YSM - "Dropping The Ball"
Ok... I hadn't planned on today's post being a "rant", but after talking with a few of my colleagues this morning, mainly those of All Web's Pay Per Click division, it only seems right that I address some of our issues. To bring you all up-to-speed on our conversation, the team and I were discussing Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly Overture) and their customer service efforts... or lack there of.
Yahoo has definitely "dropped the ball" as of late as we (and I imagine other "Pay Per Click industry folks) are experiencing some very shitty customer service. I'm not talking about something as common as a conversation gone bad with an a-hole employee... hell we'd be fortunate to have that call. I'm referring to several issues where we aren't even able to get in contact with our supposedly "always available to help" Yahoo! Representatives and so forth.
You see, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away we had ourselves a great account Rep. He was polite, knowledgeable, and fast on his feet when handling our requests. Recently they've pulled our Rep and assigned us the "Yahoo! Search Marketing Gold Team"... whom you would think would be able to replace this one guy and provide even more benefits while doing so. Well, we were wrong! Not one of them is worthy of being associated with Yahoo! and not one of them or all of them together is capable of filling the shoes of our past rep. Yeah, that's right Yahoo!... you took away our very knowledgeable and polite representative and gave us a team of worthless incompetent asses! None of them are on the same page with each other and none have a clue about how to deal with the issues we present to them. They're absolute morons.
On top of having access to the fabulous and powerful Gold Team (said sarcastically if you couldn't tell), we also have ourselves a district Representative who isn't much help either. This woman never answers the phone, never replies to our emails, and never checks in with us. If were lucky enough to track her down, usually at a search engine conference, she puts on this huge front like she actually gives a damn. She'll take out her little black notebook and scribble some things down, and then she'll tell us that our issues will be addressed immediately. To top it off, things never pan out as our problems are never addressed and we're back to square one.
I find it kind of funny that in order to have a word with our Chicago Rep., who is only an hour away from our main office, we have to book a flight to San Jose, buy a conference pass into the Search Engine Strategies conference, and hunt her down in the expo hall. Was this really the kind of customer service they wanted to provide with the switch?
Further more... there are many other issues I would like to address, like how their keyword automation system declines 90% of each submission, or how Google's traffic tends to convert more, or how 20% - 30% of our client's monthly budget is eaten away by PPC click-fraud, but I know that my voice will fall short of being heard by an actual Yahoo! employee who seriously gives a shit.
Yahoo!, I am well aware that you are the KING of search and one of the biggest players in the PPC game, but, if you seriously have a problem with earning our 6-7 figure yearly budget than I must say that your priorities are a bit screwed up. I can easily think of a few search engines that will gladly accept our checks and provide us with the appropriate customer service.
Oh... and before you get too comfortable sitting on your thrown, you should reminisce back and remember that it was companies like All Web that helped you too get there and it will be companies like All Web who will help keep you there. It should be blatantly obvious, that it's in your best interest to provide Pay Per Click marketers with the tools and resources needed to resell your services. Please don't forget the fact that you need us... we don't need you as long as there's a Google.
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Yahoo has definitely "dropped the ball" as of late as we (and I imagine other "Pay Per Click industry folks) are experiencing some very shitty customer service. I'm not talking about something as common as a conversation gone bad with an a-hole employee... hell we'd be fortunate to have that call. I'm referring to several issues where we aren't even able to get in contact with our supposedly "always available to help" Yahoo! Representatives and so forth.
You see, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away we had ourselves a great account Rep. He was polite, knowledgeable, and fast on his feet when handling our requests. Recently they've pulled our Rep and assigned us the "Yahoo! Search Marketing Gold Team"... whom you would think would be able to replace this one guy and provide even more benefits while doing so. Well, we were wrong! Not one of them is worthy of being associated with Yahoo! and not one of them or all of them together is capable of filling the shoes of our past rep. Yeah, that's right Yahoo!... you took away our very knowledgeable and polite representative and gave us a team of worthless incompetent asses! None of them are on the same page with each other and none have a clue about how to deal with the issues we present to them. They're absolute morons.
