Struggling with "Have AI Check Prices". No calls despite high map pack rank.

[Tpow]

We rank well for water heater repair in Silver Spring. MD. Automated calls are enabled.

I ran a test to see what results I would get for that service in that zip via the "Have AI Check Prices" button.

Of course I was waiting by the phone if we got an AI call. I even turned off our phone tree for the test, even though the AI is supposed to handle it well.

I got my email report. The two biggest companies got called, a long list of other local companies did not. The email says they "couldn't" contact the other businesses, but I'm sure that's not true.

According to this test, Google feeds only the two biggest companies business for this and leaves everybody else out.

What are other people finding for this? Our GBP interactions are way down this month even though our map pack visibility is the same.

 

[fisicx]

Don't trust AI. In fact don't even trust Google.

I've not heard anyone get good results from the AI check prices feature. I suspect there will be some niche businesses that have done well but the algo appears to be completely random.

But....

I see your competitors open 24 hours. They also have a schedule button on their GBP.

Or it could just be how Google felt on the day. There are way too many variables at play to give a meaningful answer.

 

[klharris08]

It is very concerning that email says "Businesses we couldn't reach" and you waited by the phone for a call which never came. Questions 1 = do you have call recording on that line, maybe (and I am full on guessing here I could be 10,000% wrong) that causes the AI to hang up? Question 2: Do you have the "accepted automated calls" featured turned on in advanced settings in GBP?

 

[Tpow]

We tested removing our menu but it made no difference. And several sources say the AI can successfully navigate a menu in any case.
I do have everything turned on, yes.

 

[Tpow]

At a minimum, it is a problem to say "we couldn't reach these companies" because the customer may assume they will not be able to either.

 

[JS Girard]

Theory: the calls are not done simultaneously. If the AI runs out of the time it's allotted itself/been allotted to do the calls, it stops there, and lumps call not made with unanswered ones.

I've seen similar behavior before, it's not the system, it's the result handling between "no response" vs. "call never initiated due to timeout". We had a system that tracks info updates, but if it exceeded a certain time spent retrieving data, GBPs not retrieved in that interval where marked as "lost access", as thought those GBPs were longer in the account! I had to start doing these updates in chunks instead of the entire account (which had ca. 1500 GBPs) to make sure I wouldn't get 100s of GBPs suddenly marked as "lost access"!