GMB By Appointment Only: how to reflect COVID-19 impacted hours

[EmilyW]

What are some of your solutions you are using to reflect business hours that are now "by appointment only" based on COVID-19 mandated changes? It seems possible to close the hours, then make clarifying updated posts. Is it a good idea to add a simple explanation to the top of the business description as well? "Call phone# for personal one on one appointments. <line break> regular business description". This is affecting a number of our clients, such as accountants. Thanks for the input.

 

[sarmcl]

Dealing with this for many clients. Few options

1) Remove hours/update Business description
2) Do above and add GOogle Post

 

[EmilyW]

Dealing with this for many clients. Few options

1) Remove hours/update Business description
2) Do above and add GOogle Post

Also have heard today to delete hours, then update posts, and Q&A. Let me know if anything else crosses your path! Looking to learn from each other.

 

[sarmcl]

Hey everyone

Learning the hard way here. DONT REMOVE HOURS! We did this and it didnt work. Simply goes into Pending Edits mode and hours still show. You will have to add special hours as CLosed for the time you wish to remain closed.

 

[StephanieNewton]

Hey Emily!

You may have already seen, but another Local Search Forum member shared this update from GMB. So you can now add posts specifically to update users about changes due to COVID-19. So as @sarmcl suggests, it's probably not worth removing hours, but instead adding a disclaimer at the top to book by appointment only. Looks like you can add a CTA too so could direct users to phone in there.

Good luck!

 

[EmilyW]

Hey Emily!

You may have already seen, but another Local Search Forum member shared this update from GMB. So you can now add posts specifically to update users about changes due to COVID-19. So as @sarmcl suggests, it's probably not worth removing hours, but instead adding a disclaimer at the top to book by appointment only. Looks like you can add a CTA too so could direct users to phone in there.

Good luck!

Yes, I saw that update yesterday. Thanks for the suggestion! Using the "temporarily closed" status was a real nightmare last week, we don't plan to use that at this time.

 

[Steve Attarian]

Google is Setting Several Businesses to Temporarily Closed - I am not sure that that is not the best option in the Colorado Lockdown "Stay at Home" Order now in place.

 

[EmilyW]

Google is Setting Several Businesses to Temporarily Closed - I am not sure that that is not the best option in the Colorado Lockdown "Stay at Home" Order now in place.

Temporarily closed status has caused us a lot of headaches. We are no longer using that method. Now, we are utilizing, services, special hours, and posts more. Trying not to touch the "info" tab as much as possible, since it seems very unstable.

 

[Ellen]

Google is Setting Several Businesses to Temporarily Closed - I am not sure that that is not the best option in the Colorado Lockdown "Stay at Home" Order now in place.

We're wondering if this is happening to a few of our accounts. Unfortunately, each has multiple managers, so can't entirely rule that out yet. Steve, can you confirm it's Google auto-setting the status?

 

[Yan Gilbert]

Yes, Google is marking some listings as Temp Closed automatically.

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

"At this time, Google relies on authoritative data sources, where available, to mark certain types of places as "Temporarily Closed" on Google Search and Google Maps."

Where does Google get this information from?
We rely on authorities to tell us when there are closures in their region. Authorities can provide this through our Geo Data Upload tool. We use data from many types of authoritative data sources, which include national, state/provincial and local governments, non-profit organizations, educational institutions, and businesses.

 

[Steve Attarian]

Thank you, Yan.