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Google Business Listings feature a “Question and Answer” section. Here’s what you need to know to make the most of yours.

1. Your potential customers are using this feature

2. No notifications show up in the Google Business Profile (formally Google My Business) dashboard

Currently there is nowhere in the Google Business Profile (formally Google My Business) dashboard that shows notifications for new questions. If you’re a business owner wondering how you can track new questions, you basically have two options.

• Install the Google Maps app on your phone and make sure notifications are turned on. Log in to the account you use to manage Google Business Profile (formally Google My Business) , and it will send you push notifications every time a new question is asked. This can be difficult for people who manage many listings, as the push notification disappears forever the moment you clear it, and there is no way to get it back or see what listing it was referring to if you don’t address it right away.
• Pay for a service that monitors it. To take the hassle out of managing Google Q&A and turn it from a brand hazard into a business-building asset, CKREU developed a process as part of our GMB+ plan that helps business owners and multi-location businesses easily monitor, report and productively engage with the new Google Questions & Answers.

3. Customers are prompted to respond to questions.

Your customers are prompted to respond to questions people ask about your business, and the prompts go to everyone — even the customers who didn’t have a good experience.

This is where things start to get very scary. I get notifications on my phone all the time for businesses that I’ve either reviewed or visited in person whenever a new question is posted on their business listing.

4. Your customers might be giving incorrect answers.

Your customers are, in some cases, answering these questions incorrectly. Local Guides are often quick to answer these questions, since they get awarded three points even if their answer is wrong.

I recently was looking for a restaurant to use for a company meeting. I wanted a place with WiFi so I could go over a few things with my employees. I posted a question to a local restaurant, and within five minutes I got several answers from different Local Guides. I had three people tell me no, the restaurant did not have WiFi before the restaurant responded and clarified that they did, in fact, have WiFi.

If that restaurant had not responded quickly, I probably would have gone elsewhere, based on bad information.

5. You can get questions that violate the guidelines removed.

The good news for small business owners is that Google has a set of guidelines for this and will remove both questions and answers that violate them.