How to add FAQs to Google Messaging and Automate

Your Google My Business profile has the ability to do the heavy lifting when it comes to marketing your brand. The profile displays all your contact info. It drives interest with great photos and videos. And it creates connections with your customers through engaging descriptions, reviews, and more.

But that’s not all it does.

Google can also automatically respond to your customers’ most pressing questions through its chat system. You just have to set up the Google Messaging FAQs to get the ball rolling. Wondering just how to do that? Here’s what you need to know.

Why Add Google Messaging FAQs

To get from A to Z on the buyer’s journey, customers need to learn a lot about your business. Your website, social media channels, and direct interactions go a long way, but they’re not always enough.

For that little extra support, your customers can look to Google Messaging FAQs. All they have to do is type their question into the chat box and the answer to their question will magically appear.

At least, that’s how it should work in theory. The truth is that it won’t populate the correct answer every time unless you program it to do so. So, it’s well worth taking the time to write up the questions your brand gets most often, and then create an answer for Google to send out for each one.

How to Add Questions and Automated Responses

Google aims to make adding FAQs and automated responses as easy as possible. You just have to follow these three steps to add your questions and answers to the system.

1. Open the ‘Manage Frequently Asked Questions' Tab

To find the Google FAQ page, navigate to the Google My Business manager on your brand’s main search engine results page. You can find that by simply googling the name of your brand and the associated location if you have multiple.

Once you’re there, click on ‘Customers’ and then tap ‘Messages.’ Within the message settings, you will find ‘Manage frequently asked questions,’ which you can click on to get started.

2. Reflect on the Questions You Get Coming in Most Often

Before you start writing up your FAQs, you have to put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Think about what questions your customers often have before or while shopping your brand.

Do they:

• Want to know how your products and services work?
• Need to know about parking options around your store?
• Wonder about what payment methods you take?
• Often ask about what events you have on the calendar?
• Regularly inquire about your daily specials or other deals?

Use brainstorming methods to write down all the questions as quickly as you think of them. You will need to come up with 10 to fully populate the chat system with questions and answers.

3. Write Up to 10 Thoughtful Questions and Responses

With your questions in hand, whittle them down to create a list of the top 10 most asked questions for your brand. Rewrite the questions in the customers’ voice to fit the 40-character limit.

Then, handcraft thoughtful responses that fully answer each question. You have up to 500 characters for each response, so use the space wisely. You can also add a link if that adds value to the response.

Once you have your FAQs written, paste each question and associated answer into the appropriate boxes. After that, hit ‘Save’ and move on to the next one until you’ve added them all.

Best Practices When Writing Up FAQs for Google Messaging

When writing up your FAQs for Google Messaging, always use these best practices.

• Use concise, easy-to-understand language for all your questions and answers
• Skip the promotional language in favor of simply being helpful in your responses
• Use links to guide your customers through to the next stage of the buyer’s journey
• Repeat the FAQ generation process for every one of your physical locations
• Review your FAQs on a yearly basis to confirm that they are correct and relevant

Remember to check your messages on Google every single day. If the system cannot answer a question automatically, you will need to step in to keep your customers feeling valued and well-supported.

Also, Google uses your response times to generate a notice letting users know when they can expect to hear from you. Ideally, you want the system to tell customers that you’ll respond in a few minutes to hours, not days later.

If you can do all that, you'll be ahead of the game. Your customers will feel highly supported by your brand, making it easier to shop with you than with your competitors.

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