SEO Support Queue - How To Use & Expectations

This guide will walk you through utilizing the SEO support queue broken down by stakeholder. Whether you’re an Account Manager or a Senior SEO Rep, you can use this guide to know what is needed from you and how to communicate and route your questions or requests effectively.

Why Are We Creating an SEO Support Queue?

A fully transparent support queue model is mutually beneficial for everyone involved. It creates a consistent record of what has occurred on the client’s account for later reference. It allows for oversight of support requests to hold all stakeholders accountable for responding in a timely manner and creating clear action plans. This also allows the SEO team to gauge the volume of requests and types of requests in order to identify training opportunities, gather FAQ entries, and solve common/widespread issues. Additionally, making the interaction public creates a learning platform to take examples from each other’s successes and failures and thereby improve our interdepartmental communication.

What Types Of Communication Should Be Support Requests?

Anything regarding the client needing contact or an SEO consultation
General Questions
General Client Requests
Requests For Campaign Updates
Updates or questions regarding clients' directory information
Updates or questions regarding a clients reputation management service

Intake, Assignment, & Response Times

From the time the initial case request is entered, a case will be created and assigned to an SEO rep within 24 hours. SEO Leads and Senior Reps will be responsible for monitoring the support queue on a daily basis to assure timely assignments are made. A rep will then provide an initial response to acknowledge that it has been seen and is on the rep’s to-do list and the time needed to follow up. Most requests should be resolvable within 48 hours and for larger issues, a clear timeline must be presented. If, in special cases, a specific deadline is needed please include that date in the initial request. Also, please take into consideration that most SEO requests will take some time to dig into, diagnose, implement fixes, and provide a client-facing narrative for our findings.

Escalations

Having a clear escalation path and expectations around when something needs to be escalated helps all parties involved feel more comfortable and supported in dealing with requests out of their control or outside their sphere of influence. So, when should a case be escalated? Once, the case comes in leads and senior reps will be the first filter to ensure the right person is working on each request and most escalations will be identified in this step and worked by senior staff. In the case that the assigned SEO rep is unable to provide an answer or fix it will be their responsibility to reach out to their lead or senior rep buddy for assistance. In the event that a case has not progressed as expected or the response was less than desirable, the account manager or support rep can reach out directly to any SEO lead for further discussion.

Stakeholders:

Case Creation

While most of you will be familiar with support case requests from sending requests to web support there are just a couple of differences for the SEO team.

In CRM:
Navigate to the account for the client where you wish to create a support request.
On the right-hand side you will see a section labeled “Timeline”, click the “+” directly to the right of the heading.
A dropdown will appear with several options, click “Case Request”
The page will reload and you will be presented with a form. There are several important fields that will need to be filled out and below is the breakdown for each field.
- Subject (Customer Friendly) - Enter a subject that provides a quick reference for the issue at hand. Please also add the brand name to the subject.
- Team - For all requests to the SEO team, no matter if you’re DS or ARI, please select “SEO Fulfillment”
- Primary Account - If you’re creating the case request from the client’s account this field will be automatically populated.
- Primary Contact - Select the primary contact for their website/SEO service.
  - Click “Do Not Send Email”
- Primary ID - Selecting the field and pressing “Enter” will provide the ID needed.
- Do Not Send Email - Click this by default.
- Details (Customer Friendly) - Describe in detail what this issue is and what the expected outcome would be.
Save the request.

Tips For Creating Cases That Get Fast and Accurate Responses:

Clearly state the issue: Provide a clear and concise description of the problem you are facing. Be specific about what is not working as expected, and how it is impacting your website or business.
Provide relevant details: Include any relevant data, such as screenshots, URLs, error messages, or logs. This can help the SEO team diagnose the issue quickly and accurately.
Explain the context: Provide some context for the issue, such as when it started, how frequently it occurs, and what changes may have been made recently. This can help the SEO team understand the root cause of the issue.
Outline your expectations: Be clear about what you expect the SEO team to do, such as investigating the issue, providing a fix or workaround, or providing guidance on how to resolve the issue.

Where to Check For New Support Cases

Once you load into Dynamics, click on “Dashboards” on the left-hand side of the screen
Once the page reloads, you will see a dropdown in the top-left under the topmost two toolbars:
Scroll to the top of the list until you see a section labeled “My Dashboards” in blue text.
In that section find the dashboard labeled “SEO Manager Dashboard”, and click it.
At the bottom left, you will see a module labeled “My Queues - Open” this will show you all active cases that are currently being worked on and have an assignment.
To see unassigned case/new case requests, click on the drop-down on the top-left of that module and then select “My Queues-Unassigned”.
From there you should see a list of new case requests.

Turn a Case Request Into an SEO Support Case and Assign It Out

Once you have located the list of new support case requests we will need to take the next step to turn it into a workable support case or kick it back.

