Google's Duplex is an experiment, not a product, so there is nothing to set up. It is a useful reminder that callers need someone who answers, can book on the spot, and gives hours matching your listing.

What Google played on stage

At its developer conference yesterday, Google played recordings of its Assistant phoning businesses on a person's behalf. One call booked a salon appointment; another asked a restaurant about a table.

The voice paused naturally, said mm-hmm in the right places and coped with a few unexpected answers. The staff who picked up responded as they would to any caller.

Google calls the technology Duplex and describes it as an experiment. It handles only a few narrow kinds of call, nobody outside Google can use it yet, and Google says testing will begin later this year.

For a small business there is nothing to buy, sign up for or switch on. What the demonstration offers is a useful way to look at your own phone.

Why it is worth ten minutes anyway

Software making a booking call is simply a very literal customer. It asks for a time, needs a yes or a no, and cannot wait while somebody goes to check.

Every way a booking call can fail with software is a way it already fails with people. The difference is that people rarely complain. They phone the next business on the list.

So the useful question is not whether a computer will call you this year. It is what happens today when anyone does.

What any caller needs

The third is where most bookings are lost. A reply of "let me check and call you back" turns a booking into a wait, and a caller with two other numbers to try rarely waits.

The calls that should not need making

One of the tasks Google listed for its tests is calling businesses to ask about holiday hours.

That task exists because so many listings and websites leave the question unanswered. Every call asking whether you are open on the long weekend is a call your listing could have handled.

Victoria Day is a week from Monday. Google My Business lets you set special hours for a single date, and the website's contact page can say the same thing in one line.

The same applies to parking, whether you take walk-ins and how far ahead people should book. Answer those on the page and fewer callers need to ask.

A worked example

A car detailing shop with two bays took its bookings by phone. The owner did most of the detailing, so the phone usually rang while both hands were busy inside a car.

Calls went to a voicemail box that was often full, and messages were returned at the end of the day. By then some callers had booked elsewhere, and there was no way of knowing how many.

The website listed hours that had changed two years earlier, and the Google listing showed a third set.

The fixes were plain. The listing, the site and the voicemail greeting were given the same hours, and the greeting said when calls would be returned and where to book standard packages online.

The phone was answered properly in two set windows each day, with the booking calendar open on a tablet in the shop, so anyone calling then got a time on the spot.

Online booking took the routine washes and interior cleans, leaving the phone for jobs that genuinely needed a conversation.

Booking on the call itself

For most businesses, the change that matters most is letting whoever answers make the booking there and then.

That needs the calendar where they can see it: a shared calendar or booking system open on the front desk computer, a tablet or a phone, not a paper diary in the owner's truck.

It needs the same few questions asked in the same order every time: name, phone number, what the job is and when.

And it needs a read-back before hanging up, so the day and time are agreed by both sides rather than assumed by one.

Online booking beside the phone

Some customers would rather pick a slot on a screen than talk to anyone, often in the evening when the business is closed.

An online calendar for standard appointments serves them and takes the simplest calls off the phone. Keep the phone for everyone who prefers it and for work that needs a conversation first.

Whatever the system, its availability has to match what the phone and the listing say. Three versions of the truth is how bookings get doubled.

The listing as the first answer

For many callers, the Google listing is where the number came from, and it is often where they check the hours before dialling.

Point the number on it at a line someone answers. Keep regular hours current, add special hours before each holiday, and where your category allows it, add a link to your booking page.

A listing that answers the routine questions is the other half of a phone that is answered well.

The counter-case

Not every business books appointments, and not every phone can be answered live.

A walk-in business needs accurate hours far more than a booking process. A trade where every job starts with a site visit needs a quick, reliable callback rather than an instant slot.

A business with one person working all day may only manage set answering windows, and that is fine if the greeting says so and calls are returned when promised.

Those are reasons to shape the phone around the work, not to leave it to voicemail. Answer when you say you will, book on the call when you can, and publish hours that match everywhere.

Before the long weekend

  1. Call your own number at a busy time.
  2. Listen to the greeting as a customer would.
  3. Match your hours on the site, listing and greeting.
  4. Put the calendar where whoever answers can see it.
  5. Set special hours for Victoria Day.
  6. Offer online booking for standard appointments.
  7. Read back every booking before hanging up.

Step four is the one that turns calls into bookings. A person who can see the calendar can say yes on the call, and a caller who hears yes has no reason to try the next number.

What the listing should say about the business beyond its hours is covered in the business description is back on Google listings.

Frequently asked questions

What did Google demonstrate this week?

Recordings of its Assistant phoning a salon and a restaurant on a person's behalf, in a natural voice. Google calls it Duplex and describes it as an experiment.

Do I need to do anything about it?

No. Nobody outside Google can use it yet, it handles only a few narrow kinds of call, and Google says testing begins later this year.

Why does it matter for my business?

Because a booking call made by software fails in the same places a call from a person does: nobody answers, the hours disagree, or nobody can confirm a time.

What loses the most phone bookings?

Being unable to say yes on the call. A promise to check and call back turns a booking into a wait, and many callers phone the next business instead.

How do I cut down routine calls?

Answer the routine questions on the website and the Google listing: regular hours, special hours for holidays, parking, walk-ins and how far ahead to book.

Should I offer online booking as well?

For standard appointments, yes. It serves customers who prefer a screen, at any hour, and leaves the phone free for work that needs a conversation first.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Bookings lost to a full voicemail box?

Call your own number at ten tomorrow. We will help you match your hours and add booking that works beside the phone.

Start a Conversation