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Google India is planning to ramp up its support infrastructure for small and medium businesses (SMBs).
“At present, we are talking to 1,000 SMBs everyday through call centres. We are working on tripling this in the next six to 12 months,'' Mr Sridhar Seshadri, Head of Online Sales Operations, Google India, told Business Line here.
The company is targeting to reach a minimum of 3,000 SMBs everyday through call centres. Google, with its flagship advertising programme, Google Adwords, currently operates two call centres with its partners — Genpact in Hyderabad and V-customer in Delhi.
“Together, these two partners have about 200 people to run call centres, besides a small team of ours,'' Mr Seshadri said.
In addition, Google would also be conducting road-shows. It had also launched a programme called ‘Google Engage' with 100 partners to help SMBs.
“There are 80 lakh SMBs in India. In the last four-five years, we have spoken to about five lakh businesses. There is lot of potential, and we have to go a long way,'' he added.
The initial response to the recently-launched Google Global Market Finder — a free online tool for advertisers to find new markets overseas — was ‘very encouraging' he claimed.
It would help businesses of all sizes address traditional barriers to international expansion, such as finding the right customers, translating their Web sites and advertising campaigns into local languages, among others.
NEXT FOUCS
On the focus area post-launch of market finder, the Google functionary said: “We do have a couple of pilots, but for the next six months we would only focus on market finder.''
On the performance of AdWords in India, Mr Sridhar said active SMB customers had ‘tripled' its use, while refusing to share the exact number of the customers.
“The challenge going forward is to make use of AdWords much easier and simpler,'' Mr Seshadri said.
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