What to expect when you're...migrating to the new agency dashboard

[Tim Colling]

Here's what I experienced. You may have a similar experience. I hope that some find this helpful because it doesn't happen quickly. It uses Google time, apparently.

It was not an instant process.

It was a five-day journey:

• Day 1 - I created the agency dashboard. The migration option was not visible in the agency dashboard at that point.
• Day 3 - The migration option appeared in the agency dashboard. I used it to migrate the locations in my old "personal" dashboard. I received an on-screen confirmation of my migration request, which said that it would take approximately 48 hours for the locations to be reviewed and then migrated.
• Day 5 - The locations appeared in the new agency dashboard.

Your journey may be different.

 

[Rich Owings]

Would you recommend other people do this, or is it not worth the pain?

 

[Tim Colling]

I think that it will turn out to be worth it. It's not really all that bad, if you know, going into it, that it's going to be a multi-day process.

 

[kylewilson]

I've been afraid to start this process myself after reading about the initial chaos, though the migration tool does seem promising. What additional benefits does the agency dashboard give you?

 

[JoyHawkins]

The 2 I like is the organization aspect - super easy to add new employees in bulk to specific sets of clients and the fact that you can request access to listings (vs businesses adding you).

 

[Tim Colling]

Here's an update: one of my locations did not migrate. The owner has re-invited my gmail account used-only-temporarily-for-the-migration several times, but google refuses to allow me to accept the invitation with that account.

Equally frustrating: my original gmb account appears to be empty but when I try to add the email address for that original account to my new agency dashboard, google wont allow me to do so, saying that I can't do so because I still have an account with it.

I reported all this to Google GMB tech support on Monday and I'm waiting to hear back from them now.

Google. Sheesh.

 

[JoyHawkins]

@Tim Colling check Google My Business while logged into that email. It's likely you are still connected to a brand account somehow.

If you're dealing w/ Google support, use this link to get the team responsible for the agency dashboard specifically.

 

[Tim Colling]

Thank you, @JoyHawkins and @Colan Nielsen, for all your help.

This afternoon I decided not to wait any longer for Google to get back to me (48 hours had passed) so I just waded in and figured out the solution on my own. I had created a gmail account to "own" the agency dashboard, and somehow I had gotten that same gmail account associated with the old GMB dashboard as well, as a "business". I removed it and that took care of the main issue.

One other thing that I had to learn on my own after that: for any new clients, we have to ask them to invite us by using our organization ID, not an email address. The organization id is a ten-digit number that is assigned to your agency, or to a "location group" within your agency account.

 

[JoyHawkins]

@Tim Colling check out the section on the agency dashboard in my guide. It covers that scenario and a couple other things that are different between the normal vs agency dashboard.

 

[Tim Colling]

Will do. I meant to do that after the migration was complete, and then I forgot after the migration was such a chaotic experience. Thanks, @JoyHawkins!