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I am coming to make and support websites which are straightforward businesses used to paying for advertsing and commercial communications.
I expect to have to read around, keep up to date and work hard to gain imporoved "natural rankings" in search engines, that is something my clients pay me for and I take care of for them.
However I am a bit fed up with all the research I have to do just to become a satisfied customer of some of the directories out there .. Yahoo for example I am looking at right now ... once I have already paid for something they are responsive great .... but right now I want to speak to a competent sales person .. discuss 3 issues which were not resolved by email before, make a decision and spend some money ..... now .. not after 3 weeks of reading ...
Why do they feel they have to make it so hard for me to feel some warm "customer service" and care .... I want to spend money!
Anyone feeling the same or disagree happy to hear you, anyone with tips likewise, though why Yahoo cant provide these tips more easily and why I have come so strongly to rely on the advice of other customers to tell me how to get good service out of their organisation should I think be of paramount importance to Yahoo itself. :-)
A salesmans view btw.
Here is one of MANY horror stories I had with them, it's the first one that comes to mind. Not necessarily the worst!
There was a problem with the SERP, a search on words that were clearly in the title of my site would not find my site in the web site results (at all).
Tried calling (good luck!), then got through to someone who checked that what I said was true, said "hmmm... that's weird", told me he is just the supervisor for the editors, and that since this is a search problem, I should talk to an engineer. He then went on to say that Yahoo! discourages contact between them and customers, so I was told that he would do "whatever he could" to help. Never happened. I have also sent repeated emails to this editor's email address, increasingly irritated with the absence of real replies. If I remember well I kept getting auto-replies.
I am responsible for approximately 50-60 sites that are listed in Yahoo!, however I will only renew a few of them because no one really uses the directory, and the search results are currently powered by Google. Other than gaining a credible link for PR, why would anyone want to deal with a company whose philosophy is to take the money and run?
Yahoo appear to be organsied in as complicated a fashion as many multinational multi site organisations. For them internally that is perhaps to be expected - their problem not mine.
If I want to "sell to" Ford or General Motors type multinationals I would expect to dig about, travel, access decision makers, pass multiple gate keepers and charm influencers all over the place.
If I want to "buy" a Ford Car not sell bits to them but buy be their customer .... I can do it here now ... from a salesman or on the net .. easy peasey ... they want me to do that ... and it usually shows in how they treat me.
For Marc_P if you have 60 sites paid in Yahoo their sales team should at least be identifying you as a preferred customer .. annual revenues from you alone 60 x $300 = $18,000 justify I think at least a dedicated full morning per year of an account managers time .. especially as . if everyone like you brings / recommends them to one colleage their sales double .. in that category and each step is not exactly tiny.
It is bizzare they treat a volume customer like a mom & pop who express submit a single site .. perhaps to a one time pay regional version.
Me I am on my way toward your total but have some way to go .. there are other options to the yahoo directory .. they get and have already got my clients money first ....
Yahoo may not realise it but our clients often do what we recommend they do ..
After years of abuse, I was extremely excited about the paid inclusion process. At least now, I thought, they'd have to treat me like a customer. One could only assume that additions and changes would all become easier.
Yes, since the inclusion of the fee, response time has increased. Yet, it's almost impossible to change an existing listing. If they're worried about the cost of human editors, then why not charge a fee for a change request. Personally, I have clients who are willing to pay Yahoo for this service. $50, $100, $150? Heck, I've even offered to pay $299 to have an old listing changed.
To make matters worse, I'm now finding that they're charging my CC without any notification of an upcoming renewal. In fact, is some cases, an email message was sent out a week after my card was charged. While they claim this is okay (it's stated in their guidelines that your CC will be charged), I find it to be an absolutely horrible business practice (especially for webmaster in charge of mamny sites). At the very least they should send me an email to warn me that a listing is up for renewal. Once again, more poor customer service - loyalty falling further.
These days it's not uncommon to hear webmasters and SEOs shunning Yahoo which in the end represents lost revenue. As Mark_A stated the webmaster community has a lot of say these days on where their customers spend their money. If Yahoo was smart, they wise up to this simple little fact.
Don't get me wrong I'm not against using Yahoo. I actually do use them, especially in markets where their directory still provides benefits. However, I just wish they realized that we'd all be better off if they worked with us, not against us.
So if you're listening, Yahoo, we have money for you. Treat us like customers and listen to our concerns and the money is yours.
