Personalized Service, Not Personal Slave

Most realms of customer support direct you to a support staff. You get one of any number of representatives willing and eager to assist you at any time (during business hours). Another class of customer support representative is the account manager variety. For instance, the company I work for sells websites to (mostly) Realtors. Most requests are handled through customer support. However, I am in the marketing department. For those who pay for the service, I am a personal website marketing representative. That’s search engine marketing, or search engine optimization.

As you can imagine, the extra dough gives you, as the customer, extra privileges. But to what extent, one might ask themselves. I give my clients a run down of what they can and can’t expect from me, but I can’t (unfortunately) give them a run down of what I expect of them. So here are a few pointers.

Time

The services I provide cost my clients an additional $199.95 a month. For most people, that’s a considerable amount., almost a car payment, so I can understand why clients think this amount entitles them to constant attention. However, let’s take the same picture from a different angle. Would anyone take a job that paid them $200 a month? Of course not. Right off the bat you can logically see that you are not entitled to 100% of anyone’s time on the clock, so don’t expect it.

Now, now, be nice!

Be considerate. Often, account types like these include several meeting times. If you make an appointment be considerate of your representative’s time. They have blocked out a bit of time in their irrefutably busy schedule to talk to you. Believe me, they have a lot of other things they could be doing. Talking to clients is very rarely productive work. I apologize, but it’s the simple truth. If you review your clients, if you have them, you’ll likely agree with me. I do a lot more for my clients when I’m not on the phone with them then when I am.

In that vain, if you have to cancel an appointment, please let us know. In this day and age, I sincerely doubt that your account representative doesn’t have an e-mail address. It takes nothing to type off a quick “Can’t make that appointment, sorry!” Remember your mother’s lessons. Do unto others, etc.

Also, when you call back don’t expect your representative to be ready whenever you are. It’s mind boggling to me how often a client misses an appointment and then calls at their convenience expecting to have their appointment right then. Treat this just like the doctor’s – if you miss an appointment, you have to make, you guessed it, another appointment.

Find out realistic expectations as to how your package works. In my business, managing my customers takes planning, so if one of my clients e-mails me unexpectedly, it might take me a couple of weeks to complete the work. Responding is a different story. In any case, I can only see it as reasonable for you to get a response to an inquiry within 24-48 hours. Completed work on the other hand is not something that can be done immediately – it’s best to know and understand that up front.

Questions

Do contact your representative whenever you have a concern related to the package you’ve purchased. Remember that they can’t know there’s a problem unless you tell them there is.

Do not ask “How many clients do you have?” It’s confidential, first of all. Secondly, there is no way the question is useful to you in any way. Most people ask this as a round-a-bout way to figure out if their representative can devote enough time to their account. Judge your representative on the reasonable results of their work, not an idealized list of what you think they should be doing. Speaking of which…

Do not ask “How much time do you spend working on my account?” This is another question without a useful answer. A lot of account management jobs are like my job and the answer is, it varies. Sometimes I take care of my clients in 30 minutes, sometimes in half a day. It depends on what I’m doing. I also know the overall value or weight of what I’m doing. Sometimes a quick maintenance can go a long way. Either way, the time will never sound like enough, so don’t ask. Again, judge based on the results.

Don’t Forget To Use All Your Resources

Do not forget the customer support team just because you have a personal representative. Different departments exist for a reason. Utilize all departments necessary of any company you employ. Asking a representative like me general support questions takes time away from what you’re paying me extra to work on (for instance), so why would you waste your money that way? Additionally, you’re saving yourself the frustration of talking to someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about. I can’t answer all the technical questions about my companies’ software. My stumbling over those types of questions potentially leaves my clients wary of my competency. When it comes to marketing, I am perfectly competent – and that’s what you’ve paid me to do. You’ll find that putting uncertainty into the equation often makes you needlessly nervous.