From the list of case requests, click on the case title for the one you are working on.
You will need to fill in some additional fields from there:
- Case Record Type
- Product
- Product Subcategory
  - These fields will be used for tracking purposes and need to be correct for the question they are asking about.
- Due Date
  - Set for 48 hours after the case is created
Lastly, you will need to assign it to the appropriate person. The following list is the main contact for each service under our umbrella and should serve as the default assignment choice when a specific person is not the best pick.
- Reputation Management - Yonatan Delon
- Directory Management -Yonatan Delon
- SEO - Reporting - Gabriel Reyes
- SEO - Campaigns - Senior Reps & Leads
- SEO - General Questions - Senior Reps & Leads
- SEO - Client Issues - Senior Reps & Leads
Otherwise, you will assign it directly to the rep currently responsible for the client.

Be The Filter

As the senior rep or lead that is checking the queue on a daily basis, it is your job to evaluate support requests and identify whether or not something is within our realm of influence. We also act as the first line of defense for junior reps answering general questions when possible and identifying escalations right away. This will allow us to preempt most issues and reduce the turnaround time on at-risk clients.

Expectations on Assignment Time and Response Time

Once a case comes you will have 24 hours to either start to work on the case or assign it to the proper person. If you are working on the case yourself, be sure to create a post and tag the case requester to let them know you have seen the case and are currently working on it. If it is going to take more than 48 hours to resolve a case, your initial response should include an estimated completion date. It would also be good practice to put a reminder on the calendar if it is more than a couple of days out.

Reasons for Kickbacks

We can’t work every case, and sometimes we are not provided with enough information to kick off a case resolution; these are just a couple of reasons that might cause a kickback. Some others might include:

Insufficient information: If the support request does not provide enough detail or context, it may be kicked back to the submitter for more information.
Duplicate request: If the support team has already received and addressed a similar request, the new request may be kicked back.
Outside scope: If the support request is outside the scope of the support team's responsibilities or expertise, it may be kicked back.
Non-compliance: If the support request does not comply with established procedures or policies, it may be kicked back.
Technical limitations: If the support request requires technical changes that are not feasible or within the system's technical capabilities, it may be kicked back.
Lack of urgency: If the support request is not urgent or does not require immediate attention, it may be kicked back in order to prioritize more pressing requests.
Lack of priority: If the support request is low priority or not critical to the business, it may be kicked back in order to prioritize more important requests.

How to Check For Support Cases

Checking for new cases, checking the queue, and working on current cases can all be done in the “Agent Dashboard - Lite”. This will walk you through how to find the correct dashboard and how to use it.

Locate the “Agent Dashboard - Lite”

Once you log into CRM/Dynamics/Insights you will see a list on the left-hand side of the screen, click “Dashboard” under the heading “My Work”
In the top left quadrant of the screen, you will see a dropdown with the name of the default dashboard, click it and scroll through until you see “Agent Dashboard - Lite” and select it from the list.
You’re there.

How to Use “Agent Dashboard - Lite”

On the dashboard, you will see four columns:

Column 1: NEW, NEW Email, Or Escalation Complete - This is where you will get new cases when they are assigned to you.
Column 2: Working (In-Progress) - This is where your cases will go once the status has been changed to “In-progress”
Column 3: My Cases with Waiting or On Hold Status - If you have to put a case “On-hold” for any reason it will appear here.
Column 4: My Queues-Unassigned - You can see all cases that are currently in the queue and have not been assigned.

How to work a case:

Once a lead or senior rep has created a case from the request and assigned it to the correct person you will see a new case show up in column one of the dashboard.
Click on the case name in the list.
In the middle column, you will see a field called “Status Reason”, click it and change it to “In progress”
Next in the second card down in the middle column, you will see the case description, this is where you will see the request, update, or query information from the CS or Support Rep.
As soon as you get a case, make an update in the “Timeline” and tag the CS or Support rep to let them know you have seen the case and are actively working on it.
- In the third column, you will see the “Timeline” where multiple types of updates can happen.
  - For short unformatted text updates, you can use the post option by clicking on the “+” across from the “Timeline” heading and selecting a post from the list.
  - If you need additional formatting for the response, you can use the note option.
  - To tag someone and send them a notification you can “@” their user and they will get a notification on Teams. If someone is asking a direct question it is best to tag them when making your notes.
Once the case has been worked on and the resolution note provided you can click the “Resolve Case” button from the top toolbar. You will then need to fill in some additional information:
- Resolution Type - Select the correct option from the list depending on the situation.
- Resolution - Leave a note about what the resolution/ solution was.
- Billable Time - Leave at 0 Mins

Expectations on Response Time

Once a case comes in you will have 48 hours to work on case. Be sure to create a post and tag the case requester to let them know you have seen the case and are currently working on it. If it is going to take more than 48 hours to resolve a case, your initial response should include an estimated completion date. It would also be good practice to put a reminder on the calendar if it is more than a couple of days out. You will also need to update the due date to the new date sent in the initial response.

How to Escalate

If you are unsure what to do on a particular request or need assistance, you will escalate the case by simply making a post on the case and “@” tagging a lead or senior rep with the question or request for what assistance is needed.