If you haven’t already heard, Google Plus will slowly cease
to exist before eventually being deleted completely by August of 2019. While this
service has already been on a downward spiral for quite some time, another
feature of Google’s that is still as relevant as ever is its Questions and
Answers tool.
We wrote about Google Q&A early in 2018, specifically
talking about its strengths and weaknesses for local businesses, particularly veterinary hospitals. To
briefly summarize Google Questions and Answers, this service works as an
open-forum FAQ for your hospital which is displayed on your Google Knowledge
panel. People online can ask—and answer—questions about your practice which
anyone can see.
There are many pros and cons to this tool—with smart usage,
it can turn into a very strong marketing outlet. But if you neglect or dismiss
it, you risk leaving your reputation on the line (more on that later). For
those that do wish to take advantage of it, the very first step you need to
take is to claim your Google Business listing if you haven’t already.
Why are we encouraging this? For one, we see that the
average veterinary hospital is receiving approximately three questions for
their listing. However, by not being engaged, they are potentially allowing
false information to float around on the internet—and as we all know, some
people do believe everything they see online.
Ultimately, Google Questions and Answers comes down to if
you are using it and how you are using it—if you are engaged, you can basically
use it as free marketing. If you are unaware or dismissive of Google Questions
and Answers, well, the floodgates are open, and a lot of different scenarios
can occur.
See below, please—and brace yourselves.
The Good
First off, let’s focus on the positives. Here is good usage of Google Q&A:
As you can see, the responder’s name not only has a blue checkmark for verification (as in, this hospital went through the process to claim their Google listing) but it also has the words “Owner” after the hospital name. Their thoughtful response addresses the question with a call to action, and clients are comfortable knowing that it is coming directly from the hospital. This is good Google Q&A.
For more reference, here is even more good usage:
Once again, the blue checkmark on the above example makes an appearance, as well as the distinction of “Owner” after the hospital name. This practice responds in a succinct manner, encouraging this client with a call to action to contact the hospital while enticing them by talking about favorable rates. This is more good Google Q&A.
But wait, there’s more.
This detailed answer talks about the hospital’s AAHA Accreditation as well as goes into more depth about the procedure, which can seem scary to pet owners. Take note of their thorough response, which was written to help quell any anxiety. Also, observe how they include a call to action right in the first sentence: “call for a quote or come in for an exam.” Someone even gave the response a thumbs up, which affects visibility.
Here is one final example of good Google Q&A:
Veterinary care doesn’t just relate to the care of cats and dogs, and this hospital provides an excellent, descriptive answer complete with examples of certain pocket pets, reptiles and amphibians that they can treat. This response is professional, straightforward and does a good job of answering the question.
The Bad
Now, let’s move on to the bad, because you can’t have good
without the bad. Here are some examples of bad usage of Google Q&A:
Here, this hospital is clearly unaware of their Google Q&A presence. Someone has asked a routine question for a phone number however a random respondent has turned this simple prompt into a negative review. When a potential client is searching for this veterinary hospital on Google, this review (if you want to call it that) is there for everyone to see on the internet, and the hospital is either oblivious to this transaction, or unsure of how to address it. This is bad Google Q&A.
It can get worse, however. See below for some really, really
bad Google Q&A.
In this instance, an everyday question about a rabbit neuter has morphed into . . . something else. This response is rife with scare tactics and rabbit mortality rates and then it goes on to essentially promote another hospital. This is bad Google Q&A for so many reasons, but we’ll keep it simple by stating that this could all have been prevented by the hospital had they been active on Google Q&A.
Another example shown below isn’t necessarily damaging, but
it’s still bad for everyone involved.
Here is a question about a common procedure—a cat spay. The response does absolutely nothing. Again, because people tend to believe anything they read on the internet, someone casually looking at this response may think that it came directly from the hospital. But who knows? We don’t know. You could call the hospital and ask and we’re sure they’d tell you, but really, we don’t know.
Finally, see below for our last example of bad Google
Q&A:
Remember, anyone can see this content whenever they want. This hospital has their name attached to the above responses. The thread starts with a question about avian medicine, then very quickly zig zags to futility. Both answers are obviously contradictory and may lead a potential client to not even bother calling them and instead check elsewhere to find a vet for their feathered friend.
The Ugly
Whenever you are thinking of the good and the bad of
anything, you always need to consider the ugly. Here is where Google Q&A can get ugly:
What started off as a routine (and legitimate) prompt turned into a joke (see third response). The response here trivializes this entire veterinary hospital’s ethos, and leaves everyone, including the client, the bearded dragon and the practice in a losing scenario. While the response may have been amusing, veterinary care as a whole is a serious enterprise, not a joke. This is ugly Google Q&A.
Jokes are jokes, but ugliness also comes in other forms. See below for more.
This ugly response attacks the reputation of the hospital in a nonsensical manner, and in this digital age where reviews are extremely easy to access, they now have to focus their attention on reputation management.
Here, the trend continues of innocuous questions becoming peppered with ugly, fruitless responses:
None of the responses are helpful at all, and it’s interesting to note that these people actually took the time out of their day to essentially leave the questioner back to where she started. The very last response is sarcastic and unnecessary and does not help with the hospital’s digital presence.
While we know that the goal of a veterinary hospital is to heal animals, it’s also important to remember that this industry is a business, which means that things can get real unpleasant real fast:
Regardless of what happened that made someone ask the question, the phrase “callously profit driven” is an ugly sequence of words which isn’t good when associated with a veterinary hospital. The response is positive, however the damage has been done. An official answer from the veterinarian to set things straight would be the best course of action here to assuage this ugly scene.
This final example shows the ugliness in two different threads, which appear to be unbeknownst to the hospital:
The first question and answer sequence is ugly because someone else is referring the person to a different business, and also because they are asking about emergency visits, meaning time was probably a factor. This could have been remedied by the hospital developing its own question-and-answer regarding emergency services.
The next scenario does not address the question and instead includes someone’s own personal opinion about declawing. Again, this ugliness could have been avoided had the hospital been active on Google Q&A.
Takeaways
The Good scenarios in our above examples illustrate perfect usage of Google Questions and Answers and they all serve as a model for how to efficiently—and smartly—use this tool. The latter two scenarios, well, just take a look at all of them again. Not only are they all Bad and Ugly, but they could also have all been avoided had each hospital (you guessed it) just been active on Google Questions and Answers.
At iVET360, we are industry leaders when it comes to
veterinary marketing. Our specialists work closely with Google to maximize the
online presence of animal hospitals while also staying on top of things like
Google Questions and Answers, the Google Knowledge Panel
and much more.
If your practice isn’t already actively using the (mostly
free) tools that Google has available, we encourage you to contact us. As a
veterinary services company that operates on a no-contract basis, our experts
can help your practice with not only marketing, but analytics and HR and
training, too.
For additional information and more details about our suite
of services, contact us today.
