There are new ways to communicate and engage with customers every day. Once of the latest trends being Google My Business chat. Growing trends have shown that 99% percent of people prefer messaging over phone calls, so to solve this issue Google has introduced a new chat option to pages where potential client can leave a message for you with any query they may have, you will be able to respond whenever you able to even if they not available to answer calls.
Why should you open a Google My Listing account?
Many businesses are now moving their marketing efforts online, which is a good thing, not only does it make your business easier to find, but with Online directors such as Google My Business you can reach more potential clients.
Benefits of having a My Google Listing account
- Show up on Google Map searches – By simply completing the verification steps and entering all the relevant business information your store will pop up on local store searches also.
- Show up on Google’s local 3-pack – The best part about being in the local 3-pack is that your business will show where your business is located in google maps and they also show up before organic results which could greatly increase your businesses visibility.
- Earn Trust From customers – Google got multiple verification steps to follow to verify your business Google creates a trust worth environment that users can rely on. Your business benefits every time it pops up on local business automatically creating trust between the potential customer and your business.
- Star Ratings to boost your appeal – With My Business listings people are able to review your company and leave comments for other to see, it could be compliments or areas you might need to improve on.
- Increase traffic Sales – Having a Business account listing can really help boost your traffic, just having a listing and showing up in Google searches are as much as 70% more likely to attract location visit from browsing potentials.
- Rank higher in Results – The more Google likes your business, the more you are more likely to rank higher in Google search results, you can achieve this by consistency & accurate information.
Benefits to using Google My Business chat
Even though this is still a fairly new feature to Google and is not available to all users, it is only available on desktop, mobile browsers and search apps on android, limiting some of the audience, however the app seems very promising.
A few scenarios that the Business chat would work best in
- Business owners that don’t have staff to answer calls & don’t want their voicemails blown up
- Emergency services that don’t have the convenience of answering phone calls like roadside assistance
- Businesses/Dealerships that are looking to shift from email declining leads
- If you are looking to get out more on online local searches if you not getting a lot of leads
How to make the most out of Google Messaging
Some tips on how you can maximize your click-to-message on your Google My Business chat feature:
- Stick with a cellphone number to receive text messages, try avoiding using apps like Google Allo & Android preview messages.
- Set up a clear schedule on who is responsible for answering your customer leads if many people are operating in your business development.
- If your business isn’t equipped to answering messages after-hours switch off the feature to avoid losing potential clients.
- Try avoiding asking for private information, try drive the conversations to a secure email or phone call
- Write down common questions and your answers in a memo on your phone, that way it will make it easier for you to copy and paste for quick responses to potential clients.
Best ways to communicate with your client on Google Business listing
- Avoid sharing or requesting sensitive information during a chat like credit card information, login credentials, passports or identification documents.
- Slow response times or unreasonable response times to customers,
- Don’t send irrelevant information to clients or unwanted messages to users who have contacted you for example unwanted information on a product or services they never asked about, or repeated messaging with no response. Avoid long message with excessive use of emoticons & URLs
- Do not make false statements about your identity and say you someone you not such as falsely claiming to be an authorized person of a company when you not.
- Conversations should be strictly about product or services that you offer avoiding any inappropriate content like threatening, explicit content or violent videos etc.
- The chat should be used for quality conversations between business owners & potential clients, do not use this platform for phishing scams
Conclusion
Google’s search results are becoming more and more popular by the day, with private messaging, related questions, and even results appearing in the search suggest drop down menu. The benefits Google My Business affords local businesses are only growing. Set up your Google Listings account to get your business known and also to gain customers trust.
