How to Use Google Business Messages to Interact With Your Customers?

Connecting and interacting with customers is vital for every business. Customer satisfaction and loyalty are two key ingredients that make up all successful businesses. Thus, it is important for every business to be in constant communication with customers and keep that relationship alive and thriving. One way you can interact with your customers successfully is by using Google Business Message.

But it's never enough to only use it and call it a day. On the contrary, you need to know how to use it to get the most out of it. And that's what this article is for. Namely, this article will teach you all about Google Business Message and show you how you can use it to interact with your customers. So, without further ado, let's begin.

What Is Google Business Message?

Google's Business Messages is a chat service that you can use to communicate with people. In other words, you, as a company, can use it to communicate with customers right from your Google Business Profile listing on Google Search and Google Maps.

With this chat service, people can find you and contact you right after they search for you in the search bar. So, Google Business Message provides a convenient and hassle-free way for people to get in touch with you. Thanks to this service, people won't have to go out of their way to find a number or an email address to contact you. Instead, they will have everything readily available and can ask what they want with a few clicks.

All in all, Google Business Message is an excellent service ideal for businesses. What's more, it is free to use and available for everyone who wants to use it, no matter where they're from!

Google's Business Messages API

There are two ways you can use Google Business Message. The first one is through the Google Business Profile app. The second one is through Google's Business Messages API. Google's Business Messages API is usually facilitated through third-party providers. It is more suitable for larger businesses that have bigger messaging demands. But what is an API? An API (Application Programming Interface) is a piece of software that connects two or more applications. It allows systems to exchange data sources and keep data in sync. With an API, you can integrate all your applications and make them work seamlessly with one another and achieve excellent productivity.

With Google Business Message API, you will be able to handle large amounts of messages. Also, you can integrate it with an existing communication platform and other apps. Some of Google's Business Messages API features you can benefit from include:

• Better discoverability on Google
• Professional suggestions on how to reply to customers
• You will be able to show useful information easily on your Business Profile
• 24/7 customer support for your customers
• You will be able to send surveys to customers and ask them to rate their experience with your business.

However, those are not the only benefits you will get. Namely, solely by using an API, you will benefit greatly from things like automation, a decrease in human error, visibility, and scalability. The data that you want to send from one application to another will be sent automatically by the API. That way, you won't have to worry if all the data is up to date. And since the API is a software program, everything will be done by a computer, reducing the chances of an employee making a mistake.

Google Business Profiles for Small Businesses

Small businesses can take advantage of everything Google Business Message has to offer via the Google Business Profile app. Also, the app is free and won't put a strain on their budgets.

With Google Business Profiles, small businesses can easily attract new customers and turn them into loyal ones. All people need to do is search for your business online, and the rest is easy! Also, to improve the user experience further, you can customize your profile and add photos, working hours, and menus to your profile. That way, people will know what you do right away.

Other things you can add to your Google Business Profile include your location, phone number, and service or product description. In addition, customers can write reviews on your profile and boost your rank on Google. You can also respond to reviews, post answers to frequently asked questions, and communicate via Google Business Message with customers.

Restaurants can also accept orders directly from their Google Business Profile. Furthermore, they can take reservations and add their menus. Another great feature that you can do with a Google Business Profile is discovering which keyword people use to find your business. For example, some people might use the name of your business, and others might use your service. By knowing which keyword people use to find you, you can optimize your Google Profile better and make sure that the keyword is used more often in it. By doing so, you will increase the chances of people finding you on Google.

All in all, you can do it all with a Google Business Profile!

How to Set Up Google Business Profile Chat Messages?

You can set up chat messages on your Google Business Profile both on desktop and mobile. Let's see how.

To set up Google Business Message on your profile via desktop, you first need to log into your Google Business Profile. If you don't have one, you need to create it before setting things up. You can find the "Sign In" button at the top right corner of the https://www.google.com/business/ site. After clicking the "Sign In" button, you will receive a few prompts which you need to follow to access your profile.

Now that you have completed the first step, you need to click "Messages" in the menu options that will appear on your screen. You can find the "Messages" submenu on the left menu screen of your profile.

Once you click on "Messages," you need to turn on messaging. You can do that by clicking the blue button called "Turn on messaging," which will appear in the top right corner of your screen. And you're done!

Now, let's see how you can set up Google Business Message on Apple and Android mobile devices. Firstly, you will need to download the Google My Business app from the App or Play Store. After you do that, you need to sign into your Google Business Profile.

Once you're done with that, you need to enable messaging. To do that, you need to go to "Customers," then select "Messages," and click "Turn On." After doing all of that, you will get an email from Google confirming that your message button is active. And, just like that, you're done!

Regardless of whether you set up Google Business Message via desktop or mobile, you always need to make sure that your messages are personalized. Also, you can turn on notifications, so you don't miss any messages.

The Use of Google Business Messages and Chatbots

No one has the time to answer every message they receive on a daily basis. Especially companies. Suppose you're a business owner. You have your daily responsibilities and tasks that you need to complete. On top of that, you also have messages to respond to and customers to serve. Can you do it all in a timely manner by yourself? Sure, you can, but you will lose precious time in return.

However, there is a solution to this issue. Namely, you can use a chatbot to respond to messages for you! Chatbots are excellent tools that can help you save time and keep customers satisfied. They are online 24/7 and respond to messages immediately. So, even when you're sleeping, the chatbot will serve your customers and answer their questions for you.

You can easily integrate a chatbot with your Google Business Message and take a lot off your plate. But how will the chatbot know what to reply to certain messages? Well, you'll tell it! You can program your chatbot to respond to certain questions with predetermined answers of your choosing. To do this, you can go through the conversation you have had with customers and see which questions they ask often. Then, you will provide your chatbot with the answers, and will be good to go.

And don't worry, if your chatbot is not able to answer a certain question, you can program it to schedule a call-back or tell the customer that an agent will answer their question shortly. Either way, you can't go wrong with integrating a chatbot with your Google Business Message.

Google Messaging Guidelines

When using Google Business Message, you will need to abide by certain guidelines. If you don't, Google will suspend your chat option, and we don't want that do we?

Businesses need to abide by the following guidelines:

• When chatting with a customer, you cannot ask for sensitive information, including credit card information, social security numbers, passport info, passwords, and other government or login credentials;
• You have to respond to your customers in a timely manner;
• Do not send customers irrelevant or unwanted messages, like messages about products they didn't ask about, long messages, or messages with a lot of emojis and URLs. Also, you cannot message customers repeatedly with no response;
• Do not pretend that you are someone else or that you represent a company that you do not work at;
• You must not provide inaccurate promotion details;
• You must respond to messages within 24 hours after you receive them.

There are also other important guidelines that both businesses and customers need to abide by, and you can find more information about them here.