Hi everyone,
I am Ilsur and based in Copenhagen since 2014. Russia is my home country and I travel there quite often.
It is easy to get around with Google Maps in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. However, very little information can be found on GM if you travel to smaller cities.
At first, I started adding information about accessibility. I was trying to get to a print shop and had no idea at what time they’d open and close. I had to walk to the shop and saw they printed and pinned their opening hours right on their door. So I added this information immediately on Google Maps. And I loved the experience and how smart and intuitive the app was. Apart from the working hours, the app had suggested me to add information about parking, wheelchair accessibility, and many other useful points.
Secondly, I needed to visit a private clinic and I found a number of them in my neighborhood. I went to the closest one and discovered that service level at this clinic was extremely horrible. There were no reviews on the app, so I had to add one. Then I have walked to another clinic, which was few hundreds meters away from the first one. There I experienced much better service level: personnel was kind and welcoming, there were no queues at the reception and at the doctors office.
I genuinely believe that leaving reviews on Google Maps is such an important thing these days. We are all busy and cannot waste our time visiting places that should not be visited. Moreover, we help local entrepreneurs to maintain and grow their businesses. By leaving a review we help them to get recognized for their efforts. That motivates them to keep up their good work and become even better.