GMB – Messaging

Google My Business Action Plan

GMB Messaging (Chat)

Your customers can get in touch with you in real-time from your Business Profile on Google. You can answer questions, tell your story, and attract more customers to your business. Messaging works best as a conversation between your business and your customers.

  • ONLY Available in the GMB app (Android or iPhone)
  • Not for businesses with multiple locations ((100’s)
  • Perfect for LOCAL small businesses that are managing GMB yourself. 
  • Quickly answer questions while customer is looking at your GMB profile (Deciding;)
  • Important to reply with 24hrs.

How GMB Messaging Works

Note:

Once you turn on messaging, customers will find a “Message” button on your Google My Business listing, and be able to message you at any time.

  • Messages will appear in the Google My Business app, and you’ll receive notifications for incoming messages. 
  • You can customize the automated welcome message that customers will get when they message you.
  • You can share photos with your customers through messages.
  • If multiple people own or manage your Google My Business listing, each one can message with customers.
  • Customers may find your name and profile photo from your About me page.

Setup for Android

Note:

Turn on or off messaging

  1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google My Business app.
    • If you have multiple locations, open the location you’d like to manage.
  2. To turn on or off messaging:
    • Turn on: Tap Customers and then Messages and then Turn on.
      • Once you’ve turned on messages, you can return to Customers and then Messages to get all messages chronologically.
    • Turn off: Tap More More and then Settings Settings and then Messages. Then turn off Turn on messages.

Turn on or off Google My Business app notifications

Notifications let you know when customers contact you, which is helpful to maintain your 24 hour response time requirement. If you turn off app notifications, you’ll turn off all notifications, including messaging.

  1. On your Android phone or tablet, open your phone’s settings.
  2. Tap Apps & notifications and then Notifications.
  3. Under “Recently sent,” turn on or off the Google My Business app.
    • If you don’t see the Google My Business app, tap See all from last 7 days. 

Block a conversation

  1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google My Business app.
    • If you have multiple locations, open the location you’d like to manage.
  2. Tap Customers and then Messages.
  3. Open the conversation you want to block.
  4. Tap More More and then Block/report spam. The conversation will be blocked, and you’ll no longer receive messages from the customer.

Delete a conversation

  1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google My Business app.
    • If you have multiple locations, open the location you’d like to manage.
  2. Tap Customers and then Messages.
  3. Open the conversation you want to delete.
  4. Tap More More and then Delete. The conversation will be deleted from your device (but won’t be deleted from the customer’s device).

Share photos

You can share photos of any size or format. There’s no limit to how many photos you can share at once.

  1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google My Business app.
    • If you have multiple locations, open the location you’d like to manage.
  2. Tap Customers and then Messages.
  3. Open the conversation you want to share photos in.
  4. Tap Photo Camera.
  5. Choose a photo or take a new one.
  6. Tap Share.

Tip: You can delete photos through the thumbnails menu.

Find average response time

Businesses can find and track their average response time in the app. You can get insights if you have messaging turned on in your Google My Business app.

These insights will display the average wait time for a message response using the last 28 days of data. You can choose a longer time period as well. You may be able to compare average response times for similar businesses nearby. All insights will be private to you and won’t be shared with your customers.

To get your messaging insights:

  1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google My Business app.
  2. Tap Customers and then Messages.
  3. At the top, you’ll get your response time.

Setup for iPhone/iPad

Note:

Turn on or off messaging

  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google My Business app.
    • If you have multiple locations, open the location you’d like to manage.
  2. To turn on or off messaging:
    • Turn on: Tap Customers and then Messages and then Turn on.
      • Once you’ve turned on messages, you can return to Customers and then Messages to get all messages chronologically.
    • Turn off: Tap More More and then Settings Settings and then Messages. Then turn off Turn on messages. You can turn on messaging again at any time.

Turn on or off messaging notifications

  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google My Business app.
    • If you have multiple locations, open the location you’d like to manage.
  2. Tap More More and then Settings Settings and then Notifications.
  3. Turn on or off Notifications.
  4. Check the box for each type of notification you want to receive.

Block a conversation

  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google My Business app.
    • If you have multiple locations, open the location you’d like to manage.
  2. Tap Customers and then Messages.
  3. Open the conversation you want to block.
  4. Tap More More and then Block/report spam. The conversation will be blocked, and you’ll no longer receive messages from the customer.

Delete a conversation

  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google My Business app.
    • If you have multiple locations, open the location you’d like to manage.
  2. Tap Customers and then Messages.
  3. Open the conversation you want to delete.
  4. Tap More More and then Delete. The conversation will be deleted from your device (but won’t be deleted from the customer’s device).

Share photos

You can share photos of any size or format. There’s no limit to how many photos you can share at once.

  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google My Business app.
    • If you have multiple locations, open the location you’d like to manage.
  2. Tap Customers and then Messages.
  3. Open the conversation you want to share photos in.
  4. Tap Photo Camera.
  5. Choose a photo or take a new one.
  6. Tap Share.
Tip: You can delete photos through the thumbnails menu.

Find average response time

Businesses can find and track their average response time in the app. You can get insights if you have messaging turned on in your Google My Business app.

These insights will display the average wait time for a message response using the last 28 days of data. You can choose a longer time period as well. You may be able to compare average response times for similar businesses nearby. All insights will be private to you and won’t be shared with your customers.

To get your messaging insights:

  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google My Business app.
  2. Tap Customers and then Messages.
  3. At the top, you’ll get your response time.
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