For many businesses, Google My Business (GMB) is the hub of their online presence. It’s where they manage their online information as it appears in Google search, maps, photos and more.
Busy, on-the-go business owners are frequently challenged to find the time to manage their Google presence.
Recently, Google launched an updated version of their Google My Business app. The new features allow small business owners to easily manage their GMB presence and engage customers from their mobile device.
Highlights on Google My Business App New Features and How You Can Use Them
The new updates to the GMB app—available for iOS and Android platforms—brings many functions of the desktop version to your mobile device.
Post Content from Your Phone
Now, you can create Google posts to your Google My Business Profile from the convenience of your phone. This includes uploading photos or creating an offer or event.
How could you use this feature? If you’re a restaurant, upload a photo of the day’s special and post a discount offer for lunch diners who order the dish. If you’re a pressure washer, announce in the morning you’re going to be in a specific neighborhood that day, make it an event and offer a special for the neighborhood.
Engage Customers Who Connect with Your Profile
Now you can be notified in real time on your mobile device if customers connect with your business, send a message, ask a question, leave a review or book a request on your GMB profile. You can easily respond to these customers almost immediately through the GMB app.
In our opinion, this is a significant feature. Customer engagement should be a high priority for any business and the ability to do so “on-the-fly” is a potential game-changer for many business owners.
Consider that when a customer reaches out to a business for information they might be in research mode—looking for information to make a purchase decision. Businesses that respond quickly are better positioned to gain that customer’s business.
Additionally, when a customer leaves a review—good or bad—your ability to respond quickly with a “thanks” or “acknowledgment to correct an issue” helps build your reputation as a trustful and honest business.
Take a Temperature of How People are Using Your GMB Profile
The GMB app provides valuable data on your online viewers. Notably, it shows how many:
- Views to your business profile
- Searches for your business
- Viewers took action from your business profile
- People requested directions to your business
- Visited your website from your business profile
- Called your business through your business profile
- Viewed photos on your profile
This can be valuable information to analyze the impact of ad campaigns, events, special offers and publicity your business receives.
Are You Utilizing Google My Business?
Surprisingly, there are a substantial amount of businesses that haven’t claimed or developed their GMB profiles.
As GMB moves beyond just a business information platform to a robust online customer relationship management tool, businesses should consider fully using the features of this free tool.
Reach Out for Help on Tasks
While Google is definitely on the path to make managing your GMB profile easier and convenient, we understand that many business owners might feel this is just another task on their plate.
That’s why we’re here.
Give Business Solutions Unlimited a call today at (904) 429-4588 and let us handle all of the marketing tasks to better positon your business.