What is Reserve with Google?

Overview

Google will discontinue the current Reserve with Google integration on July 1st, 2024. Shore has been invited to early access of the new Reserve with Google integration, allowing us to continue offering this valuable source of online bookings for our merchants.

How It Works

Customers can find your business on Google Maps and book an appointment with just a few clicks. The user is directed to the service page on your booking widget, powered by Shore. This streamlined process enhances user experience and increases booking conversions. For example:

• A user searches for a hair salon on Google Maps.
• They click the “Book” button and are redirected to your booking widget.
• The user selects a service, chooses a time slot, and completes the booking.

Key Features

• Seamless Booking Experience: Customers are redirected from Google Maps to the booking widget, where they complete the booking process. All settings of the booking widget, such as Automatic Booking Confirmation, are observed.
• Direct Service Links: Services on Google Maps link directly to the service page on the booking widget, making it easier for users to find and book specific services.
• Daily Synchronization: Shore synchronizes with Google every a day to update the list of new users and services, ensuring the information is always up-to-date.
• Increased Reliability: The integration is designed to be much more robust and reliable than the first version, and it has monitoring implemented from day one to ensure it runs smoothly, and any issues are promptly addressed.  
• Future Enhancements: The integration can leverage most existing and future enhancements to our Booking Widget, such as online payments during booking.

This feature is currently available for all Shore Booking Packages. Your customers can book your services directly via the world's most popular search engine today!

Which requirements do I need to fulfill to use Reserve with Google?

To offer direct booking via Google, you need to fulfill the following conditions. Be aware that Google's official policies take precedence over anything written in this article, and it may be changed by Google without prior notice. This article is merely a summary of the most relevant policies at the time of its writing.

When in doubt, always refer to Google's official policy:

General information

• Your business is in one of the supported countries (link to Google's official policy). 
• Your business must match one in the Google Maps database (ex: business name, address (if applicable), phone number, and website).
• Your business is in the following verticals: Beauty, Care, Healthcare (except emergency services), Wellness, Professional Services, Pet (except Pet Shop), Education (except Bilingual School), Professional Services (except Government and Financial related services), Transportation and Vehicle (except dealerships). You can find the full and updated list here.

Service Name & Descriptions

• Full capitalization, emojis, or emoticons in service names are not allowed by Google. We filter out any emoji and convert capitalization to adhere to the integration's guidelines.
• Promotional content, URLs, email addresses, phone numbers, vulgar/offensive language or payment methods are not allowed in names or descriptions.
• Service names should clearly reflect the service offered, without including additional metadata such as price or detailed descriptions.
• Services must be bookable by the general public. Services cannot require purchasing a membership, or belonging to an organization to book.

Filters Applied by Shore

• We remove emojis and convert full capitalization to regular capitalization to comply with Google’s naming policies.
• Only services marked as “Show service during booking process” are sent to Google, allowing you to control which services are available for booking via the Booking Widget and Google Maps.
• We remove duplicated services from the list sent to Google to comply with Google’s policies.
• A service is considered duplicated if two or more services share exactly the same Category, Name, Duration and Price (even if the description or other parameters are different).
• If you have duplicated services, only one of them will be sent to Google and displayed on Google Maps. The duplicates won't be removed from your Shore Calendar or from the Booking Widget, they are only not shared with Google.
  
  

After we send your data to Google, the booking button will appear on your business' page on Google Maps, usually after one or two days. Your customer needs to be logged into Google to be able to book via Google. If you cannot find the “Book” button on your Google listing yet, just let us know, and we are happy to check if we can set the feature up for you. 

How can I activate appointment booking via Google?

1. Make sure you meet the conditions to be bookable via Google. Click here for the article explaining the conditions in more detail.
2. Enter all information about your company in the company settings. They should match your company's information on Google Maps.
3. In your Shore account, click on Settings > Integrations and activate appointment booking via Google. That's it! Click here to go directly to your calendar settings.