Picture this. You are a potential customer who is searching for businesses online. Sitting at home in front of your laptop or smartphone, you want to know the location on maps and also want to read reviews or recommendations regarding the business and the services they offer. You also want to have a panoramic view of the potential property and explore the store before you actually visit it. Sounds far-fetched? Not quite with Google Business View.
After taking art galleries online and launching an online initiative which will allow 360-degree virtual walkthroughs of 100 nationally important monuments in the country, including the Taj Mahal and Qutub Minar, Google has launched Business View in India. It lets consumers see 360-degree views of the insides of local businesses right on Google Maps, Google Search and Google Plus. It also enables viewers to get a feel of a restaurant or store interiors by clicking ?see inside? in search result panel.
Suren Ruhela, product manager, Google India, says the idea for Business View came up as more and more potential customers are searching for businesses online?be it restaurants, shopping destinations, cafes, movie theatres or even pubs and discotheques. ?People want to know the location on maps and also want to read reviews/recommendations regarding the business and the services they offer. With the rise in such Google searches and increasing use of maps, we thought about a simple, fast and affordable tool which can help the businesses create their online presence across Google,? adds Ruhela.
The sign-up for this programme is driven by multiple Google trusted photo agencies (trained and certified by Google), and the real number of businesses covered by the programme is increasing every day. More than 20 such agencies have coverage in approximately 200 cities in India, including smaller cities like Kanker in Chhattisgarh and Moga in Punjab.
Few examples of Business View in Delhi include 21 Gun Salute, Reasons Jewellers, IP Jewellers, Aura Heritage Spa, EuroKids School, Canon Image Square, Audi. Apart from these Kebabs & Curries and Rasoi Pure Veg from Satara in Maharashtra and Hotel Makri?s Pride from Kanker, Chhattisgarh, have also registered with Business View.
To get started, it is quite simple. All the businesses need to do is contact a Google-certified trusted agency and schedule a photo shoot at a time convenient for the business? owner. The photographer takes care of the rest. Moreover, the experience works seamlessly on multiple screen formats, like phone, tablet and PCs, so a business doesn?t have to invest in optimising the virtual tour for different devices.
Ruhela says the tool is also a step towards helping the small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) in India to get online. ?We have already made significant investment in India in terms of developing new products to drive the growth in SMB sector and with this affordable tool, we aim to get more and more SMBs online. That said, SMBs certainly need to go beyond having a plain website or getting listed with a business directory service to ensure increased visibility to their online customers by showcasing their differentiated experience like products in store and ambience etc,? adds the product manager.
Google has been focusing on Indian SMBs with its campaign titled ?India, get your business online? which offers free websites and hosting to SMBs in India. Facebook had also earlier partnered with FICCI to get Indian SMEs to use Facebook?s global Small and Medium Business (SMB) Boost programme.
Apart from giving a 360-degree interactive virtual tour of the business along with point of interest photos of business, which can also be used in other marketing and advertising projects, Business View also provides Google place page setup and verification (if the business does not have one), Google+ local business page and the HTML code to include the virtual tour in the businesses? own website. Google Business View is an opportunity to showcase business to current and prospective customers around the world.
So, what about the benefits of this service? Does it actually help the businesses? Ruhela says it allows businesses to create an online replica of their showroom or shop, accessible to their target audience at the click of a mouse. ?It helps increase the visibility of the business to large number of customers, both physically and virtually. The virtual tour makes it easy and intuitive for customers to see business before visiting, identify products and how they are displayed, which saves a lot of time and result in more effective purchasing,? adds Ruhela.