After a very positive impression with the Marketo University Day and the 2013 Marketo Summit (San Francisco, April 8-10), I had an extremely disappointing experience taking the Marketo Certification Exam on April 10th at 4.30pm at the San Francisco Union Square Hilton Hotel.
Marketo did a great job organizing the University and the Summit, and it was really great to have the opportunity to listen to Phil Fernandez (President & CEO, Marketo) and Sanjay Dholakia (CMO, Marketo) talking about the need to raise the standards of customer satisfaction, immediate interaction, transparency, etc, in a new Marketing era.
It was a huge surprise to discover that most of these recommendations were not properly followed in the organization of the Marketo Certification Exam.
I had a very positive impression after completing the test, so it was a surprise to see a screen saying that I failed the exam. But it's OK, sometimes this happens.
My disappointing experience with the Exam organization started right there:
* I heard other people talking about having the same impression I had: they were convinced that their exams were fine, but the system told they failed the test. Weird.
* I asked the exam supervisor what was my score. She answered me she cannot disclose this information. Weird!
* I asked the exam supervisor what was the score necessary to pass the exam. She answered me she cannot disclose this information. Weird!!
* Seeing at my astonishment, the exam supervisor felt the obligation to give some more explanations. And these were even more shocking: she told me her impression was that you need to have 80% of correct answers to pass the test, but that this number was sometimes variable depending of the score of the other candidates. Weird!!!
* I asked the exam supervisor when could I review my the exam. She answered me that there was no opportunity to do it. Weird!!!!
Until now I had a very positive image of Marketo, and in several occasions I have recommended it over other competitors like Eloqua. Unfortunately, my very disappointing experience with the Marketo Certification Exam has changed my impression.
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UPDATE (04/17/13)
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I just wanted to update this comment after having receive the feedback of several members of the Marketo team.
I am thankful for the quick and detailed response I got from Marketo about this comment, and also glad to know from them that the comment may help their team to think about how to improve the Exam process.
I think we all have high expectations about Marketo and would like it to be oustanding on every area. Thank you all for all the great comments and feedback.
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