90% of consumers use Google to find business, read reviews and directly contact the business through its Google My Business listing.

A recent study found that 75% of consumers prefer messaging a business than calling. Based on this trend and tremendous preference for messaging businesses rather than calling, Google now allows searchers to directly send a text message to a business through their GMB listing.

So, it’s essential for you to configure your business’ text messaging number on your GMB profile correctly. Businesses using Birdeye can receive and respond to Google messages right from the Inbox. To learn how to configure Google Text Messaging within your account, read the help center article: How do I set up Google Messaging within Birdeye?

Google Messaging Best Practices

Here are some tips on how to interact with your customers via Google My Business listings:

1. Actively engage with your prospects and customers
Prospects want to text your business. And your business wants to convert all leads to customers. GMB messaging allows for an efficient way of communicating. Make sure that your team is well-equipped to respond to customer queries quickly so you can engage all leads and customers on the platform they choose. To learn how to respond to the customers via Birdeye Inbox, read the help article: How to get the most out of Birdeye Inbox?

2. Respond to users quickly
Slow response times create a bad user experience. Most of the users online expect a quicker response to their queries. In fact, a huge influx of messages can get overwhelming for your agents at times, reducing the response rates. Design your messaging infrastructure to automatically answer frequently asked questions through text templates. If the live chat agents are unavailable, make sure that you at least acknowledge the users.

3. Make sure that your business name and logo are correctly displayed
Your business name and logo are the most important elements when it comes to showcasing your brand. To ensure that the brand messaging is correctly communicated in the first interaction with the users, make sure that the business name and logo are correctly configured within your chat tool(s).

4. Keep the chat relevant
Train your agents to stay on topic. Ask them to avoid sending unwanted or irrelevant messages in an ongoing conversation. Some examples are listed below:

• Unwantedly long messages including URLs, images, GIFs, etc.
• Excessive use of emoticons and jargons
• Information about a product or service that is not related to the original query
• Repeated messages

5. Do not share or request sensitive information
Avoid sharing and asking for sensitive information to keep your and your customers’ data safe online. Sensitive information include, but is not limited to:
Credit card details
Social Security, passport, or other government identification numbers
Losing credentials like passwords, personal identification numbers (PIN), etc