As an employee, small business owner, and also as google guide I have different points of view.
The idea when I joined this program accidentally when I got so many complaints from guests at my work, is just to help them get the right direction on the map.
But soon after, I believed this program would help so many businesses, small or big.
Me and my wife have small food stall, at side of our house, we sell Indonesian meatball, east java style called bakso malang, we also have dim sum in our list , and of course Indonesian style too, not original one like Chinese style dim sum.
At the beginning we run this business, it is really hard to promote what we sell and bring customer came in, because our house is far away from the main street, just at the corner of alleyway, surrounded by houses, and the alleyway just fit for 1 car only, or 2 motorcycle from 2 directions.
Slowly but for sure now our business is growing, it is not gain big profit yet, but many new customers come to our places, google guide and also google map make them easier find our food stall, and now we plan to move our food stall to a bigger place near main street, to boost both sales and income.
As a google guide, I see in google map, business owners in my neighborhood do not care about pins that have been created in the google map to locate their store.
When they shut down the business permanently, or they moved somewhere and did not change the location pin, it would make customers upset and even angry, of course it’s bad for the business owner itself , to make good business they have to be trustworthy.
This makes me know many of them personally, and when I talk to them, I would advise them to make changes to their status on the google map and tell them how important to be trustworthy is in business.
Finally of course they know me as a google guide, they asked me about what google guide is, and how to put their store name on the map, and who can create it, or how the review impacts their business.
Also, they asked me for suggestions or just opinions on how to improve their product or service to get a good review, even though I’m not a business expert, I need suggestions from them too.
I don’t see the small food business owners who open food stalls business the same as me in my neighborhood as competitors, I see them as partners , partners to discuss and sharing knowledge.
Because I gain so much benefit from google guide, it is my turn to help peoples, both customers and business owners.
