376. The Revenue Risks of Not Updating Your Google Business Profile for Your Coworking Space
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TRANSCRIPTION
376. The Revenue Risks of Not Updating Your Google Business Profile for Your Coworking Space
00:00:00,"Welcome to the Everything Coworking Podcast where every week I keep you updated on the latest Trends and how tos in coworking. I owned and operated coworking spaces for 8 years and then served as the Executive Director of the Global Workspace association for five years. And today I work with hundreds of operators and community managers every month, allowing me to bring you thought provoking operator case studies and inspirational interviews with industry thought leaders to help you confidently stay on top of what's important and what you can apply to your own role in the coworking industry."
00:00:44,"Welcome to the Everything Coworking Podcast. This is your host, Jamie Russo. Thank you for joining me today. I'm so glad you're here. Okay, we're going to talk about a really important topic that you might be sleeping on. I work with a lot of coworking spaces on their sales funnels and I audit their sales funnel and the first place I go is their Google business profile and oftentimes it is not in its finest shape."
00:01:13,"It has been neglected and we understand why this happens. And yet it's super important for you to remember that from for roughly 80% of your organic traffic this is the top of your funnel. Not for ad traffic necessarily, but for organic traffic. So how do people search for coworking if they are solution aware and they are looking for coworking online just like they do anything else."
00:01:43,"Recently I was in another town and my daughter and I wanted to go get our nails done. So so what did I do? I pulled up my phone and I put in she wanted a gel x manicure. If you have a 13 year old you understand what that is and how expensive it is. So I pulled up my phone and did gel x manicure near me and it pulls up the Google business listing results."
00:02:07,"And then my next filter was I'm going to pick a space that I can book online. I do not want to call 10 nail places to figure out if they have an appointment today. And that is how I roll. And I'm not the youngest person listening to this podcast. I'm not the youngest person out there going to coworking spaces. So it's time to start thinking about meeting your potential members where they are."
00:02:31,"Now this may not apply to you if you're in a really small market and you're the only person in town. But keeping your Google business profile up to date, it's really the front door of your brand. So take care of it, have some pride and make sure it really tells your brand story. So I want to talk today about some strategies for Keeping your listing up to date."
00:02:53,"Some things you want to be paying attention to that you may not be paying attention to. And share with you our upcoming Google Review Challenge that is happening February 10th through the 14th. Okay, so it doesn't matter what you're searching for. If it's coworking a restaurant, a gym place to get your nails done, you're probably pulling up your phone or typing into your search bar, coworking near me."
00:03:22,"And that's going to pull up Google Business profiles of local businesses, though that's what the search results will generally be at the top. So this means that you don't want your Google Business Profile to just be a passive listing. It is not just table stakes. It's the very first impression that potential members are going to have of your space. So you want to treat it like that first impression that it is."
00:03:48,"It's somebody walking in your door and they're going to make a decision pretty quickly whether they belong there or not. And they're either going to book a tour or not. So this is really the first make or break point in your potential relationship with a new member. So, so you want a polished, active and informative profile that will drive bookings or calls or texts versus a neglected one that might send them off looking at a competitor."
00:04:19,"And we're going to talk about some examples in a minute. So it's also not just about how it looks. Right. So you might have posted your absolute best photos. And we're not going to talk too much about photos here. We're going to focus mostly on reviews. And I will say the Google Business Profile is worth breaking down into several different topics because you want it all to be on point."
00:04:42,"But we're going to focus on reviews today. But it's important to know in general that Google's algorithm rewards fresh, frequent updates. So that can be new reviews, photos and posts. It should ideally be a sprinkling of each one. And on a quick related note, the Google Business post can be hard to think of. It can be hard to stay on top of. You want to automate each of these processes, which is what we're going to teach you to do in our Google Business Review Challenge coming up in a couple of weeks."
00:05:16,"It's yes, by the time. Well, yes, about a couple of weeks. The whole goal is to get your process automated because we know when you leave it as a manual process, you have competing priorities and it's hard to get to. And this is when it slides down your list of to dos and doesn't get done and then you have kind of a tired listing, which is not how you want to prevent yourself present yourself to potential members."
