Jon Poteet, owner of Shine Distillery, said Google’s misinformation about his company’s opening hours hurt his business.
PORTLAND, Oregon (KOIN) — In addition to fighting back from the pandemic, business owners in northern Portland are battling misinformation online.
John Poteet owns Shine Distillery, which opened on North Williams Avenue three years ago. In order to extend the hours of operation to our target audience, we also have a 6-hour brunch on the weekends. However, extended hours aren’t always visible on Google.
“[Sales] Weekends when Google changes hours are cut in half,” Poteet says.
Poteet estimates sales will hit $1,000 to $1,200 compared to weekends with packed brunch crowds. His kitchen is prepared for the rush, and when it doesn’t come, he estimates that about $200 to $300 of food is wasted after it’s ready.
Poteet reached out to Google several times. He said, as confirmed by a Google spokesperson, there are no corporate phone numbers that can be called to resolve these issues, even those confirmed through Google. Instead, I am submitting an online form.
“That’s another factor in the daily struggle of running a restaurant,” he said.
Poteet says that despite submitting several amendments, he returned to the same 4-10pm working hours instead of 10am-10pm on weekends.
Seth Morrisey, owner of Oregon Web Solutions, said:
Morrisey’s business helps small businesses get their name out there to potential customers on social media and search engines. Morrisey says his first step is to allow businesses to “claim” his business postings on Google.
At worst, it can lead to an “edit war” between incorrect and correct posts, like a battle over information.
“It’s like the Wild West out there. There’s a lot of information on the Web that isn’t accurate,” Morrisey says.
In a statement, Google said its platform uses a mix of human and automated processes to post data it believes is accurate and up-to-date. The spokesperson points out that user-provided content is how we make information on Google Maps available to everyone.
“The feedback provided by Google Maps users is essential to keeping Maps up to date. When we receive edits, we use available information to verify their accuracy before publishing. Providing accurate and reliable information is our top priority, and we encourage people and businesses to report content errors and misleading information, which helps us improve our auto-detection system. , helps maintain the authenticity and credibility of the information on the map,” the spokesperson wrote.
Poteet now monitors search engines on a regular basis. I’m also baffled as to why our competitors show up in the “food near me” and “restaurants near me” search options, but they don’t. A search with Apple’s Siri brings up his restaurant, but he believes he’s missing out on other new customers using Google.
Morrisey found research showing that 90-92% of search traffic comes from Google.
“It’s an unnecessary headache. This shouldn’t be too difficult,” said Poteet. “I deal with taxes more than Google.”
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