GBP Business Messages (no not the message option in your dashboard)

[cfazio]

Hello,

Does anybody have data around GBP Business Messages?

No, this is not the "message" option available in your dashboard, this is a lesser-known feature. It requires using a 3rd party provider that is approved by Google, to set up custom chatbot logic with live chat options to communicate via messaging with your customers.

You can use enhanced features such as images, buttons, web page linked buttons, and product carousels within the messaging logic.

Rumored to have a ranking effect when you have great response times, and obviously plays into increasing trends of users wanting to find information via messaging.

Does anybody have actual data on some success stories with this though? It is very hard to find any information on the web about this - figure this group would be the ones to know!

Best.
Charles

 

[virens]

Worth chatting with Adrian, the owner of a chatbot agency we work with:

Google Business Messaging Chatbot - The Bot Forge

Use a chatbot to utilise the power of Google's business messages. Automate customer conversations with your Google Business Profiles!

www.thebotforge.io

There are some cool features in there now that we are going to try out, albeit it's all quite new. Pretty sure that The Bot Forge is still recruiting some early users!

 

[cfazio]

Worth chatting with Adrian, the owner of a chatbot agency we work with:

Google Business Messaging Chatbot - The Bot Forge

Use a chatbot to utilise the power of Google's business messages. Automate customer conversations with your Google Business Profiles!

www.thebotforge.io

There are some cool features in there now that we are going to try out, albeit it's all quite new. Pretty sure that The Bot Forge is still recruiting some early users!

Thank you for the response, I will check this out!

 

[BenFisher]

There is a slight bump in ranking when you MRR (Merchant Response Rate) is above 60% I believe

 

[JoyHawkins]

@AaronWeiche do you know anything about this?

There is a slight bump in ranking when you MRR (Merchant Response Rate) is above 60% I believe

Super intriguing. Is this something you've witnessed personally? If so, you should publish it.

 

[cfazio]

There is a slight bump in ranking when you MRR (Merchant Response Rate) is above 60% I believe

MMR tip - always be the last message in a conversation - at least that's how it was when I tried this feature out ~ 1 year ago.

Google was considering it a missed response if the business was not the last message in a conversation... they might have changed the way MRR is calculated at this point though, it seemed a little buggy.

The user could have had all of their questions answered / appointment scheduled etc. and ended up being the last message just due to the flow of the conversation.

Wouldnt worry too much about it though, I was around 90% MMR with little effort.

I was doing so many different things for the listing, it was impossible for me to tell if this alone gave a boost.

 

[AaronWeiche]

I don't have any exact findings on the % or ranking impact bump. I do know that Google is frequently asking for feedback from chats from the consumer, just a thumbs up or down (attached), in addition to knowing the response timing. Will keel an eye on it as we roll Leadferno's integration out past BETA right now. The response time emphasis is exactly why we built a shared messaging inbox so you can stay on top of all of these SMS, FB Messenger, GBM all in one place. That's hard when disjointed and all so wonky in location/interface/app.

 

[Jon Hall]

Hey @cfazio just saw this. Let me offer a couple tidbits as one of those Google Business Messages partners

The most instructive resource on this topic is the metrics section of the partner docs.

The notion of an "over 60%" rank bump is likely being confused with this stated Google policy: If you fall below a 60% MRR (Merchant Response Rate) for 4+ weeks, you're in danger of an "auto-suspension." That's not as bad as it sounds, though: Google simply turns off Business Messages on you to protect the customer experience. You can turn it back on when ready.

Fortunately, Google measures MRR using only the first message of new conversations--either a completely new contact or someone who's reaching back out after 7 days of inactivity. Gone are the days of imitating those annoying, over-eager support agents who always have to have the last word (because they're being scored on it)!

The real challenges in meeting this metric are:

• You have a 24-hour window to respond: If your first response to a new conversation takes longer than 24h, you put up a zero in terms of MRR.
• Google has not yet released guidance on what to do about spam messages, so you kinda have to respond to them right now

Finally, note that you can entirely satisfy the MRR requirement with auto-replies. Google considers an automated reply to be a valid merchant response. So you can actually guarantee a 100% merchant response rate by using auto-replies.

The other main messaging metrics Google cares about are Human Merchant Response Rate (HMRR) and Customer Satisfaction (CSAT). So a live person should ultimately chime in on every conversation and ensure the customer is well-served. A proper partner solution will also let you trigger the CSAT survey when the conversation ends to maximize responses.

 

[johnlavapie_SEO]

To add to this. If anyone is interested to know how to integrate their GBP with LeadFerno, here is their article: Google's Business Messages: From Search To Lead - Leadferno

 

[MeganR]

Hi, Jon Hall's reply and a recent recommendation from a colleague has me conflicted regarding whether to leave chat enabled on a law firm client's profile.

The client at present gets very few chats on their profile. Their average response time is currently at 6 hours with a 62% response rate.

The client has told me that the chats so far have not turned into clients for their law firm.

Could their slow response time and their low MRR percentage actually be hurting their GBP ranking?

I'm wondering about two options:
1. Add FAQs to improve their MRR, but according to @JonHall, it appears that they will still need to initiate a timely HMRR. OR
2. Turn off the chat option on their profile.

Their responsiveness has been consistent over the last year, coming in at 6 hours and 62%. The client finds it cumbersome to respond to clients as soon as the messages come in, which is why I'm wondering if FAQs may be a viable remedy.

I would love to know your thoughts.

 

[Jon Hall]

Heyo @MeganR, all good thoughts here. Google hasn't made things easy, right?! I can offer a few points of reflection since my original reply:

The client has told me that the chats so far have not turned into clients for their law firm.

This may be true, but don't let the client jump to false conclusions about lead quality: People start GBP chats predominantly as organic (and so high-intent), local (and so somewhat qualified) search leads. Maybe the client hasn't converted them, but on the whole they are about as high quality leads as you can get. It's a shame there aren't more of them. Yet...

Could their slow response time and their low MRR percentage actually be hurting their GBP ranking?

While performance in messaging is expected to become a ranking factor if/when it's use becomes ubiquitous, I'd guess there still isn't enough adoption across the board for Google to penalize *any* business for using messaging, even for using it "poorly." For example, do the client's competitors have GBP chat enabled? Moreover, it sounds like the client's performance is decent, at least above the floor Google has set for low-volume businesses.

The client finds it cumbersome to respond to clients as soon as the messages come in, which is why I'm wondering if FAQs may be a viable remedy.

Agreed. It's certainly important to be responsive to these people--they're presumably initiating a chat because they want answers. The client may be failing to convert them due to their slow responsiveness not meeting expectations.

Probably the most powerful tool to address this is an autoresponder. An automatic response can allay the potential customer's fear that "no one is listening" and set expectations around when there will be a human response.

To your point, having an autoresponder that also answers FAQs is ideal since a human response may not be necessary. It certainly helps to have a faster human response, too. Sound like a lot of work?

Since my original post, Switchbird has put out some free tools for GBP chat (and Facebook Messenger) automation. In particular, you might it interesting that you can setup a free GBP autoresponder (guarantees 100% MRR) and the ability to reply by email to GBP messages so your client can achiever higher HMRR without the need for YADA--"yet another damn app"

Here's my walk-through. Might something like this be worth a try?



Jon