• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, August 16, 2023

Google is outsourcing some of the first0level direct support to the Google Ambassador program run by Limitless GigCX in an effort to give its users more help from a live person when needed.

"Except for a brief period from 2013 to 2015, Google GBP support has been either non-existent or inadequate," Mike Blumenthal, co-founder of Near Media, explains the program in a recent blog post. "The process makes it very difficult to actually get to a human contact; and when you do, the lowest levels of support are frequently unhelpful."

Blumenthal points out that Google is hiring "passionate brand ambassadors,' also known as gig workers, as a way to support its customers. 

He told Inside Performance that these ambassadors are intended to support Google Business Profiles, those businesses that have listings in Google Business Profiles.

Some businesses and search marketers are probably thinking, "thank goodness, finally a live person to speak with," while others are scratching their heads wondering if these new "Ambassadors" will have the knowledge to really help.

Google flew Blumenthal to Mountain View sometime around 2009, so the support staff could interact with a real Google "Places" user. In the support team group meeting a Google executive stood up and spoke about successfully answering 60% of the incoming support queries -- not necessarily correctly -- and Google had done so at a significantly reduced cost compared with the previous year's already low cost. The goal with this group was to further reduce per-query costs.  

It makes sense that Google would want to reduce costs in this area. The company, like most, is in it to create a profit and please shareholders. Blumenthal believes Google has limited interest in "genuinely solving GBP customer support issues," and that the company will likely continue to explore less expensive ways of tap human labor. 

Pre-pandemic, Google had a live chat option, which might still exist someplace in the world, but Blumenthal has not seen it lately. "Now we know why," he writes.

"Previously, to initiate a support request, a GBP owner entered the Google Business profile support flow and submitted a problem statement," he explains. "Depending on the problem, a user could be asked to gather more background and, from there, either enter more information in a detailed form or possibly to initiate an email contact with support. Now there's a new support path for certain issues."