Google My Business tests a messaging feature to chat with your customers

Google My Business has posted in their help documents about a new pilot program that allows some businesses to chat with their customers directly via the local knowledge graph panel.

A new “message” button is added to your local listing on Google when you are in this test feature. The message button will initiate a chat between your business and the searcher. Google said that “Google My Business allows you to chat directly with customers who find your business listing on Google Search.”

Google said they sent some businesses emails “inviting you to participate in the pilot.” If you have not been invited, you will not have access to this feature.

Here is a screen shot of the message button in the local panel on Google:

The messaging goes through the businesses’ SMS number or via Google Allo.

For more details on this, please check out the Google help document.

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Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.