Any business worth their salt understands the importance of having an online presence. While it’s essential to be present on digital platforms, equally critical is managing your online reputation. It’s for this reason why tools like Google My Business were created. Google My Business is a user-friendly feature that allows businesses to monitor and organize their presence across Google. Not only does it promote consumer engagement, but it also enables you to advertise your products and services efficiently.

Since its inception, Google My Business has performed many updates. The latest feature it’s introducing is a call history option. In essence, GMB is making it possible for businesses to see customer calls and return missed calls easily. Unfortunately, the project is still in the early stages of development. Though the “try it out” button is available, clicking it prompts a kickback message stating that the user “will be notified when this feature is available.” In the meantime, GMB has created a help page where visitors can learn more.

Clicking on the “learn more” link will redirect you to a page that outlines the purpose of the call history tool and how to navigate it. Simply put, this new component breathes convenience into tracking phone calls from customers on Google Search. To simplify matters, all calls are logged in one place, which GMB has done to make it easy for companies to stay engaged with both existing customers and potential clients. Even better, Google My Business maintains that this advancement will make it simpler for businesses to track leads and find and do business with customers who found them on Google. If you receive any calls from Google, you’ll be sent a short message stating so, which you can access from your business profile.

Once GMB has perfected the call history option, a tab will be added to the Google My Business app. This is where users can see missed and answered calls that have come through. Without the app, you can’t view this information. Google My Business has made it very clear that this data won’t be available on the browser version of GMB. This is no doubt its attempt to drive more people to the app.

While many are highly anticipating the arrival of GMB’s newest feature, some are opting not to employ it because it disguises the company’s actual phone number. Many have likened this to Google camouflaging publisher domains as AMP URLs. For GMB to log calls in user profiles, Google has to create a forwarding number, which is made-up. Though the company’s real number will still be listed on its business profile, the forwarding number will be activated when a customer hits “call.” Currently, the beta version is being produced and will be available to a select group of U.S. companies.

Let ENX2 Marketing Optimize Your Google My Business Listing

Your Google My Business listing is one of the foundations that must be set up and optimized properly if you want to be found by as many potential customers or clients as possible. Contact ENX2 Marketing today and let us set up and verify your listing, and well as optimize it to improve your local SEO efforts and be found easily on Google.