The main motto of any business is to stand unique among the crowd of numerous businesses. To serve the purpose, people from various fields are thriving to prove their potential in numerous ways. The key to success is to work as per the demands of the clients. Hence, along with producing excellent products and services, it is also important to be actively involved with public communication. Recently, Google has introduced a new attribute in Google Maps, named Questions & Answers or Q & A. This is a feature that allows other people as well as you to participate in the questions and answers regarding your business. This is a great feature that can hugely influence your business. Therefore, it is mandatory to be an active participant in this feature to take your business to a new height. Importance of Google’s Q & A
This unique feature enables others to ask questions about your business, which gets featured on the page Google Map. Either you can answer the queries or people who have experienced your service can answer those on your behalf. But, it is always suggested to be actively involved in answering queries. This enhances the trust of the clients as well as the confusion also gets cleared. If you have your business listed under Google My Business Listing, then it will be a compulsory task for you to solve the queries of the consumers. This might seem an exhausting task, but the outcome can be proved to be highly beneficial. Online visibility from the perspective of a business owner is a must otherwise the customers might interpret the solution in the way they want. This can prove to be very harmful to your business and customer experience. On the other hand, if you proactively respond to all the queries of the clients, your online reputation is bound to improve.
Advantages of Participating in Q & A
You need to invest a good amount of time to solve the queries of the clients. However, there are numerous benefits in exchange for the invested time. Let’s have a look at those:
- It is a feature that acts like an active review of your business.
- The misconceptions of the customers can be easily sorted.
- The proper answer from your end reflects trustworthiness and professionalism.
- If your competitors post a fake or degrading comment on your page, the misconception around the same gets cleared effectively.
Despite all the advantages, the feature also has a disadvantage. If the queries of the customers get solved with this feature, then they won’t bother to click on the website, which will decrease the traffic. But, this feature can be optimized as per your requirement to get the most out of it.
Optimization of Google’s Q & A
To optimize this latest feature, there are a few steps that need to be followed. They are as follows:
1. Tackling the feature in a dedicated way -
The feature demands acute attention to get a positive outcome from it. Hence, you must be able to respond to every query to avoid misinterpretation. 2. Design your own set of Q & A -
If the page has not come up with various questions, it is best to get ready with your own set of Q & A, to give relevant and useful information. This will give the clients an appropriate insight into your business. However, before proceeding with the same, it is mandatory to get your business signed in the Google My Business account, so the answers are showcased on behalf of the business owner to prove the authenticity.
3. Include specific features in Q & A -
If your business is offering specific services to the clients, mention it in this section. This will make people aware of the same.
4. Empathize with the customers -
While responding to the queries of the customers, it is important to put yourself in the customer’s shoes to gain their confidence. The language should also be normal to make it understandable.
5. Don’t sell any product -
The feature has been introduced to help the customers. Hence, you should not deviate from the motto and promote any product. This will make the customers think otherwise.
6. Prompt action offers the best results -
When the Google Map is turned on, the push notification beeps the moment anyone posts any question. You must utilize the facility and answer the query immediately before anyone else does. Once you reply with an appropriate answer, people won’t get a space to respond with irrelevant information.
7. Utilize the voting system -
The earlier responses get the most number of likes, which keeps the answer at the top of the list, making it more visible.
8. Reporting any spam -
It is not possible to hide any spam or junk. However, you can report it to Google. To get a fruitful result from this feature, you need to keep an eagle’s eye on the page of Google’s Map. Instead of responding to any query with a simple ‘no’ or ‘yes’, try to elaborate on the responses. This will stop the spammers from manipulating your answers.
Conclusion
To get the most from this feature, it is important to fill your website with captivating content and images. This will make sure the customers get all the required information. The other way to give the customers an appropriate response is to keep the My Business Listing updated. See the feature from the perspective of customer review and utilize the questions and grievances to improvise your business. If you are successful in responding to and solving all the queries, you are sure to gain the trust and confidence of the clients. This will help the business in the long run. Google is still thriving to improve its feature in many ways. Hence, you can expect to see certain changes as well. But for the time being, it is important to keep track of the page to make the feature work for your business.
Written by: Jitendra Raulo
Jitendra Raulo is the Founding Director at Aarav Infotech India Pvt. Ltd., a leading Web Design and Digital Marketing Company with 11+ years of experience and having headquarter in Mumbai, India, and Support Centre at Bhubaneswar, India, he is actively working with Start-ups, SMEs and Corporations utilizing technology to provide business transformation solution.