{"id":20346,"date":"2017-03-21T16:10:25","date_gmt":"2017-03-21T20:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/?p=20346"},"modified":"2017-03-21T16:10:25","modified_gmt":"2017-03-21T20:10:25","slug":"google-is-automating-ownership-conflict-resolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2017\/03\/21\/google-is-automating-ownership-conflict-resolution\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Is Automating Ownership Conflict Resolution"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The account owner immediately receives an email<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Google has started to roll out a new feature to the Google My Business Dashboard that automates the process of regaining control of a listing that is in another account.<\/p>\n

Besides verification issues and the inability for a business to easily get rid of inappropriate photos this has been one of the huge problems that small business owners have confronted. Historically it required requesting access and then waiting, praying, waiting some more and then trying to get in touch with support. The old system was not for the faint of heart.<\/p>\n

Making this part and parcel of the dashboard will go a long way towards minimizing the time and expense of resolving these.<\/p>\n

Here is the announcement<\/a> in the forum (and the updated<\/a> help page):<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a small business owner, time is your most valuable asset. That\u2019s why when it comes to managing their Google My Business account, some small business owners choose to get help from employees, friends, family or other third parties. Sometimes when the people who manage the account move on, we don\u2019t always remember to take back control of the account until they\u2019re gone and it\u2019s too late.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

This week we\u2019re launching a new feature to enable users who can\u2019t get in touch with the current verifier of a listing to start the verification process themselves. This will allow you to prove you are the current representative of the business and take over the location without having to track down the previous manager.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Just\u00a0follow the steps<\/a>\u00a0to sign-up and request access from the current listing owner and then follow the instructions you\u2019ll be emailed if the current listing owner is unresponsive.<\/em><\/p>\n

I just ran through the process and it is very straight forward. I am not sure once a rejection happens what the appeal process looks like but one hopes that it is rational:<\/p>\n