Google has just announced a new tool to help companies that have a profile on Google Maps, which aims to facilitate communication with customers and manage the public profile in a more prudent manner.
The new tool is called Google My Business and comes in the form of an app for Android and iOS platforms. In the video at the end of the article, you can quickly see all the potentials: it consists in the possibility of creating company accounts on Google Maps specifically manage communications with customers, reservations, propose special offers and consult detailed and summary statistics on the trend of your company.
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The gallery animation shows you how the Google Maps app will offer a dedicated section where you can gather all conversations with companies. Furthermore, it will also be possible to access the conversation with the company directly from the personal profile of the company itself.
The chat itself is quite simple, without being able to send images, emojis, stickers or anything other than text. The response messages can be personally signed by the person writing them instead of anonymously by the company, which is an interesting touch (and not present in WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger).
Thus, Google Maps becomes a messaging application. Well, rather messaging with business messaging. In fact, it is possible to consult the list of past conversations from the side panel of the application, in the new Messages section.
It is not clear when the functionality will be extended globally since messages to businesses have been tested in some countries since last year. If you are someone who hates to call on the phone, be patient: soon you will need to do less and less, and from Google Maps itself.
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