Digital Strategy BY BRUCE WRIGHT TIME TO CHECK YOUR GOOGLE LISTING?


>Ahead of Mother’s Day, some busi- nessowners who used Google to search for florist listings in their city, or Google Maps to get directions or a phone num- ber for their shop, were surprised to discover that Google indicated their shop was “temporarily closed” — even if it wasn’t. In most cases, correcting the list- ing proved quick, but the issue is one that florists should pay attention to this sum- mer and fall, especially if the pandemic continues to cause changes to rules, reg- ulations and business operating hours.


Unexpected Updates Implementation of the policy to label florists as “temporarily closed” began in March, according to a Google represen- tative. It was applied in several U.S. states and in countries where the multinational web giant had “data from an authoritative data source” indicating that flower shops should indeed be closed. The data source might be a state or local government, but it could also be an educational institution, nonprofit organization, or business. Florists in many cases were not


alerted to the change. This was true even if they had made a claim to their busi- ness profile with Google (thereby open- ing a free Google My Business account). “It just popped up one morning,”


said Robert Bryant, owner of Flowers by Robert Taylor in West Covina, California. “Thank goodness, a customer who had


a pickup early that morning called to let me know.” Like many others, Bryant could not receive customers in the store at the time, but he was open for curbside pickup and contact-free delivery. After trying to reach Google by


phone with no success, Bryant tried a second time and found that he was able to change the status simply by logging in to his Google My Business account: “An option came up, Mark This Business as Open. It wasn’t there in the morning, but an hour or two later, it was there.” Once he made the change, the effect


was dramatic: Orders started coming in for birthday flowers, anniversaries, even sympathy work (the latter sent to the home, of course).


Be Proactive Claiming your Google Business Profile is a very good idea — but even if you hav- en’t done so, you should still be able to change your status to “open” and to list the hours you are open. Find your Google listing online. If it bears a red banner with the words “Temporarily Closed,” click on the downward-pointing arrow that ap- pears to the right of those words. Google then gives you an opportunity to report that information as incorrect. That’s what happened for Melinda


McCoy at Melinda McCoy’s Flowers in Long Beach, California, who kept her business going, observing legal restric-


UPDATED DELIVERY


ATTRIBUTES Beyond updating or cor- recting your operating sta- tus, Google also has created service option attributes for businesses during the pan- demic, including the ability to communicate how you can get flowers to customers.


A tip directly from Google: “When customers search for your store, your Business Profile will prominently show which of these delivery modes you currently support: ‘Pickup,’ ‘Delivery,’ ‘Curbside pickup,’ or ‘In-store shopping.’ Supported modes will have a ‘’ and non-supported modes will have an ‘x.’”


tions, all through California’s state-or- dered stay-at-home period. A florist friend, Elizabeth Seiji, AIFD, of Edelweiss Flowers in Santa Monica, California, called to let her know that Google was telling the world she was closed. “I didn’t know how to fix that, but


Liz did it for me on her computer,” said McCoy. “I cannot thank her enough.” The change took effect in a matter of minutes — and when it did, McCoy’s business went from five or six deliveries a day to about 24. A change to a business’s status


in online search listings will update in both Google Search and Google Maps, according to the representative from Google, who also confirms that Google does vet each request to temporarily close or reopen a business. The Society of American Florists


has step-by-step instructions on how to fix incorrect listings available at safnow.org/moreonline.


Bruce Wright is a contributing writer for the Society of American Florists. bwright@safnow.org


QUICK CHANGE You should be able to update your status in Google Search easily and rapidly online.


40 FLORAL MANAGEMENT | June 2020 | WWW.SAFNOW.ORG


SHUTTERSTOCK/ PK STUDIO


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52