Search Engine Customer Service - The Mayhem and Myths

Let me start out by saying that I am 'in the trenches' of the Local Listings environment. I'm logging into client's listings every day, across the search engines and directories. So I've got quite a bit of familiarity with the 'Dashboards' and the various levels of customer service they offer.

Most all correspondence is via email or online form. Some have an actual person that will reply like Bing and Superpages. And that actual person will stick with you (and your problem) until both parties agree that it is resolved.  A+

Google has a fabulous forum that you can post to and sometimes, sometimes Jade will answer and whatever issue you are experiencing may be fixed.  The 'Report a Problem' link is.... meh.  At the end of the day, Google has the last word.  That last word is usually, 'we're experiencing technical difficulties right now (BUG)'.  C-

Some send you down a rabbit hole of forms and FAQs that loop you back around to the original Help page, customer care phone numbers that offer no technical support. Yahoo.... F

Yahoo's verification method consisted of send out postcards with invalid PINs. Seriously.  After almost a year of dealing with this debacle, I really had given up. It was almost like dealing with a narcissistic, petulant demi-god.  Then....

A client, a client, was able to contact a real, live, breathing person at Yahoo this week (maybe because Yahoo'ers are now back at their desks??) and explain the PIN issue to her.

First of all, embarrassing for me. Second of all, a lesson for me.

The customer service agent was friendly and as a courtesy (she deals with Enhanced Listings and all the outstanding verifications were Basic), she told me what I needed to do (send her a list of clients and ID), told me what she was going to do (forward on to her supervisor) and then told me she really didn't know what would happen next. Which, in all honesty, was fine. I was just ecstatic that so much had happened already.  Now, having learned my lesson from Sharron, I will not 'wait.' I will not stand idly by hoping the situation will resolve itself. I will persist and pester until there is outcome.

 Here's a thought....if you could cherry-pick the best features of each, what would they be?

Here's mine:

• Bing's customer service
• Google's analytics
• SuperPages category selection
• Yelp's verification Process
• Merchant Circle's blog and service/product pages

Note: Yahoo is not on this list.