Corona (COVID-19) Shutdown

[ianscott]

One of my clients, a dental clinic, has decided to close on the advice of the local Dental College.

Before I change their hours to all closed, anything I should be thinking about in regard to their GMB listing? None of their competitors have changed their hours, and I'm a bit hesitant to mark my client's hours as all "closed."

Anyone else have concerns about this or the repercussions of marking all business hours as closed? The clinic obviously is not closed permanently.

 

[djbaxter]

Does this help?

Google to show which local businesses 'temporarily closed' in Search, Maps amid coronavirus outbreak

Local data accuracy becomes critical at a time like this.

searchengineland.com

 

[Scott Rawlins]

You could add a pop-up to the site, G Posts, SM channels, etc. We are getting a ton of requests today from clients and that is what we've been doing.

 

[ianscott]

Thank you for the link, but... It doesn't really help for a couple of reasons:

I cannot find anywhere to "temporarily close" the business other than maybe using the holiday closure schedule?

Second, I'm not even sure if it should be marked as closed entirely, as emergency care will still be provided. Struggling with this.

 

[Monica Simpson]

You could also write it in the very first sentence of the description? Along with a post.

 

[abbietorres]

Several of my agency's clients reached out over the weekend regarding locations that have temporary closures due to COVID-19.

This is a great opportunity to test out Google Post, Questions and Answers, and update Business Descriptions. These are all efforts that can keep customers informed about what the business is doing from a safety stance and temporary closures or new "pick-up only" models.

Best of luck everyone

 

[tessamh]

We've been using "special hours" to mark businesses as closed temporarily (avoiding changing the core hours), as well as Google Posts and website announcements. So far so good!

 

[Monica Simpson]

This when you click the Coronavirus link on the GMB page of your business:

Guidance for Businesses affected by COVID-19 - Google Business Profile Help

Check and edit your business information If your business is affected by COVID-19, update your Business Profile to provide the most accurate informa

support.google.com