00:05:45,"So really quick, back to the Google Business post that you can put up. We in our Community manager university have templates for those posts. We have a ton of them and they're in Canva. All you have to do is swap out your logo and your brand colors and they're yours. So we try to make sure our community managers remember that they're in there. If you're not in the program."
00:06:10,"This one aspect of our program might be worth the monthly membership fee. So you can join us at community everything coworking.com forward/community manager. Okay, so back to Google's algorithm. Fresh frequent updates in the form of new reviews, photos and posts. And these updates tell Google Google's looking for signals that your business is active, relevant and worth ranking higher in search results. This is really important if you're in a competitive market."
00:06:42,"And I was talking to an operator earlier this week and he said my market didn't used to be competitive. And now all of a sudden it is. We have new independent operators coming in. We have Regis coming in and taking several locations. So you want to make sure that you invest in your Google business profile for the future because you never know what's going to happen. So you want to be a Google favorite all along."
00:07:08,"So set up. This is the manual way to do it. Set up a recurring minder to update your Google Business profile weekly. Ideally, you're going to automate these processes, which we'll talk about. Okay, quick sort of side note, not related to reviews, but I have to mention it because I see it all the time when I work with folks that we're coaching or doing sales funnel work for."
00:07:33,"They don't notice it because we don't tend to audit our own profile very often. Peerspace has hijacked some of your appointment booking slots. So if you go into coworking near me and pull up your listing or log in. But how I look at it, I'm not logging in. It's a first step to your listing. But I am looking at it online and I will see on the overview section, which is before we get into the detailed reviews right at the top, that appointed booking slot will say peerspace.com"
00:08:05,"nobody wants that. Okay, this is a problem. You have to reach out to them directly and tell them to take that down. I can't remember the details of why this happens. We have a Google business expert that has worked with us and she saw it happening and helped a couple people work through it. So you need to reach out to Peerspace and say, this is happening. You need to remove that."
00:08:26,"Do you know what can go there is your calendly link or however it is that you schedule your tours. We are using co level and doing all of our booking through Cole Level, which we love. Actually, not all, but we're moving, we're, we're shifting over. I don't want to be inaccurate if you get a calendly link from us to book a call. But most of our bookings are going through Colevel and we love it."
00:08:46,"But you want that link to be in that spot. Your link. And again, thinking about how users act today, they don't necessarily need to go to your website. They know what they're looking for. And if your Google Business Profile is fully filled out, then your products are there, your pricing is there, and your calendly link is there. So they can get a sense of who you are. And if it's a fit for them just from going to your Google Business Profile, they can book their tour right there."
00:09:17,"They may never go to your website, so be prepared for that. So if you're thinking about investing into your website, I'm all for it. But before you do that, make sure your Google Business Profile is running, firing on all cylinders that it is making that first impression that all the links are there and it's complete and up to date at all times. It's so simple that I think we tend to overlook it."
00:09:41,"As I said, whenever I do audits, I see issues in almost every Google Business profile that I take a look at because people just don't audit them on a regular basis. Okay, so the other piece of this being a first impression that I think is mismatched with, you know, those memes on Instagram, like what I think my, you know, pie looks like and what it actually looks like, or what I think I look like working out and what I actually look like."
00:10:07,"Like there's this big disconnect. I think that can be true of our Google Business profiles and our websites. When I meet with people and we go through their sales funnel, I tend to see this disconnect of the story that the operator is telling themselves and thinking in their head is what they're communicating. And what we actually see online, there's usually quite a disconnect. And your Google Business Profile is the start of that story."
00:10:35,"So if you are focused, let me give you a couple of examples. You are a community focused space. You have professional workspace. But you pride yourself on building a strong community. You host member events, you connect your members. You know there's, there's a benefit to being a member of the space in addition to just the space. But, but you have no photos of humans on your listing because you did a photo shoot before your space was open."
00:11:01,"You might even be still working off of renderings of your space when it first opened. I see that all the time. You haven't invested the time or the resources into getting updated photos. You have no humans in those photos. So we're just looking at renderings or sterile brand spanking new space. But there are no people. So your brand story is about the community. But there are no people in your photos or you have some reviews, they're not that consistent."
