As part of the tech giant’s effort to bring easier merchant-consumer communication, Google Maps has launched a new feature that enables verified businesses to message customers directly from the app.
In a blog post, Google stated that when people look for information online, they expect to get quick responses to their queries, but sometimes the questions will be niche. This happens mainly when browsing nearby businesses. The new feature aims to help businesses to connect with customers and answer their concerns right away.
Apart from clicking on the Message button on the business profile, with this new feature, customers will also be able to communicate with the merchants from posts they create.
By turning on messages from the Business Profile, verified businesses will be able to reply to customers on Google Maps from the messages section in the updates tab. Furthermore, if customers try calling businesses and the call isn’t answered, they will be prompted to send a message.
Google Maps is working to launch more metrics to help business owners to get a deeper understanding of how customers are discovering their business profiles.
According to Google, since the beginning of this year, there has been an uptick in the number of messages sent to businesses. People have initiated more than twice as many messages to businesses right from Business Profiles on Search and Maps.
Soon, businesses will be able to view their messages right from Google Search and reply directly to customers from their computers as well.
In the coming days, Google will show businesses a brief list of the search queries customers use to find their firms. From early next year, updates to the performance page that shows if customers saw the business through Maps or Search will also be visible, along with information about if they saw it from a computer or mobile device.
