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Level 10

Re: Place marked as closed when it's very much in business?


@Pea wrote:

@DiAnaUS wrote:

 if all else fails just create a new listing for the place on maps! 🙂


The one thing you should definitely NOT do is create a new listing, that only generates a duplicate which can lead to greater problems down the line.

Pea,

I thought I had read all the replies before I responded.

 

Is my face red 😞        I dunno how I missed your response -- I wouldn't have replied had I read it!

 

 

 

 

Level 9
Level 9

Re: Place marked as closed when it's very much in business?

Hey MW, no problem, your reply was more fulsome than mine and will help others in future.

 

One point though, I'll refer everyone back to this comment from GregMcG regarding Local Guides not contacting GMB support

Level 6

Re: Place marked as closed when it's very much in business?

I submitted via the corporate site. along with links/etc.

 

I'll wait a bit to see if they resolve it with google and then, if they don't, I'll continue with the steps mentioned above.

(Corporations are not known for caring much about one location.)

 

Thanks again, everyone, for your input.  It has been a good discussion!

For my part, I'm just annoyed that when I try to do a planned trip (for timing) I can't pull it up as a point along the way...... so..... purely selfish.... but of course it would benefit the business as well for people who DON'T live right near by to know that it's there and open.

 

 

Level 10

Re: Place marked as closed when it's very much in business?

@Pea wrote:

Hey MW, no problem, your reply was more fulsome than mine and will help others in future.

 


Pea,

 

You are very generous in your response.  I'm still irked that I was "that guy".  No one wants to be that guy 😉

 


One point though, I'll refer everyone back to this comment from GregMcG regarding Local Guides not contacting GMB support

 

I'm glad you referenced GregMcG's (TC) reply concerning "not contacting" GMB support.  I did read that response (honest! 😉 at the time, however, I interpreted it differently.  I didn't understand it as "don't refer anything to GMB", rather that the particular questions about edits in that thread may not have been really GMB-related, and the general editing issues presented to Local Guides ought to get solved within the Local Guides forum.

 

Over in the Google Maps & Earth Help Forum questions that in any way mention "business" are routinely funneled to the Google My Business forum by Community Specialists -- and as they set a role-model example for other volunteers in the forum, those other volunteers often follow suit.

 

I have (since becoming active in Google Maps Help Forum after the close of Map Maker in April 2017) thought that (funneling) procedure/policy was wrong-headed for basically three reasons: 

 

(1) If the question can be correctly solved by a Maps Help forum volunteer, and especially if the solution can be helpful to other users in a non-business setting in the future, then it seems providing the answer would be the best result possible and desired.

 

(2) IMNHO, since the closing of Map Maker and other support forums, my guess is that the volume of requests hitting the GMB Support Forums (with all their various options) has drastically increased.  Of course, I don't know anything about any of that as factual.  To create a funnel in the Google Maps Help Forum to send any seemingly business-related question to GMB -- even it has been correctly answered in the Maps Help Forum is not what I would think would be helpful to the volunteers at GMB, nor to the GMB users who will be affected by longer queue times.

 

(3) Asking a user who has found their way to the Maps Help Forum to resubmit their question (even if correctly answered) to GMB creates another hoop for the user to have to jump through. In my view, this is not the way to create a positive user experience.

 

I know that the Local Guides Connect and the sub-forum Mapping Your World are different than the Maps Help Forum.  I confess it's not yet entirely clear to me when the best practice for a user would be to post their mapping question in Mapping Your World, as opposed to the Google Maps Help Forum -- but I'm sure as time goes by I'll know more about the differences and distinctions.

 

And recently I have learned that one of the functions of the Community Specialists is to review all the questions in the Map Help forum to be sure it has been answered to an acceptable level of quality – which can only a good thing.

 

I posted a comment to GregMcG in the thread mentioned earlier (that you linked to) asking him to weigh in on advising if (and when) questions ought to be referred to GMB. It will be good to know the policy/guidelines relative to the Local Guides Connect forums.

 

Below, FYI, are just two samples of dozens of responses I've received regarding referral to GMB.

 

Benjamin - Community Specialist said: (06-28-17)
@     In addition to the information provided by @ Map Wrangler, I suggest resubmitting your query to the Google My Business Community for better support.

     https://productforums.google.com/d/msg/maps/9uPlvtFmBA0/5pNu4w3cAQAJ  

 

Amanda - Community Specialist said:  (06-27-17)

     @map Wrangler - Thanks for pitching in to help.

 

@    @michael - As this is a business related question, I would request you to submit your query to the Google My Business Community so that you get appropriate help.

     https://productforums.google.com/d/msg/maps/psaHLdiuavg/HFddiX-NAQAJ  

 

With just one search query in the Maps Help Forum, there are more than 300 such boilerplate replies funneling the allegedly "business related" question to GMB, regardless of the quality of the answer given, or that the question may not (only) be "business" related.

 

In a few posts, I (in essence) asked the Community Specialist how the particular question was "business related".  I never received a response, and just let it go.

 

Those responses became so prevalent, however, that I sometimes included a proactive note in my reply to a user I was trying to help 😉

 

     "As an aside, tomorrow (06-12-17) you likely will receive a post advising you to contact Google My Business (GMB) as "this is a business related question" (in addition to the post already received 😉  For now, please just set that suggestion aside. It  appears that your business is claimed with GMB, and it's likely that they may be the ones who can get the issue resolved the quickest -- but we wanna send you to them with all the information you need to make an effective request at GMB -- as well as where to make it ;)"

https://productforums.google.com/d/msg/maps/_UITCs5oAaM/skWBBB2gAAAJ

 

 

 

 

@Pea @GregMcG @MapWrangler

 

 

 

 

 

Level 8

Re: Place marked as closed when it's very much in business?

Hi Everyone,

 

Sorry for the delay, 

 

It's important to remember that specific forums have specific focuses and some may also have different workflows to assist people.

 

Local Guides covers many different aspects of Google Maps. It also has its own forum. To me, the idea with Local Guides is to try and provide as much support as possible in this forum. That being said specific problems with the Maps application should probably be researched in the Maps forum, this ensures that the most up to date information can be found and if someone were to post there the Maps team would, in my opinion, be the best team to handle the escalation and responses for issues specific to Maps and not Local Guides. (I.e. software bugs and not local guides points or rewards issues)

 

If a Local Guide happens to be the owner of the business they are asking a question about then they have the ability to talk to GMB support directly. In my opinion, Local Guides asking about edits to businesses who are not the business owner should be getting support here.

 

In the Maps forum, I always try to make sure the OP is the business owner or representative before sending them to the GMB forum. I'm not saying that GMB will not be able to help others however when we send someone to another forum which may not be set up to deal with their specific question or issue they may not get the right response, this creates a poor user experience for people.

 

I hope I have elaborated enough to satisfy any remaining questions. However, if I have missed something, feel free to point out it out and I'll do my best to add more detail.

Google Maps Platinum Product Expert, Top Contributor for Google Map Maker (Product Retired) and Regional Lead (Product Retired).
Level 7

Re: Place marked as closed when it's very much in business?

I was notified today that my edit to re-open this place was published 

Level 6

Re: Place marked as closed when it's very much in business?

THANKS!!!

 

Level 10

Re: Place marked as closed when it's very much in business?