On top of having access to the fabulous and powerful Gold Team (said sarcastically if you couldn't tell), we also have ourselves a district Representative who isn't much help either. This woman never answers the phone, never replies to our emails, and never checks in with us. If were lucky enough to track her down, usually at a search engine conference, she puts on this huge front like she actually gives a damn. She'll take out her little black notebook and scribble some things down, and then she'll tell us that our issues will be addressed immediately. To top it off, things never pan out as our problems are never addressed and we're back to square one.
I find it kind of funny that in order to have a word with our Chicago Rep., who is only an hour away from our main office, we have to book a flight to San Jose, buy a conference pass into the Search Engine Strategies conference, and hunt her down in the expo hall. Was this really the kind of customer service they wanted to provide with the switch?
Further more... there are many other issues I would like to address, like how their keyword automation system declines 90% of each submission, or how Google's traffic tends to convert more, or how 20% - 30% of our client's monthly budget is eaten away by PPC click-fraud, but I know that my voice will fall short of being heard by an actual Yahoo! employee who seriously gives a shit.
Yahoo!, I am well aware that you are the KING of search and one of the biggest players in the PPC game, but, if you seriously have a problem with earning our 6-7 figure yearly budget than I must say that your priorities are a bit screwed up. I can easily think of a few search engines that will gladly accept our checks and provide us with the appropriate customer service.
Oh... and before you get too comfortable sitting on your thrown, you should reminisce back and remember that it was companies like All Web that helped you too get there and it will be companies like All Web who will help keep you there. It should be blatantly obvious, that it's in your best interest to provide Pay Per Click marketers with the tools and resources needed to resell your services. Please don't forget the fact that you need us... we don't need you as long as there's a Google.
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Click Here For An Update On This Post
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posted by Karl Ribas Friday, February 17, 2006 Read Comments (4) | Post a Comment | Subscribe  
 
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4 Comments:
Karl -
Thank god someone finally said it. I swear the minute they changed their name from Overture to Yahoo everything went downhill. I'm a PPC account manager, and I have had nothing but headaches working with them lately, and truthfully it's really not worth it when you look at the conversion rates. I have compiled my complaints into my top 10 reasons I hate Yahoo! Search Marketing.
10. We paid $50.00 to become a "Yahoo! Search Marketing Ambassador" - which got us nothing
9. Yahoo! - Seriously, what's with the exclamation point, your company isn't that exciting.
8. Who searches Yahoo anymore? Everyone "Googles it", they even have a hip word for search.
7. After my rant at the SES show in December I still haven't had any follow up, and of course service hasn't improved.
6. Every other weekend the system is down for "maintenance".
5. I have to make several phone calls before I can get someone that knows what I'm talking about, or is able to help me.
4. It's pretty bad when it takes 6 weeks to change the URL's for a clients ads.
3. I know more than the reps.
2. I complain to my district rep (via voicemail as she has yet to answer the phone) and never hear back.
1. All I can say is I can't wait for MSN to get their PPC program out of BETA so they can blow Yahoo right outta the water!
By
Nicole Quiring, at February 17, 2006 2:16 PM
I love it when a plan comes together.
Perhaps if other companies step forward with their thoughts on YSM services, you can get them all together and present them it to them via email or on your next trip there. Try and get them to realize they are in need of some serious over-hauling with their "Gold Team".
Anti-Yahoolians unite!
By
Jessica, at February 17, 2006 2:29 PM
EAT IT YAHOO!
By
iamdubz, at February 17, 2006 5:56 PM
Thanks for the comments guys!
Nicole, I can total agree with you. As weird as it may sounds, Yahoo! PPC went downhill immediately after changing their name from Overture to Yahoo! Search Marketing. To me it seems as though Yahoo! has all of these new ideas, but very few actually seem to work in benefiting the user's experience. Definitely not a good thing when the competition is as heated as it is in the PPC industry. By the way... I love your top 10 reasons for hating YSM. My favorite is #9.
Jessica, I think I found some other "Anti-Yahoolians" who are uniting over at the Search Engine Watch forum. Check out Yahoo! Finally Changes DTC to Enhance User Experience - NOT!. I recently posted in this thread to inform their readers that we too are not satisfied with YSM. Maybe representatives from Yahoo! will come around to finding my post and your comments and possibly address some of them. I'm not going to hold my breath though!
In the words of the great "iamdubz"... EAT IT YAHOO!
By
Karl Ribas, at February 21, 2006 9:59 AM
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