GMB Messaging - Reply even on weekends?

[Tony Wang]

GMB says you should respond to messages within 24 hours to keep messaging turned on. Anyone know if they count weekends too? If so, it seems a bit extreme for certain types of businesses which only operate during normal business hours and don't typically have emergencies.

 

[Professor M]

yes, they do,
that's why I recommend switching off on weekends/holidays if businesses will not reply back to customers.

 

[Jon Hall]

Hey @Tony Wang! My favorite topic 😎 Google measures a few key metrics around messaging performance that can be seen in how Google scores messaging "agents" (docs):

- Customer satisfaction (CSAT) - Now measured with a thumbs up/down rating triggered to the user 15min after an automated interaction or 12 business hours after a human interaction

- Merchant response rate (MRR) - The frequency with which you respond to new conversations (presumably within 24h) either through automation or human power and reported as a percentage

"Agents should maintain a CSAT of at least 80% and an MRR of at least 95%. If an agent falls below either threshold, Google may reach out to discuss the agent's performance." Or they may turn off your messaging. But AFAIK, even if they turn it off, you can turn it back on.

Anyway, Google plainly encourages a degree of automation to improve CX on Google messaging. I work on this all day everyday and am happy to talk through the options or answer any questions here.

 

[Jon Hall]

P.S. Or better yet, maybe @JoyHawkins and @djbaxter will think it worth creating a "GMB Messaging" topic forum? I, for one, would love to be able to get alerts for related posts 😊

 

[djbaxter]

P.S. Or better yet, maybe @JoyHawkins and @djbaxter will think it worth creating a "GMB Messaging" topic forum? I, for one, would love to be able to get alerts for related posts 😊

I've copied this to the Suggestions Forum as GMB Messaging Forum?. You and others can upvote it there and we can consider implementing it if there is enough interest.

 

[Jon Hall]

Ah, nice. Thank you @djbaxter ! Democracy in action 😊 Love it!

 

[Tony Wang]

@Jon Hall thanks, I recall now that you discussed automated GMB chat a couple months back. And I remember that it's your favorite topic

 

[Jon Hall]

@Tony Wang yeah I seem to always get too excited when the topic comes up LOL. Single. Track. Mind.

The pragmatic response to your original post would be to highlight these items:

- Google has said elsewhere that they're looking for businesses to maintain a 95% merchant response rate, so if a small percentage of inquiries come in on the weekend and you don't get to them within 24h, you still shouldn't be penalized.

- The current "penalty"--Google turning off your messaging feature--is not as extreme as it sounds since you can always turn it back on. The "turning off" seems to have more to do with mitigating poor consumer experiences with Google messaging than it does penalizing non-performant businesses.

Automation is only for those who want to wring all the value out of GMB messaging, maintain high performance and better CX, nurture and convert leads with ready-to-go messages, move conversations from GMB into your preferred channel (e.g. email or text), and generally kick ass 😎