo!, rears it’s ugly head in the lack of ‘front-line’ empowerment and inconsistent customer service.
MSN may also understand that the way to catch Yahoo! is through continuous improvement of their processes, including customer service, which creates more satisfied customers (the agency and the client). If the focus is on improving process and the process is consistently right, everything else falls into place and all the numbers go in the right directions.
Now, if MSN could only provide Search Marketers with a better UI along with a great customer service process they’d be that much closer to becoming the middle child…
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