Last month, Power Digital and Google took a big step in our relationship. After spending a few (great) years together, Google popped the question, and we said “I do” to becoming an official Google Premier Partner!
As you can imagine, we are beyond thrilled to be taking the next step in our relationship with Google. Though we’ve been together for a while now, what made this even more special was knowing that Google doesn’t offer this opportunity just any agency. We are one among a very select few across the world who have been invited to the Premier Partners program, which of course, makes us feel pretty darn proud of our team for their hard work and achievements in account performance through Google on behalf of our clients.
The Start Of Something Great
Being showered with free swag, dedicated full time reps for our team, and access to beta Adwords features for our clients are just a few among many of the perks we’re already benefiting from as a Google Premier Partner.
Most recently, Google showed us some serious love by bringing in one of their top Account Management specialists, G.A. Bartick, to work with our team on (as you can probably guess) our account management skills. This all-day interactive workshop with G.A. was incredibly valuable for our team, and we walked away with some great tips – a few of which we’ve shared below.
2 Takeaways From Our Training With Google
If you ever have the pleasure of meeting our Google Training partner G.A.Bartick, you’ll quickly understand why he was hand selected to coach up teams across the country on account management skills. His charisma alone is enough to keep a crowd entertained for a full work day – but during his visit to Power Digital HQ, he got us thinking, moving, and talking with each other in some new ways that we are already putting into practice.
While we can’t share all of their secrets with you, we wanted to give you a glimpse into some of our favorite takeaways. Here are two important insights we walked away with from our account management training with Google and G.A.:
- Customer Service: People Make Decisions Emotionally, not Logically
This, we find to be pretty true. In most situations – client related, team related or personal – we tend to make our decisions based on emotions rather than on logic. What does that mean though? What’s the difference between an emotional decision and a logical decision? Here’s an example:
You recently bought a new blender on sale from a store only to get home and find out that it doesn’t work. Frustrated, you take the blender back to the store the next day to exchange it for one that works. When you get to the checkout counter, the cashier rings you up and then asks you to pay the difference in price – the same blender is no longer on sale, and according to store policy the difference is owed. Even more frustrated, you ask to speak to a manager who, asserts the firm company policy, but offers to *just this one time* waive the extra charge. Walking away from this situation, your logical needs have been met – you exchanged the faulty blender for a working one at no extra cost. What was not met was your emotional needs – this terrible customer service experience has left you with a bad taste for doing business with them.
In the situation above, the customer’s emotional needs outweigh their logical needs. Did they get the blender at no extra cost? Yes. Logical needs met. Was it as painless as they hoped it would be? No, emotional needs were not met.
As account managers, it is our job to ensure we’re not just meeting our clients logical needs, but also their emotional needs. Are we building a relationship with our clients or just hitting the numbers for them? This is certainly something we keep top of mind in our approach to our account management.
- Checklists Are Your Friends
Regardless of your industry or your job role, organization is a crucial element for success. For some this comes easier than for others, but eventually we have to figure out a process that works and stick to it. A great place to start is with a checklist. Packing for a business trip? Make a checklist. Getting prepped for a conference call? Make a checklist. Setting up a new Adwords campaign? Make a checklist.
Having these checklists as resources at your fingertips will help you and your team be more prepared, more efficient and more effective. It’s a simple – yet extremely valuable – piece of advice that you can start incorporating into your daily routine.
To Have & To Hold
As you can see, things are off to a great start as a Google Premier partner and we couldn’t be more thrilled with all that’s to come from this great relationship. We’re glad we could share some of our insights with you and look forward to updating you down the line with new developments from our team!
If you have any questions about our experience in the Google Premier Partners program, I am happy to answer them! You can email me at [email protected].
