Learn more about the benefits and limitations of Google Business Messages and how businesses implement Google Business Messages.
Enabling chat in your Google Business Profile can help you connect with customers. However, as customers increasingly reach out to you through chat, you may not have the time and resources to respond to every chat, especially during off-hours. Additionally, most queries may be repetitive. Meanwhile, customers expect instant responses from businesses. If businesses don’t meet customer needs, they risk losing existing and potential customers.
What’s driving the future of messaging in the US? (Source)
A frustrated customer gives a 1-star rating due to lack of communication from the business owner.
In our previous article, we introduced you to how to use Google’s SMS reminder feature to avoid missing customer messages. But we know that as a business owner, responding to customer messages takes a lot of time, and besides customer service, you need to handle many other things. That’s why we want to introduce you to Google Business Messages.
About Google Business Messages
Google Business Messages is the next generation of conversational experience that solves the problem of providing instant responses to your customers when there’s no human service available. While Google Business Profile allows business owners to chat directly with customers through the chat button on Google Maps, Google Business Messages goes a step further by integrating with virtual customer service. According to chatbots.org, a virtual agent is “a computer-generated, animated, artificial intelligence virtual character (usually with anthropomorphic appearance) that acts as an online customer service representative.”
Make it personal: How smart communication tools drive business results (Source).
Virtual agents are commonly referred to as digital assistants. Virtual agents use a technology called Natural Language Processing (NLP) to provide automated responses. Virtual agents can benefit your business by reducing response times, providing 24/7 availability, and improving customer experience. This is how Google Business Messages helps you provide high-quality automated responses to your customers.
Other benefits of Google Business Messages include:
- Providing instant responses to your customer queries
- Saving time and money in providing excellent customer service
- Building trust with your customers
Google Business Messages integrates virtual agents directly into your chat button.
How Businesses Implement Google Business Messages
To better understand how Google Business Messages can help your business, let’s look at some examples from Walmart, Levi’s, and Albertsons Companies.
1. Walmart
Walmart was one of the first companies to implement Business Messages (Google Blog). With Google Business Messages, Walmart provides up-to-date information about store hours, products, COVID-19 vaccines and testing, pickup and delivery options, return policies, and more. Customers can get instant responses at any time of day.
Customers can contact Walmart through the chat button on Google Maps (mobile only).
Customers can ask about store hours, products, mask policies, COVID-19 vaccines, etc.
2. Levi’s
Levi’s is a clothing company known for its Levi’s jeans, with 3,100 retail stores in 110 countries. During the pandemic, Levi’s observed that shoppers were spending a lot of time researching before purchasing, and store hours might change more frequently. Levi’s wanted to convert shoppers into actual customers and provide quick responses to shopper inquiries.
In June 2020, Levi’s implemented Google Business Messages, aiming to improve customer experience by providing up-to-date information about stores and products. By leveraging Google Business Messages’ ability to help customers at any time of day, Levi’s was able to achieve an 85% Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) score. Levi’s also found that store-related issues were resolved 30 times more. Learn more about how Levi’s implemented Google Business Messages here.
Customers can contact Levi’s through the chat button (mobile only).
Customers can view Levi’s products when interacting with Levi’s virtual agent.
3. Albertsons Companies
Albertsons Companies has multiple pharmacies across the US, including Safeway, Jewel-Osco, Vons, Albertsons, Shaw’s, and more. In late 2020, during the initial release of COVID-19 vaccines, there was an increase in online searches for vaccines. There were more questions about vaccine eligibility, appointments, and where people could get vaccinated. Albertsons Companies decided to launch Google Business Messages to provide up-to-date information about eligibility criteria, appointments, availability, and more. As a result, they were able to reduce call volumes, prevent potential misinformation, and provide 24/7 help to customers.
Customers can get information about vaccine eligibility and make appointments.
Google Business Messages is a great way to save time and money answering repetitive queries, building relationships with customers, and improving overall customer experience.
Implementation Barriers
As mentioned above, there are two main limitations to common Google Business Messages implementations.
First, building and maintaining an excellent virtual agent is not easy; it requires advanced conversational AI knowledge and significant development time. Businesses using Google Business Messages need to pay professional consulting agencies to build fully customized experiences for them from scratch. These are usually expensive and can take months. Only large enterprises like Levi’s, Walmart, and Albertsons Companies can afford such specialized services. Consulting agencies also typically have complete control over product development and maintenance. If you need to make changes, you must go through the agency, which requires additional time.
Second, Google Business Messages is a replacement for the built-in messaging feature in Google Business Profile. As a business owner, you can enable the chat button in your Google Business Profile and respond when available. However, when you implement Google Business Messages, your incoming messages will be routed to your online agent, and you will lose the ability to chat directly with customers in your Google Business Profile or using the Google My Business app.
If live chat solutions are enabled, customers will be able to click “Send message to live agent” to talk directly with the business owner.
If you want to talk directly with your customers while using Google Business Messages, you need to ask the consulting agency to provide live chat solutions. If this feature is enabled, customers can click the “Send message to live agent” button, and then you can join the conversation and chat with customers. On the live agent side, conversations will take place on whatever platform the consulting agency chooses to integrate; this can be done through SMS, WhatsApp, Messenger, existing customer service software like Zendesk, or customized websites or mobile apps.
That’s why we want to introduce you to our solution Near Me Messaging (Update: We have since transformed the product into a full-channel chatbot builder. Now called SeaChat!), which provides affordable, fast, and easy-to-implement Google Business Messages for small and medium businesses with fully customizable, self-service, and live chat capabilities. Stay tuned for our next article about Near Me Messaging and its excellent features. Schedule a demo with us and be the first to use Near Me Messaging!
