Latest / The Local Marketing Podcast with Fexingo: Small Business, Google Maps, and Local SEO / How a Local Car Wash Uses Google Maps Wait Times to Build Trust
Transcript
- Lucas: There's a car wash in Portland called Suds & Shine. Started by a former software project manager. And about three months ago, she decided to do something that most car washes would never dream of. Luna: Let me guess — she started publishing her real-time wait times on Google Maps. Lucas: Exactly. Which sounds counterintuitive. If you've got a forty-minute queue, the last thing you want is for potential customers to see that and drive somewhere else. But her reasoning was the opposite: she wanted people to know exactly what they were walking into, so they could decide on their own terms. Luna: And did it work? Or did she just scare everyone away? Lucas: Over twelve weeks, she tracked two things: the number of calls asking 'how long is the wait?' and the actual conversion rate of people who arrived after seeing the wait time. The call volume dropped by about sixty percent. And the conversion rate — meaning people who actually stayed for a wash — went from around seventy-five percent to ninety-two percent. Luna: So fewer calls, but the people who showed up were already committed. That's a better customer experience, too — nobody feels tricked. Lucas: Right. And the key was that she didn't just publish the wait time as a static number. She used Google's real-time updates feature on her Business Profile, which lets you set a status like 'busy' or 'moderate' or 'quiet'. She linked it to a simple dashboard she built that pulls data from her point of sale system. Luna: So it updates automatically? She's not manually changing it every hour? Lucas: That's right. She built a small script that pings the POS every fifteen minutes. If the average ticket time over the last hour is under twelve minutes, it sets the profile to 'quiet.' Over twelve minutes, it switches to 'moderate.' Over twenty, it goes to 'busy.' No human intervention. Luna: I love that because it removes the temptation to fudge the numbers. If you're manually updating, you might round down a few minutes to look better. But an automated system keeps it honest. Lucas: Precisely. And honesty is the whole point. She told me that before this, customers would show up, see a long line, and just pull out. They'd leave without even asking. And then they'd leave a one-star review complaining about the wait. Now, the wait time is right there on the listing — no surprises. Luna: Did her ratings change at all over those three months? Lucas: They actually went up from 4.3 to 4.6 stars. Which makes sense — the people who are arriving during busy times already know it's busy. They've mentally prepared. They're not frustrated before they even park. Luna: So it's basically expectation management. And that's a tactic that could work for any service business with variable demand — dentists, hair salons, oil change places, even restaurants. Lucas: Exactly. And what's interesting is that Google actually surfaces this data in search now. If someone searches 'car wash near me' on mobile, the result for Suds & Shine shows a little bar that says 'currently busy — typically 20–30 min wait.' That's pulled from the Business Profile status. Luna: I've seen that on restaurant listings too, but I didn't realise small businesses could set it themselves. I thought it was only for places that use Google's booking or ordering systems. Lucas: A lot of people think that. But any business can set the 'popular times' and 'live busyness' data if they have a Google Business Profile. The catch is that Google's algorithm usually populates it automatically based on location history. You can override it with a custom status, but it's a bit buried in the settings. Luna: What's the step-by-step? If I'm a listener with a local business, how do I do this today? Lucas: First, make sure you've verified your Business Profile. Then in the dashboard, go to 'Info' and scroll down to 'Attributes.' You'll see an option for 'Live busyness.' You can either let Google estimate it or choose 'Set manually.' If you set it manually, you can pick from 'busy,' 'moderately busy,' or 'not busy.' That's the simplest version. Luna: But for the automated version, you'd need to use Google's API? Lucas: Yes. Google Business Profile API lets you update your status programmatically. If you have a POS system that can expose data, you can write a small integration. Suds & Shine used a no-code tool called Zapier to connect their POS to Google's API — took the owner about two hours to set up. Luna: Two hours for a sixty percent drop in phone calls and a seventeen-point jump in conversion? That's a pretty solid return on time. Lucas: And she said the biggest surprise was how it affected employee morale. Before, the staff had to answer constant phone calls while trying to manage the line. Now they just focus on washing cars. And customers are happier because they didn't waste a drive. Luna: You know, hearing stories like this — it really shows how a small, transparent move can change the whole dynamic of a local business. And it's the kind of practical tactic you rarely hear about in big marketing guides. Lucas: That's exactly why we do this show — to surface the stuff that actually works on Main Street, not just in boardrooms. And if these episodes have sparked an idea you've tried, or even just saved you a headache, we're glad. We keep the show ad-free because we want the information to be the point, not the sponsor message. Luna: Yeah, and it's a conscious choice. If you've gotten value from these conversations and want to help keep them going, there's a simple way to do it without any pressure. Lucas: Exactly. The link is buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. That's it. No perks, no tiers — just a way to say this kind of content matters to you. And it helps us keep the show exactly as it is. Luna: Alright. Back to the car wash. So after twelve weeks, the data was clear. But did she run into any issues with Google's algorithm or policy? Lucas: One issue. Google's system sometimes overrides manual or api based statuses with its own estimate. If the algorithm thinks the business is 'busy' based on location data, it can flip the status back. She had to email Google support to whitelist her API updates. That took about a week. Luna: That's a good heads-up. So it's not entirely frictionless, but the upside seems worth the initial hassle. Lucas: Totally. And the other thing she learned was that the 'popular times' graph on the profile is based on historical data, not real-time. So even if her live status said 'quiet,' customers might still see a graph showing that Thursdays at 4 PM are usually busy. There's a disconnect. Luna: So the live status is the more accurate signal. How did she communicate that to customers? Lucas: She added a Google Post that says 'Check our live wait time before you leave.' And she pinned it to the top of the profile. That way, when someone searches, they see the post first with a link to a simple web page that shows the current wait time in big numbers. Luna: So she's using two Google features together — the live status and a pinned post — to reinforce the same message. That's smart. Lucas: And the web page is just a landing page on her own domain, but it's linked from the post. So she also gets a little SEO boost from the internal link. It's a nice touch. Luna: Alright, let's zoom out. What's the one-sentence takeaway for a local business owner listening right now? Lucas: If your business has variable wait times, surface them honestly on your Google Business Profile — either manually or through automation — and you will build trust, reduce inbound calls, and increase the likelihood that people who show up actually stay. Luna: And that's a tactic you can test this week. Takes ten minutes to set up the manual status. If it works, you can explore the API route. Lucas: Exactly. Next episode, we're going to look at a completely different kind of local business — a locksmith — and how they used Google Maps attributes to rank for emergency breakdowns. That one involves a slightly more controversial tactic. Luna: Can't wait.