Google adds POWERFUL NEW FEATURE to Google Business Profiles

 

 

a couple of weeks ago Google released a brand new functionality on Google business profile listings to help business owners automatically respond to frequently asked questions prospective customers may ask this is comparable to customer service chat Bots that use Ai and machine learning to answer basic customer questions.

You can find on large websites which we've all become familiar with this new feature enables you to set up a list of suggested questions your customers may ask and automatically provide the answers to them when they start a chat via your Google business profile this is particularly useful for those of you who enable the chat messaging functionality when it was first launched but were struggling to respond to messages in due time as you probably found out according to Google's requirements failing to respond to messages within 24 hours of receiving them would result in the chat functionality being automatically disabled from your profile which meant you'd miss out on potential leads with this new feature hopefully you won't have to worry about this happening anymore here is what you need to do if you want to capitalize on this new feature but before I show you I'd be grateful if you could give this video a thumbs up to support the channel so I can continue creating more content to help you further many things head over to google.com and log in to the Google account associated with your Google business profile search for my business the details of your profile should appear as part of the results click on The View profile button a panel with multiple options to edit your listing should Now display on your screen at this stage there are two possible scenarios let's start with the first scenario you've never turned on the chat messaging functionality to find out if this is the case click on the arrow on the right hand side you should see an option called turn on chat click on it from the pop-up menu click on turn on a pop-up with balloons should show up indicating you've enabled the chat functionality and that from now on your customers should be able to message your business through your Google profile click done this will reveal a new pop-up which is where you will be able to view and respond to messages you receive from customers in the top right hand side of the pop-up click on the three dots and then on message settings a new pop-up will appear in which four options will be listed the first one is the turn on chat which shows as active as we just turned it on the one below that is the send read receipt option which enables you to let customers see if you have read their messages to activate it just click on the toggle next to it you don't have to turn this on if you don't want to the next option is called Welcome message with this you can craft a welcome message that will automatically be shown whenever someone wants to message you make it as well to me as possible you might also want to use this whenever you shop the business for holiday for example no need to go mad here as it is limited to 120 characters including spaces click on Save once you're done the last option called manage frequently asked questions is the new feature Google just added to the chat functionality this is where you craft questions customers are most likely to ask you and set up automated answers for them just click on it then click on the add a question button add your first question note there is a 40 character limit which is not a lot once you've added a question simply write the answer to it in the field below this answer will display automatically in the chat conversation when people tap on the suggested question once again there is a character limit to take into consideration this time you have a little bit more room as it stretches to 500 characters note although it is not specified here you can include a link as part of your answer this is very handy if you want to direct visitors back to a specific page on your website for example be mindful that when adding a link it will count towards the character limit once you're done click on Save repeat the process to add more questions there is a limit to the number of free loaded questions you can add it currently stands at 10. deleting a question is easy just bring up the list click on the one you want to delete then click on delete once you've added your questions you'll want to check it fits all working okay grab your mobile phone and open the Google Map app make sure you're logged into a Google account start searching for your business once you've brought up your Google business profile you should be able to see a chat icon you may need to scroll down to make it appear just tap it if you see a pop-up that says get notified when this business responds just cancel it this is aimed at users who want to receive a notification once a business owner has responded to their query you should now see a dialog box which is what customers will see when trying to send you a message by default the welcome message you've written will automatically show at the top of the conversation right under the welcome message you'll find some of the suggested questions you have just set up that customers may ask if you've set up more than five questions there should be a button that says see more FAQs tapping on this will display the other questions tap one of the questions the answer to it will automatically appear as I've already mentioned if you've included a link as part of your automated response visitors will be able to click on it if none of the suggested questions match what the visitors want to do they will still be able to send you a message if you're happy with your setup you're all done let's move on to the second scenario this is for those of you who already have the chat messaging option turned on if this is the case instead of clicking on the Arrow next to the panel this time click on the customers button from the pop-up menu select messages in the top right hand side corner of the messages pop up click on the three dots then select message settings you should now see the same pop-up I covered earlier with the list of the four different setting options including the management of frequently asked questions follow the exact same process I have detailed previously to add your questions and verify it all works fine I am not sure why but the chat functionality only appears on Google listings for mobile users and is not available for desktop users this is probably because most users searching for a local business do so on their mobile phones I still think it isn't something you should ignore and is a great add-on to attract more customers and I thoroughly recommend you capitalize on this latest feature to make sure you do don't forget to turn on the chat Alert on your mobile so whenever customers want to chat with you or send you a message you will know instantly and will be able to answer straight away to do this open the Google Maps app on your phone and make sure you are logged in to the account associated with your business tap on the account icon on the top right hand side then select your business profile option tap on your business scroll through the options at the bottom of your profile if you haven't unable the chat alert notification you should see an option to do it just tap on turn on from the pop-up menu tap on go to settings then choose notifications activate the toggle next to allow notifications as well as the time sensitive notifications from now on you should receive an alert on your screen as soon as prospective clients want to talk to you or send you a message all you need to do is respond to it in a timely manner if you want to respond to messages via your desktop just bring up your profile in search if you have unread messages a red dot will appear within the customer tab just click on it click on the messages option this will give you access to your Google business profile message inbox where you can respond to messages that's it for today guys I hope you enjoyed the video remember to click on the like button if you did and to subscribe to the channel if you haven't yet and until next time happy marketing foreign.