Google Business Profile optimisation

What you get right away

• More bookings from your customers, who will have more ways to get in touch with you: phone, email, social media and, if you like, a dedicated page of your own. And if you already use a booking service such as TheFork or OpenTable, I link it to your listing, so customers can book a table at any hour, wherever they are.

• Fewer customers walking away angry and leaving a bad review. What is one of your worst nightmares? I’ll tell you one of mine, from when my parents owned a restaurant: customers turning up to find the place closed. Day off or holidays, it makes no difference. Today an angry customer standing in front of a closed shutter almost always becomes a customer who leaves you a bad review. And you’ll be forced to explain to Google, famously slow on the uptake about these things, that this customer never actually ate at your place. By fixing your profile and keeping the information up to date, I reduce this risk.

• Fewer complaints. Because it’s clear from the start what you offer and what you don’t: information you can rely on in front of the customer and in the eyes of Google. If a customer complains that they “found it closed” or that “there was nothing for vegetarians”, you have an up-to-date listing to point them to, and a stronger public reply to give them and Google.

• Happy customers who walk into your place already knowing what they’ll find.

Why do it?

Every day tens of thousands of tourists visit your city, relying on Google Maps and Google’s other tools to find their way around. At any time of day or night, when your customer is looking for a restaurant, a hotel or a shop, Google can not only give them the addresses of the nearest ones, but also compare them by reputation and show photos of the shop and of the products or services on offer.

Your business probably already has a Google profile, created by you or perhaps by someone else without your knowledge. But do you really know what it tells your potential customers about you?

Let’s look at a few practical examples:

“I run a restaurant and I’ve got loads to do. I simply don’t have the time for this as well…”

In this example, extreme but real, you can see a restaurant whose owners don’t have the time to look after it.

It’s understandable that you don’t have time for everything. But have you ever thought about the consequences?

You’ve probably already noticed in the picture:

• The complete lack of an introduction explaining what makes the restaurant unique and which signature dishes should make it a place worth trying.

• The complete lack of a phone number to call for more information and perhaps to book a table.

• The complete lack of a menu: what will I eat if I walk into this restaurant? If I take my vegetarian girlfriend, will there be anything for her?

• The complete lack of an online booking system that lets people book a table without having to go to the restaurant in person.

• Nobody has claimed the listing. This means that any ill-intentioned competitor can happily do one or more of these nice little things:

  • Change the opening days and hours to make the restaurant look closed

  • Change the address to send people to a completely different part of the city, or to the competing restaurant

  • Change the phone number and/or add a link to the competitor’s website, literally stealing the page’s visitors and getting them to book at their place instead of at these unlucky owners'.

How I work

I claim the page in your name, making you the owner of the Google listing straight away and adding myself as technical contact. This means that:

• the page can only be managed by you and, with limitations, by me with your express permission.

• If tomorrow morning you decide you’d rather work with someone else, all it takes is the push of a button to remove me from your Google profile and add the new technician instead.

Once you own the listing, I immediately:

• Write an engaging description of your business, in both Italian and English, highlighting your strengths and the reasons why customers should choose you.

• Add your opening hours and any special closures, up to date and following your instructions, which I can change once more during the following fifteen months with a simple email or phone call from you. It’s already included in the price.

• Go through the photos already published, discard the worst ones and suggest better ones, even recommending, if you wish, a professional photographer specialised in food photography (that is, in showing off the products and services of places like yours).

Your customers can see straight away what you offer and how you present it

For a small extra, I can also host the digital version of your restaurant’s menus for you, so that your visitors can see what you offer, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

My smart system, a small application that runs inside a web page and is set up for your restaurant, lets people browse and search the dishes on your menus by type (meat, fish, vegetarian, vegan, halal, kosher) and, if you wish, by the allergens they contain. You provide the allergens, in a list that you check and confirm: I publish it exactly as you give it to me. From their smartphone, in two taps, your customers will find the dishes that suit their needs.

Want to go further? I can add a digital assistant, a real artificial intelligence that answers your customers, in their own language, about dishes, ingredients and opening hours. The day will come when I can offer it as standard to all my clients, but for now, given the costs, it’s an optional service with a separate recurring fee. When it comes to the allergens in your dishes, the final word always rests with your front-of-house staff.