Google Messaging Response Time

[JoshuaMackens]

Hey guys and gals,

Got an email from my client about why his response rate is so low according to Google:

According to them they reply to every message, even the bots, within 24 hours. Any idea what's going on here?

 

[Justin Mosebach]

@JoshuaMackens Are they replying directly through business.google.com or through a third-party tool?

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Hey Justin, thanks for the help!

Directly through business.google.com.

Edit: through the Google My Business app more specifically.

 

[Tim Colling]

Based on past performance, I speculate that Google may be doing these things:

1. Making responsiveness a ranking factor, for numerous reasons.
2. Measuring responsiveness inaccurately.

<sigh>

 

[Justin Mosebach]

@JoshuaMackens That was my best guess as to why - other than the client's not actually answering them

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Interesting.

Is there any documentation from Google on how they calculate response rate?

 

[Tim Colling]

Interesting.

Is there any documentation from Google on how they calculate response rate?

There may be, but I don't know where it might be.

 

[Professor M]

Interesting.

Is there any documentation from Google on how they calculate response rate?

Chat with customers - Google Business Profile Help

 

[Tim Colling]

Chat with customers - Google Business Profile Help

Thank you!

 

[obcted]

Hey All - so I run a human powered chat service. We often do A/B tests against a companies in house chat team. Every time a client tells me something like this or similar:

According to them they reply to every message, even the bots, within 24 hours.

They are wrong. Usually drastically. We answer GMB messages for our clients an have a human respond the chats in 12 seconds on average for the first question. This is not really meant as a plug but depending on the vertical even if they did answer "Every chat within 24 hours" (which I doubt they are) that's not nearly fast enough.

Response times are judged in seconds not days and not just by Google's algo's but by the chatters who are sent automated questions by Google after every chat interaction (Google is sending chatter feedback push notification on EVERY Chat). You're not going to get a high score by people who manually evaluate your chat performance unless you reply fast (seconds - not day/s).

Google is setting a very high bar here so if you have a client that can answer GMB Messages quickly (seconds) I would recommend you turn it off or outsource it.

 

[Jon Hall]

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:

• 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.

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.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

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:

• 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.

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.

Thank you so much!

 

[Jon Hall]

@JoshuaMackens FWIW you can now setup free autoresponders and reply-by-email for Google Business Messages, something I've been working on for 2+ years lol: Autoresponders and Reply-by-Email for Google Business Messages