New ways to manage Google Reviews and business info via your mobile

Back in June this year, Google finally sat up and paid attention to business requests for more data on customer interactions on Google Local and Search listings.

First off in June, they merged the management of Google Places listings and Google+ Local business pages into a neater new Google My Business dashboard.   This first iteration of Google My Business included some basic analytic information about views, engagement and audience types.  

As of 30th October, to coincide with a new Google My Business mobile apps upgrade, they’ve added some more great new data and feature options that will give local business owners easier access to customer review and listing interactions.

Customer Call Analytics

This new analytics view shows how many people have called your business on a daily, weekly or monthly basis via the Call button on your Google listing.   How might this help? If you are getting lots of calls, but not increased sales you could do well to look at your call answering procedures more closely.

Travel Directions Request

With this new analytics panel you can now see how many customers have asked for directions to your location via the Google ‘Get Directions’ or ‘Directions’ buttons that appear on search results.  How might this help? You can find out where people are coming from, which in turn may help you to adapt or create offers that respond to different customer groups.

Customer Review Notifications

This new update also includes notifications of the latest reviews you’ve picked up through your Google search listing or Google+ Local page and plus there’s the option to get more notifications about other Google activities.

Multi-Venue Manager Usage

If you’re managing multiple accounts on Google My Business you will also be able to browse through data for each venue using the new mobile app. 

In the hospitality industry, I know Marketing Managers are often on the go and work at several locations over the course of a week, so this option to view analytics via your mobile is a really welcome feature.    The app also allows you to upload new photos and information to your Google+ page directly from your phone which again makes it easier to keep your venue information refreshed and up to date.   

Did you know that you can also add up to 50 people as managers for each venue on Google My Business?  If you’d like to get your venue managers more involved with responding to reviews or uploading new venue photos to Google, then this app could provide the perfect tool for the job.