00:11:29,"And the reviews don't talk about the value of the community, the connections, the networking, the programming, the facilitation that your community managers are doing. So you think you know the value of what you're selling, but it's not actually what your future members are interpreting. And so you're, it's just there's a big disconnect there and it will impact your conversions. So the purpose of this episode is to really get you thinking about your Google Business Profile and how to automate its updates and make sure you're doing your audits on a regular basis."
00:12:05,"Because 100 it's keeping you from increasing your membership, which is helping you keep a strong revenue base and profit. So this absolutely 100% impacts the success, the financial success of your business. And of course you're probably in the business to serve members in a certain way. And if your Google Business Profile, where they land first to evaluate whether they want to try coworking or join, your specific space is not telling the story that you think it is, then they're not going to tour and they're not going to join."
00:12:40,"And you don't get to serve the folks that you want to serve. So make sure that you know what your story is and what you want the takeaway to be and that it's woven in every touch point. So starting with your Google Business Profile and then through your website, and this is through photos, reviews, et cetera. So get someone else to audit your Google Business Profile with fresh eyes."
00:13:03,"It's so hard for us to look at these things on our own. We know our story and so it shows up for us. It just does. So you need to have a fresh set of eyes. Have another operator do it, have someone, have a friend do it, business colleague, somebody who kind of knows you know what they're looking for, ask them to audit it. I'm interrupting for a second."
00:13:26,"Are you working on starting a coworking space Space? I often emphasize how important the planning stage is. You've heard me say most unrecoverable issues happen well before you open your doors and they are related to the size of your space, your real estate deal and a few other things. If you think you are going to pick your favorite coworking space and reverse engineer what you think you see happening in there and then pick your own paint colors and your favorite furniture, you are in for a surprise."
00:14:03,"This business is really about making the right fundamental decisions that align with your individual personal and financial goals. So we want to help you avoid the mistakes that a lot of operators make in planning and launching that can really set you back in terms of time and finances. So we have got your back. We have created a free training to help you really get behind the three key decisions that we think are the most critical for you to get right when you're designing your coworking business."
00:14:41,"The model. Not the colors. The model. And these insights come from years of operating, designing the model for two different locations and then my work with hundreds of operators as they work on their businesses. So grab your spot in our training class. You can watch it anytime. It's totally on demand. And start your coworking journey with confidence and the right strategies in place. You can grab that training at everything coworking.com"
00:15:12,"forward/masterclass. Okay then let's talk about staying competitive. I work with a lot of folks who are in either very competitive markets or markets that are becoming competitive and they're sleeping on their Google business profile. Can't do that. The coworking industry is growing their supply showing up in even smaller markets so more competition is showing up. The good news is is that brands like Regis don't tend to focus too much on their reviews, which is really interesting."
00:15:44,"That is probably my theory is that that is because a maybe there's too much risk that they get negative reviews or it's because their sales funnel kind of bypasses that that they're really pulling folks in through their website, through ads, through their sales machine, through enterprise requests. I don't know. I haven't totally figured out. But you will notice that if you search your local competition and you should always be wondering what your competition is up to because you want to make sure that you are bringing your A game because this is absolutely a way that you can stand out."
00:16:25,"It seems really basic but again most of the listings I see are not 100% up to date and as fresh as they can be and telling their story the way that they could be. So you want to make sure you're attracting members by showing up high in those search results and making sure that your listing is fresh and tells the exact story of who you are and doesn't make you look dated."
00:16:52,"If your latest Reviews are from 3 years ago, guess what? That doesn't make it seem like you're on your game and that you're just as fresh as you were on day one and that you're ready to serve new members with the same enthusiasm that you did on day one. So take a look at what your competitors are doing and set the bar for your own listing and make sure that you're updating it."
00:17:15,"Okay? Also, pay attention to details. Again, we're not going to spend a lot of time on this because I really want to keep talk about reviews and automating them. But your business hours, contact information, address should all be there. And super important point, your address on your Google business profile must match exactly the address in the footer on your website. That is super critical. Google looks to see if they match and if they don't match."
