Google Business Profile and reviews: a local owner's guide

Start by searching for your own business on your phone, the way a stranger would. Try your business name, then the service plus your area, such as the thing you sell and the name of your locality. Note what appears: is there a listing, are the hours right, is the phone number the one you answer, are the photographs yours, are there reviews, and has anyone replied to them? Most owners find at least one thing that is wrong. Write the list down; that is your plan.

The next step is to claim the profile. Google says that you need to verify a business to manage its information, edit details such as the name or hours, and respond to customers. The verification methods you are offered, for example a phone call or text, email, a video recording, a live video call or a postcard sent by post, depend on your business and location and are decided by Google, not by you. A postcard can take some days to arrive, so start early. For a video you may be asked to show your premises. If a profile already exists for your business, Google's help pages explain how to claim it rather than starting a duplicate.

Then fill in the profile carefully, because Google has guidelines for it. Use the name your customers know, as it appears on your signboard, stationery and website, and leave out taglines, phone numbers, hours and descriptions. Give your real location, not a post box or a borrowed address. Choose a primary category that describes your core business, and add other categories only if they genuinely apply; Google advises using as few as possible. Enter regular opening hours, and update them for festivals and holidays. If you travel to customers instead of receiving them at a shop, Google has separate guidance on service-area businesses, including hiding your address, so read it before you set yours up.

Add photographs of your actual premises and your actual work. Customers trust a real photograph of a counter, a kitchen, a finished job or a clinic waiting area more than a stock image. Write a short, plain description of what you do and for whom, in the language your customers use. Check that your name, address and phone number match your website and other listings.

Now reviews. Google lets businesses ask customers to leave a review, and provides a way to create a link or QR code that takes them straight there. Put the QR code on a counter card or bill, or send the link on WhatsApp after the work is done. A sentence such as "If you were happy with the work, would you mind leaving us a review?" is enough. Let people write in their own words.

What you must not do is as important. Google's policy says businesses must not offer payment, discounts, free goods or services in exchange for a review, and must not selectively ask for positive reviews or discourage negative ones. Asking only the customers you expect to be pleased is a form of that. Pressing people to post while they are still standing at your counter, or asking them to write particular things, is also against the policy. Reviews that are not based on a real experience, including ones written by staff, relatives or paid writers, are treated as fake. Google can remove reviews and act against a listing that breaks its rules, and Indian consumer-protection rules also address fake reviews. If unsure, do not do it, and read Google's current policy.

Reply to every review you can, and do it in a human voice. For praise, say thank you and mention something they said, so it does not read like a template. For criticism, wait an hour before writing. Acknowledge what went wrong without excuses, say what you will do about it, and offer a way to continue by phone. Never argue, never reveal a customer's personal details and never assume a bad review is fake just because it hurts. A calm reply is written for the next person who reads the page, who will judge you by how you respond. Google reviews replies before they appear, so they may take a little while to show.

You cannot delete a customer's review yourself. If a review breaks Google's content policies, for example because it is spam, abusive or clearly about a different business, you can flag it for Google to assess, and Google decides. If it is simply harsh but genuine, the right response is a reply and a fix. Do not offer a customer anything to change or remove a review; that too is against the policy.

Finally, make this a habit rather than a project. Once a week, spend ten minutes checking new reviews and messages. Once a month, read all your reviews together and note what keeps being praised and what keeps being criticised. If three people mention slow replies on the phone, that is a service problem, not a review problem. Fix that and the next set of reviews will say so.

None of this guarantees more customers. What it does is remove the avoidable reasons for losing one: a wrong phone number, closed hours that are actually open, an unanswered complaint or a listing that looks abandoned. For many local businesses that is a better first investment than advertising.