Thoughts and tips on client servicing in the SEO industry

1. par Nicolas Cossette
#seocampmtl
5 steps to profitable customer service

2. table of content
0. why?
1. understand the other
2. establish benchmark
3. move fast & faster
4. deliver what you promise
5. tell a good story

3. profitable customer service?
Customer service is one of the most
important levers of profitability, but one of
the least understood.
Is customer service what the customer
experiences? Not exactly. Customer service
is what the customer perceives and
remembers.

4. client servicing in a SEO context
• How to manage SEO: project
management vs account management?
• SEO can easily be seen as a commodity
and is often part of a broader media
plan
• SEO involves many expertise and/or
resources
• SEO could be compared too some
products (e.g. paid ads) but is closer to a
service

5. 1. understand the other

6. understand real customer needs
• This sounds simple enough—just ask the
customer, right?
• 2 problems:
– customer may not know his or her own real needs
– customer may ask for unrealistic goals
• The only way to understand real customer
needs is to spend time on the customer's
premises observing his operations and
decision making processes.

7. how to understand the other
• Don’t be hesitant to ask for a full detailed brief &
org. chart
• Gather all previous deliverables
• Fight to have all analytics & adwords access
• Define (propose) a strategy with the client
– Increase overall traffic = high volume KWs
– Decrease reliability and investments from paid = going
for KWs the most expensive
– Optimizing CPA = best converting KWs
• Understand their internal compensation plan
• Spend as much time as possible at your client’s
location

8. 2. establish benchmark

9. Having a comparable is key
• You can only manage what you can measure.
• A standard or point of reference against which
things may be compared or assessed.
• KPI: to measure progress, gauge how close
(far) you are to reaching a goal.
• Benchmark: goals to aim for, levels you will
strive to reach.

10. How to establish benchmarks
KPIs Benchmarks
• Total organic traffic
• Number of unique branding keywords
that generate traffic
• Number of landing pages
• Average number of keywords per
landing page
• Conversion rate per keyword
• Number of unique keywords that drive
traffic
• MTD, YOY data
• % increase of traffic
• Internet marketing CPA, CPL
• Organic (not provided, branded,
unbranded) vs other segments
• Link velocity (OSE data vs competitors)
• We are good a establishing KPIs and
put everything in place to measure
them.
• This is the business languague.

11. 3. move fast & faster

12. Move fast, the game is changing
• There is a fundamental change taking place in
customer service today.
• Before:
– Been available
– Deliver results
– Keeping promises
• Now:
– Build a relationship with the customer
– Being proactive, anticipate customer needs
– Understand the customer better than the customer does

13. How to move fast & faster
• Client servicing is about managing expectations.
• Keep customers informed and communicate as much as you
can:
– Set up automated reporting
– Share dashboards & shortcuts
• Ask frequently for standardized feedback
• Announce mistakes before customers find out
• Create content that answers common customer questions
(e.g.: meta KWs, not provided, how to set up GWT,…)

14. 4. deliver what you promise

15. with great power comes…
• Here again this sounds plain stupid.
• Be realistic. Don’t over-promise to make the
sale (yes vs no)
• Don’t over-promise out of pressure
• Remember and write down what you
promised
– build a roadmap, an action plan
– Send email & meeting recaps

16. Deliver SEO results
• Meetings are your best opportunities
• Do frequent performance reviews
• Proposed agenda:
– Prepare the meeting in team (before)
– Set & communicate goals for the meeting (before)
– Introductions & what’s going on?
– Review of the monthly results
– Establish a list of action items & follow ups

17. 5. tell a good story

18. Tips on Storytelling from Pixar
• You admire a character for trying more than
for their successes.
• You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to
you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a
writer. They can be very different.
• Once upon a time there was ___. Every day,
___. One day ___. Because of that, ___.
Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.

19. How to tell good SEO stories
• When we started working on the account
• Before we came in
• We analyzed all keyword opportunities (KW
Research) and selected the best ones
• We did an in depth analysis of the website from a
structural stand point of view (SEO Audit)
• We increased organic traffic by x
• We decreased CPA from unbranded organic
segment by x

20. Final word: it’s a team effort

21. About Nicolas Cossette
Born in Guatemala, grew up in Qc City in
the 80s, started playing with websites in
the mid 90s, adopted Twitter in '07.
Successful track record in the level of
customer service that has lead to strong
and valuable business partnerships and
sustainable business growth.
10+ years experience in leading, coaching,
mentoring teams in various industries.
Account Executive at Trader Corporation.
Formerly Director Client Services at nvi.
@nicolask7
http://www.linkedin.com/i
n/nicolascossette

22. References
http://jlbyrnes.com/
http://moz.com/ugc/seo-kpis-to-track-with-google-
analytics
http://csi.softwareadvice.com/6-tips-to-shift-from-
reactive-to-proactive-customer-service-0411/
http://www.motivationalsmartass.com/index.php/2
010/04/business-success-secret-deliver-on-what-
you-promise/