Google Assistant Booking Through GMB

[Cordell Crowley]

So, we noticed this in all of our U.S. clients' dashboards just earlier:

Looks like people can book through GMB with Google Assistant now, and it is an automatic opt-in that you have to manually opt out of.

This section from the support via "Learn more" link says this: "
If customers ask for information like your business hours, the Assistant will check to see if you've updated that information on Google. If it's not updated, Google may call your business to confirm the information using the automated voice-calling technology Duplex (calls are recorded for quality assurance), and may update your business listing on Google Search and Maps. " So that part is a little concerning to think about.

Anybody else seeing this yet or has seen this previously? It is in all of our U.S. businesses' dashboards, but is not in any of our Canadian or Puerto Rican businesses' dashboards. I'd read about Google Assistant some back a couple months ago but haven't really seen any updates on GMB for it until today when suddenly all our clients have this option.

 

[Cordell Crowley]

I should mention that it is showing up for clients regardless of whether they have the "Bookings" tab on the left side also.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Hey @Cordell Crowley yes definitely seems to be a new feature. This is only the second time I've heard about it.

I'll see if I can get some additional info from Google but I imagine what's in the help center doc is as much as we'll probably get at this point.

Nice find.

 

[bcherkezov]

Looks like it is for U.S. businesses only, can't see it across my UK customers.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

@Cordell Crowley Looks like It started rolling out last October Public testing with the Assistant's Duplex technology kicks off this month, see what ... - The Google Advertiser Community - 1824891

 

[JoshuaMackens]

For those who don't do bookings, does the digital assistant just call to verify business info? Is there any other function it serves for these types of businesses?

Also, does anyone have any experience with what the assistant sounds like when it calls to verify information?

 

[JoshuaMackens]

For those who don't do bookings, does the digital assistant just call to verify business info? Is there any other function it serves for these types of businesses?

Also, does anyone have any experience with what the assistant sounds like when it calls to verify information?

Bump

 

[freerunr]

Also, does anyone have any experience with what the assistant sounds like when it calls to verify information?

@mblumenthal used to get audio recordings of things like spam calls to share with everyone. It sounds like we need to put a bulletin out for someone to get a recording of one of these calls now

 

[Cordell Crowley]

For those who don't do bookings, does the digital assistant just call to verify business info? Is there any other function it serves for these types of businesses?

Also, does anyone have any experience with what the assistant sounds like when it calls to verify information?

That's what Google's "Help" information makes it sound like. I'm guessing the Assistant will make a call like "Hey, what are your business hours?" And then update the listing automatically? Seems a bit dubious though.

We haven't experienced an assistant call yet, either. I doubt a customer would really use Google Assitant to call a flower shop, whom the bulk of our clients are. Which is one reason I find it funny that it's an automatic opt-in feature even for the businesses who don't have Bookings or anything on their listing.