JoshuaMackens
Local Search Expert
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Interesting.
Is there any documentation from Google on how they calculate response rate?
Interesting.
Is there any documentation from Google on how they calculate response rate?
How to read & reply to messages from your Business Profile - Android - Google Business Profile Help
Your customers can get in touch with you from your Business Profile. With the chat feature, you can: Answer questions Tell your story Attract more customers To ensure the best experience fsupport.google.com
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Heyo @JoshuaMackens I just wanted to highlight a few points from the docs because they are not exactly intuitive and come up frequently in our Google Chat partners meetings with the Big G:
Finally, I'd say signs are pointing to exactly what @Tim Colling identifies above: turning on chat and being responsive in chat (yes, responsive by Google's definition, sigh) is an emergent ranking factor. The primary reason? Chat provides Google virtually unspammable visibility into the legitimacy, performance and outcomes of the actual business behind a given GBP. Along with call-tracking and a few other initiatives, chat is Google's best solution to GBP's spam woes.
- Mind the 24-hour cliff: Google views response rate as a binary. As a business owner, I may think I'm responding within "24 hours" if I respond to a message left at noon on Monday sometime in the afternoon on Tuesday. But in fact I just put up a big fat zero. Google treats a response after 24h as no response.
- Only first messages matter to response rate: As a business owner, I might think the requirements mean I should respond to chats like one of those annoying, over-eager chatbots or live agents who always wants to have the last word! Don't. Google is measuring response rates on only the first message of new conversations--either a completely new contact or someone who's reaching back out after 7 days of inactivity. You don't have to issue a gratuitous response to every subsequent message. And if a response isn't warranted, don't. Instead you can trigger the CSAT survey--or heck, even request a review ;-)
- You can satisfy response rate with auto-replies: Google's primary metric today is merchant response rate (MRR). It's important to note that Google considers an automated reply to be a valid merchant response. So you can actually guarantee a 100% merchant response rate for your clients by using auto-replies. Still, other metrics (HMRR, CSAT, etc.) suggest a live person should ultimately chime in and ensure the customer is well-served. Here, it's instructive to look at the metrics section of the partner docs.