Google has been people’s primary source of information about various products and services, and it has been a reliable source for many years now. In case you didn’t notice, the search engine temporarily removed the customer feedback section during the COVID-19 pandemic, and, fortunately, it is finally back.

Google needed to halt reviews for a reason. This article will tell you what you can do now that the customer reviews are back to understand why this has happened.

The Suspension of Google Reviews: Why Did It Happen?

People almost always use search engines when buying things or looking for services. However, during the pandemic, Google suddenly halted this feature, particularly for the GMB listing. There are three reasons Google chose to do this:

• It is an aftereffect of their response for scaling down workforce or back support which works to deal with these reviews.
• They want to discourage bad reviews triggered by the pandemic’s restrictions.
• They made some feature updates.

Right now, the Google reviews feature is finally back. New reviews about non-healthcare businesses are slowly coming in. The only difference is that these reviews are not as high as before, and no new reviews for healthcare businesses are allowed into the system yet.

What’s The Latest?

If you are curious about the changes you would observe from the new Google reviews, there are many details you can add that would help your customers understand your business operation more.

Here are some of the noteworthy features:

• The posting of COVID-19-related information to give customers a heads up about your business updates. This may include adjusted hours of operations, warning for potential delays, extra services you would provide, and notice if your business is temporarily closed.
• There are now available review replies for you to use.
• Your page gets new user reviews, photos, and short names.
• Q&A features will be coming back too. Its comeback schedule varies based on countries and business categories.

On Google’s end, here are the changes that they will apply:

• They will start publishing Google posts that were restricted before.
• They will continuously review GMB listing edits and prioritize businesses that are critical to the health industry.
• They will manually check all details to verify businesses and additional COVID-related information.

Kindly note that the works mentioned are manually checked and reviewed by a team with a limited number of team members. For that reason, expect to experience a bit of delay with your listing and verification approvals. Although the team will prioritize health-related businesses, the process will be done manually. Therefore, there will still be delays before you get final confirmation.

What Entrepreneurs Should Do

If you have a business listed on GMB, now is your time to check and reply to your customer reviews. There is no overstating how important reviews are in establishing a business’s reputation. They also help a lot in search engine optimization and building people’s trust in your brand.

Here are the simple steps you should follow:

• Watch out for new comments on your business listing.
• Make sure that you respond to each.
• List down points for improvement.
• Also, reply to the customer feedback you receive on Facebook.
• Should you need more feedback, get people’s insights. You can create a poll, start a survey, and other means to get their thoughts about your business.

Conclusion

Every entrepreneur designed their business to be a solution to people’s problems. If you want to stay relevant to your target market, you need to continue improving, satisfying your consumers, and developing new products or services. Asking for their feedback is an excellent way to make informed decisions about your business. They could also be the source for innovative ideas that you have long been waiting for.

Customer feedback would truly improve your business performance but if you want a guarantee, consider getting the best reputation management software available. Turnkey Reputation can effortlessly increase your customer reviews for your business. You can integrate with 750+ applications and so much more. Start your 30-day free trial now!

---