00:17:43,"Google does not like that and may not show you in the search results. So you want to make sure that they absolutely match and check those details. Okay, let's talk about the power of reviews. Google's algorithm loves fresh, frequent reviews and so do potential members. So reviews tell both Google and your audience that your space is active, well loved, trustworthy, fresh, happening. Whatever story it is that you are trying to tell, it's community focused or it has great food and beverage or whatever the most important thing is, or several things."
00:18:19,"Your reviews can tell that in a way that is authentic, that you can't do with your own words on your own website. Although you absolutely should have a widget on your website that pulls in your reviews as social proof. So I want to dive into a little bit more of the why you want to keep your reviews fresh. Okay, so 84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation."
00:18:46,"Isn't that wild? So certainly it's ideal if you have members that are recommending your space. But for all the people who don't know somebody in your space who are just googling and finding you, they trust those online reviews as much as if a friend told them. But here's the catch you it's not just about having great reviews. It's about having the right kind of Review profile. So we keep talking about fresh and recent reviews and how important that is."
00:19:13,"I love the word fresh. Today, 73% of consumers believe that reviews older than three months are no longer relevant. So I'm talking to you, the people who have their listing and their listings are a year or their review, last review is from a year ago. That's not fresh enough to build the trust that the online users are looking for in reviews. So they kind of dismiss even if you have five star reviews, if they're older than three months, no longer relevant, they want to know what's happening now."
00:19:47,"If your most recent reviews are from a year ago, then they're going to have some questions about your current quality. Did something happen? Why do they no longer have any reviews? Are they sleeping at the wheel? So you want to make it a habit to ask members for a review ongoing, certainly during their first 30 days. This is really easy, assuming you've worked with them, to have a great onboarding experience."
00:20:11,"They're using the space, their life has changed for the better. They're ready to write that review at 30 days while the fre. While the experience is still fresh and positive. So you want to have an automation in place that asks your members at 30 days for a review, and if they don't do it at 30 days, it reminds them. So 47% of consumers expect to see at least one new review in the last week, so they're looking for updated profiles."
00:20:39,"I know this sounds like a lot of work. Why do we need to have fresh reviews all the time? Isn't it enough that at some point people thought we were amazing? Nope. Consumers are really demanding. So the other issue is that fresh, glowing reviews all at once tend to look a little suspicious. And I will tell you, I will confess that we run a Google review challenge for our community managers every year."
00:21:02,"This is one of the things we've been doing for years. We give out prizes, we have a leaderboard, and we typically do it in April. And here's what happens. We have a few gunners who will go get 50 new reviews in a month. And they just, for whatever reason, they're super into the gamification. Maybe they realize they're feeling a little competitive. Or maybe they realize, oh yeah, my listing's a little stale."
00:21:27,"This is the motivation I need. I'm going to go tell my members that I'm in this competition and they're going to want to help me. So they're going to write the reviews. So people do it. And Google will let those reviews show up all at once. Generally there's not an issue with that. But you do get into the challenge where consumers might be eyeing that with a little bit of suspicion."
00:21:48,"And then the other thing that I know happens is that because you've gone hard for a month and gotten 20, 30, 50 new reviews last year, I think we had two people in the 50s in the competition, you just kind of peter out. And if it, if the process isn't automated, well, now you've asked everybody in the space probably several times, you might have knocked on their door and asked them in person."
00:22:11,"And so you don't really have a mechanism to get new reviews until you have new members or folks to use meeting room spaces. But the big problem is you've sort of burned out on the whole review process. And so that might be why your listing sits idle for a little while. So we love running that contest, but we recognize every year what we really want to do is teach people how to set up the automation."
00:22:34,"And so that's what we're doing. And we're doing it in February this year instead of April. But when you leave this, there's no burnout. There's also no 50 reviews in February, although you certainly can go ask everyone in the space. But what we want is from you to set up the automation so that you have a nice steady stream of fresh, consistent reviews. So the other thing that you want to think about is you might be thinking, well, what do I, I don't want to ask for reviews."
00:23:00,"What if I get bad reviews? So maybe you like to manually ask people because you're asking your favorite members who you know will leave you overly positive review. Well, 82% of consumers actively look for negative reviews to assess credibility. Good news, right? So believe it or not, the occasional negative review is not a D, a deal breaker. It's how you respond that matters. So a thoughtful reply shows that you care, you take the feedback seriously."
