Suspension/re-verification risk when adding a tracking phone number

[dbrowers]

Curious what your all's experience is re: re-verification risk of adding a tracking phone number to GBP (and migrating the main phone to additional, of course).

I know NAP changes, typically, are higher-risk activities but am wondering if the fact that the original number will still be present under the additional phone field would somehow reduce that risk. Note that my customers/users are, typically, home services industry categories (plumbing, garage door, etc.) that are tend to be higher risk already.

Thanks!

D.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Garage door for sure will be at a heightened risk and home service category is in general.

I would say the likelihood of a suspension is rather low but I would say the likelihood of a reverification is higher. There's no set in stone risk level so it's one of those things where you just have to weigh out the risk and the reward of making the edit. Obviously having a tracking number is beneficial for the long-term so in almost every case the reward of better data which leads to better business decisions, is going to be worth the risk.

 

[dbrowers]

Thanks Colan. That's helpful feedback and aligns with my general expectations here. I may just need to recruit a few brave souls to give it a try. If I do, I'll report back here with the results.

Would love to hear from other folks that may have done this before to see what ended up happening.

 

[Tim Colling]

We do it fairly often, but our clients are all in some type of business related to senior care or home health care.

 

[dbrowers]

We do it fairly often, but our clients are all in some type of business related to senior care or home health care.

Thanks Tim. And I'm guessing you haven't had any trouble then? (Again, I recognize that your vertical focus is probably lower risk...but any data points are helpful!)

 

[Tim Colling]

Thanks Tim. And I'm guessing you haven't had any trouble then? (Again, I recognize that your vertical focus is probably lower risk...but any data points are helpful!)

I can say two things in reply:
1. Yes I speculate that the senior care / health care niche may be less likely to have Google watching as closely as, say, locksmiths.
2. For what it's worth, most of the time we accomplish the switch to the tracking number via tools in our CRM (high-level) which makes it easy to do this. They are almost certainly using the API for this, so perhaps that is less likely to draw attention than manually changing it? Maybe?

 

[dbrowers]

I can say two things in reply:
1. Yes I speculate that the senior care / health care niche may be less likely to have Google watching as closely as, say, locksmiths.
2. For what it's worth, most of the time we accomplish the switch to the tracking number via tools in our CRM (high-level) which makes it easy to do this. They are almost certainly using the API for this, so perhaps that is less likely to draw attention than manually changing it? Maybe?

Got it. Yeah, we'll be using the API for the updates as well. Sounds like the answer is that we'll have to test and see! Appreciate you sharing your experience.