Could someone from Google publicly answer the question: what should we expect from Google customer service?...
Good question. And, since the answer written by our colleagues on AdWords Help proved helpful in that forum, we thought we'd post a (slightly edited) version here as well. With that, here is a brief overview of our email support, along with several tips for getting a timely and effective response from the AdWords support team.
- Let's start with response time. Our target for email turnaround-time is a maximum of one business day (Monday through Friday). We always aim to answer as quickly as possible, of course, and frequently beat the 24 hour time by a substantial margin. As some advertisers have noted, it may also occasionally take longer than 24 hours -- especially during peak periods, such as after the launch of new features/tools, during extremely active retail seasons, and so forth.
- The most common reason for an advertiser to not receive a response to their query is that their email program has been set to filter certain types of mail. In other words, a response is sent, but it ends up in the recipient's 'junk mail' folder. So, be sure to double check your email filters.
- The best way to contact support is by using the 'Contact Us' link from within the account about which you have questions. This link can be found on the top right of each page in your account.
- If you are not able to use the 'Contact Us' link in your account, then please use the 'Contact Us' link at the bottom of the AdWords Help Center home page.
- If you are contacting us from the Help Center, then please be sure to identify your account by customer ID and/or email address. A surprisingly large number of emails come in each day with no way to identify the account associated with the question. As you might imagine, this makes a meaningful response more difficult.
- Please note that sending your email by a means other than the above mentioned methods will slow down your response -- or possibly prevent it altogether, as the support teams can't answer an email that is never received.
- At present, customer service folks work Monday through Friday. So, for example, writing to support late on a Friday afternoon is likely to mean that your reply will not be received until at least Monday afternoon.
- Be aware of peak periods and slack periods. Highest volume of email occurs on Monday. Volume is lower, and turnaround-time is potentially quicker mid-week. So if your question is routine rather than urgent, take advantage of this and consider writing mid-week.
- Be as succinct and as specific as possible with your questions. If the support team has to make a guess as to what the question is, then the answer is likely to be longer in coming and less useful as well. And, in many ways, it is best to ask a single question (or very few) per email. Asking 5 or 8 questions in one email may slow your response down a bit.
- It is important to provide whatever background information will be required to answer your questions fully and quickly. For example, please include pertinent dates, campaign and Ad Group names, the keywords in question, etc.
- Finally, every email is answered by a real person. So, if you ever get a reply that doesn't meet your satisfaction, please reply directly to that email. This will send your response to the person who originally answered your email, who is already familiar with your account. This prevents duplication of research and speed things up. Also, be sure to explain what was lacking in the original answer.
That's about it! We hope these tips will prove useful -- and, as always, we welcome your feedback.
