Google My Business – is your listing claimed or inaccurate?
Google my business? Yes, really! Go Google your business and see if it is claimed. Your Google listing is yours, you own it and it should reflect your company in the best way possible. One of the most important things to do, if you haven’t already, is to claim your listing. In some recent research conducted by Google, 67% of profile visitors would not do further research if a listing was only mostly complete and didn’t include information consumers were looking for. It’s important to claim your Google profile and ensure that your address, phone number and hours of operation are accurate. With COVID-19 impacting hours, make sure they’re accurate for right now.
You can also add additional elements that will make your profile stand out from the rest.
- Have some nice exterior photos taken – If people can see what your business looks like, it will make it easier for them to locate when navigating there. Make sure the exterior looks approachable before the photos are taken and take them on a nice, bright, sunny day. Your business won’t look as ‘friendly’ on a cloudy day or at night.
- Show what the inside of your business looks like – Showing the inside of your business is a wonderful way for customers to get a preview into your brand and the experience they will have when they arrive (if or when your business lobby or meeting space is open again.)
People look at Google ratings.
One of the first places a person goes when looking for a new product or service is online, and they want to see the experiences other customers have had with that business. Customers who are unhappy with an experience are highly likely to leave a negative review online. On the other hand, customers who have a positive experience are unlikely to leave a complimentary review. There are ways to encourage your customers to leave reviews to help increase your positive reviews.
- Set up an automated email to send following an encounter with your customers. We have the reputation management tools to help make this process easy for both you and the user!
- Ask for reviews of recent visitors by sending an email with a direct link to your review page.
Replying to reviews shows customers and prospective customers that you’re engaged!
If people are looking at reviews, they can see when you’re responding on behalf of your business. It’s important that you are not only responding to the negative reviews but the positive ones, too! Thank your reviewers for their kind words. It will make them feel good that you saw their post and took the time to write back. It’s also important to have a solution in place for negative reviews. If you get a negative review, take the conversation offline by asking them to email or call you. You can reply with a generic response such as “We’re so sorry our services did not meet your expectations. We would love to learn more about your concerns. Please email or call us.”
We hope this helps motivate you to take charge of your Google My Business listing. Make sure your business looks favorable to online searchers.
A source for this blog: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2019/04/04/how-to-claim-and-profit-from-your-google-my-business-listing/#4f71141a3a08