00:23:29,"Or if it's basically a bogus review, that you're paying attention and you call the person out on that because that stuff happens. You can flag it with Google, but sometimes you can't get rid of it. So you want to be automating and not worrying about negative reviews. Although in the challenge, we're going to show you an awesome workaround sort of workaround. It's totally legal, FTC compliant, way to filter the negative reviews into your inbox instead of into the Google review."
00:24:01,"So it's going to be totally okay if you get some negative reviews on your listing because we're going to give you some templates to help you respond in a positive, professional manner. And you also might get some reviews that filter into your inbox instead of onto your Google review. So that's going to be part of the challenge. So the challenge I'm going to go through a couple of quick real examples."
00:24:24,"But before we dive into that, I just want to make sure, since you're still listening, that you know about the challenge. So you can go to. Let me grab our website thereview challenge.com to get all the details. It's a five day challenge. What we're doing each day is setting up the automation process, which is awesome. So we will have the templates and the workflows for you to do it in whatever system you're in."
00:24:48,"So we'll have the Google Docs for you to grab the copy from and the workflow. And here's how you set up the automation. You can also try CO level while we're at it. And if you do that, we have all the automations built for you and all you have to do is, is download your contact list, load it in and literally add the tag and it'll run for you."
00:25:09,"And it'll also give you SMS capability. And if you haven't tried SMS with your membership, this is a great opportunity to do that. I am so pro SMS because that's how humans want to communicate. Today I work with several folks on their CO level account so I can see how that SMS is working with their lead flow and it is really making a huge difference in terms of communicating and converting leads."
00:25:37,"So this is your chance to try that if you want to. So you can go to the reviewchallenge. Com. It runs February 10th through the 14th. We're going to run the workshops live every day so you should be able to get most of the work done while we're on the zoom. And if you miss one, there's a recording. But the whole idea is try to get on live so that you have the accountability of doing it step by step."
00:26:01,"And by day five the automation will be ready to roll and then we're going to spend we'll do a couple of follow up calls. We'll be answering questions in the Facebook group and for our community managers or are the folks in our operator membership. This is on us. You get this as part of your membership so make sure you find the code that's in your email. You have an email from us and feel free to reach out if you can't find it."
00:26:24,"But you get in it's $97 and that's the five live training sessions, the Q and A answering and support as you go through this and the accountability to get the automation done, which is amazing. I should also mention that if you are aware that you have some sales funnel opportunities and you do want an external expert to do some auditing and help you document your KPIs and optimize your sales funnel including your Google business profile and you would like our help with that."
00:27:02,"We have some slots available for coworking mentorship. So mentorship includes coaching, it includes auditing and it includes some done for you work. You can book a call with us and see how learn more about how that works@coworking mentorship.com okay so I just want to walk through Live a quick example. So I'm going to pick a market that I love, which is Nashville. I love it because it's a smaller market and the coworking supply here is just on fire."
00:27:40,"The demand. The supply coworking in Nashville is hot, hot, hot. Okay so this is a great example. I'm not going to name names and I'm not in Nashville so my results may look different from yours. But I pull up, I do co. I put type Coworking Nashville not in my phone. I could do that too. I'm on my computer while I'm recording this so that's easier."
00:28:01,"I just pulled up my browser and I did coworking Nashville and I get a list. So I get if you're running Google Ads, you could show up at the top of the list. So there's one that is running ads. It says sponsored and it's the very top of the search results which is a map of coworking spaces in Nashville. And then we have many spaces. So the first space on the list, Surprise, surprise, has 118 reviews."
00:28:30,"What I love about this listing is if I click, I was like, dang. The next one has 11. Not so dang, right? So you do not want to be the guy with 11. When the person above you, the space above you has 118 and then the one below you has 41. Sends a signal, doesn't it? We have 11 reviews either. We're brand new and that could be you."
00:28:53,"And that is just life, right? It'll take you a certain amount of time to build up your reviews. But if you get a couple a week, then by the end of the year you could have a hundred. Isn't that wild? If you have this automation running and you pull in a couple of week, week a couple a week from members or meeting room bookings. And I think it's really important that you solicit reviews for meeting room bookings and your virtual plans because anybody looking for any of those services will be looking for that reassurance on your Google business listing from the reviews."
00:29:27,"41, 93, 42, 52, 66, 65. And then there's one down there with 10, 21. These guys are at the bottom and they're kind of central Nashville. So this is also the algorithm at work. If your competition is killing it with a hundred plus reviews and you have 10 or 21 or 11, then you're not going to be first on the list. So. So, but here's what I love the first on the list, folks."
00:29:58,"If you click over to reviews, they do not have all five stars. They have 4.7. So I sorted by lowest review and there are some complaints. And you know what, just like we talked about earlier, the owner responds, those complaints are all very old, by the way. So you know, that happens. Things happen that we don't expect when we first open. Maybe these are five or six years ago anyway."
00:30:26,"Two stars, one star. Some of them are. A couple of them look like they're bogus. A couple of them, you know, like maybe kind of valid. Maybe perception. One was about an incident that happened outside of the space. The owner responded amazingly to each one. And so that goes back to the fact that consumers expect to see negative reviews and they want to see how the owner responds."
00:30:50,"The responses are like, sort of like positive. Not over the top in like an inappropriate way, but confidently positive. The tone is excellent. So that's done really well. So they have 118 reviews. Yeah. The risk is they're not all going to be perfectly positive and they responded really nicely. Let's look and see how recent they are. Newest a week ago. Love it. Three months ago six months ago."
00:31:24,"Okay, so even they're not perfect. Mostly six months old, one a week ago. So you can tell they don't have an automation in place that's pulling those reviews in on a consistent basis. Here's one that has 93, mostly five stars. Let's go for newest four months. Six months. All of these are also responded to. Amazing. Still most six, nine, 11 months ago. So again, you see what I'm saying?"
00:31:53,"Like Nashville is a really competitive market and folks are not all on top of their listings. They're not getting constant fresh reviews in. So guess what? It if yours are the freshest, that is a competitive advantage. Along with great photos, along with all the other Things we talked about. One of these also had the dreaded peer space link. Okay, I'm not finding it, but I saw it. What I don't see, which can be here, is your calendar link or your co level link or however it is that you schedule tours."
00:32:28,"So make sure you're taking advantage of that. You want to make overview. Maybe that's why I didn't get it. You want to make sure that you're using everything you can. I do see some folks who don't have their products listed. So there we go. The space with 11 reviews has the Peerspace link in the appointment slot. Now, the other folks have no link in the appointment slot. So they're not taking advantage of that and should be."
00:32:54,"These guys have peer space and they do not have their products listed. So you really, really have to be on top of keeping your listing completely filled out and fresh. And, oh, yeah, so this one has peerspace and Flex space AI on it. We do not want that. We do not want your leads going to book through those platforms because that means your organic traffic. You're paying for those leads."
00:33:21,"Nobody wants that. We're happy to use those platforms and get leads that we were not going to get organically, but this is your organic machine. This is doing all the work for you. And you're. But you're giving credit to PeelSpace and Flexpace AI. I might have to message these people because you don't want to give that away. You want those to be your leads. Okay, another one with no products listed, no appointment link."
00:33:50,"So it's not you. You want to. You want to utilize every aspect of your listing. Okay, so I'm not going to do another market. I'm going to leave it at that. But hopefully I've given you enough evidence that you're thinking about. Okay, this listing is really important to me. I got to be on it. And we would love to have you join us for the challenge again. If you're in one of our paid programs, then you should have a code."
00:34:14,"You should get in for free. For Everybody else, it's 97 for an hour every day. And the accountability and all the templates and all the workflows to put into your email system and you're ready to rock and roll. So go to thereputationchallenge.com and join us. Registration closes on February 7th, so make sure you join us before then. All right, see you same time, same place next week. Thank you for listening to today's episode."
00:34:43,"If you like what you heard, tell a friend, hit that subscribe button and leave us a rating and review. If you'd like to learn more about our education and coaching programs, head over to everything coworking.com we'll see you next week."
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