Google’s “Have AI Check Prices” is live. How does your business stack up?

Well, Google has done it again. They’ve quietly rolled out a new feature that will surely have a lot of businesses scratching their heads and wondering why an AI employee from Google is calling asking questions about their services, pricing, and availability.

What Does AI Price Shopping Mean for Your Business?

We here at City Ranked have been saying this for the last few years, but here it is again.

Businesses that habitually miss phone calls, rely on prospects leaving a voicemail, or wait to respond to online inquiries, now is your time of reckoning.

Transparency in pricing will undoubtedly become an AI Ranking Signal for LLMs, and arguably is already a factor in feature rollouts like this. For many years, since the advent of voice assistants like Siri in 2011 and Google Now in 2012, search engines have been preparing for what they have long termed a “Screenless Environment”.

Implications for Search in a Screenless Environment

The screenless environment significantly changes how search works and how end users will consume and use this information.

• Answers over Options: Without a screen to present multiple links or filtering options, search results must deliver a single, precise, best answer to the users query.
• Context is Crucial: Devices in screenless environments rely heavily on contextual data, such as a user’s location (check out our GPS-SEO), history, and current situation, to provide relevant information efficiently.
• Zero-Click Searches: Many user queries in screenless environments result in “zeroclick searches”, where the user gets the answer directly from from the search engine (via a voice assistant, or a snippet – AI overview) without needing to visit the website.
• Shift in SEO: For content creators and marketers, the focus shifts from just getting clicks to being an authoritative source for Google and other AI search services to use in their direct answers and AI Overviews.

In essence, a screenless environment in search engines prioritizes efficiency, context, and immediate gratification of information needs through an intuitive non-visual interaction.

For some businesses, this could be a real issue as more and more consumers become aware and start using features like this. The importance of being transparent in pricing, engaging with online leads, and providing superior customer service before the sale will become the next optimization opportunity. Most digital marketing experts agree that this shift will occur in the next 12 to 24 months, leaving very little time to make needed corrections.

How Google’s “Have AI Check Prices” Functionality Works

I did a test, and here’s how it worked for me.

First, you’ll need to be signed into your Google Profile. I did a search for “Emergency Plumbers Portland OR” and below was the sequence of questions Google asked me to prepare my estimate request.

The Results

I answered a few simple questions, which were almost all selectable fields, Google populated my contact information, and within 13 minutes, I had the below email in my inbox (results by SMS are also an option).

Consumers Are Demanding “Immediate Gratification”, How Will Your Business Fare?

As you can see, out of the 7 plumbing companies Google’s AI called, only 2 companies successfully interacted with AI to give “kinda pricing”, but this demonstrates something that Google wrote just prior to the pandemic, they forecasted that almost all businesses will need to have some sort of ecommerce functionality as consumers will expect it.

Having the ability to sell, book, schedule, and close business online will no longer be an option for most businesses in general, and certainly, this will apply to Service Area Businesses (SABs) such as Plumbers, Pest Control, HVAC, Landscaping, and much more. Gone are the days when you, as a business owner, can run a thriving business just using a phone and email. Today’s online shoppers demand you do it their way, or they’ll just take their business elsewhere…it really is that simple.

What Does AI Pricing Mean for Your Business?

Below, I’ve listed things that we know for certain here at City Ranked, or have a very strong, data-backed, inclination, that will affect your lead flow. When it comes to these new changes, and what we’ve seen as they have implemented these changes.

• Answer Your Phone – This seems like a very simple task, right? You’d be surprised by how many business owners we talk to who, a month or two into the relationship, find out that we, as an agency, have been tracking unanswered calls to their business. In many cases, these missed call percentages can be upwards of 40 to 50%.
  • Knowledge: Google has the ability to understand if you’re answering your phone or not. If you habitually don’t answer, why would Google want to keep you as a search result? Their goal is to satisfy end-users, and we all know getting a voicemail greeting is very unsatisfying…remember “Immediate Gratification” is the goal.
• Inform and Train Your Employees: If Google calls and starts asking questions about your business, prices, services offered, and availibility to do the job, Don’t Overthink It. Be clear, concise, and give your best possible price, including any discounts you may be offering as this is your only chance for an opportunity to win that business. Remember the only thing the consumer will see before they decide who to call will be your responses to Google’s phone call.
• Missed Calls Are a Slow Death – As Eben Lowy (our former Director of Analytics) once taught me, the Google Death Spiral is a real thing. Again Google measures if you’re missing calls. They most notably started this on Local Services Ads (LSAs). We as an agency saw this first hand with clients. They would start off very hot on LSAs, then performance would start to drop, with eventually getting next to no results. The culprit? Not answering the phone. Eben was able to determine that around the 30% missed call rate, your position starts to downgrade, and LSA costs increase.
• Speed to Lead is the New Gold Standard – We as an agency have done tests on speed to lead all the way back to 2018, and what we’ve found, hands down is that responses to online leads in under 5 minutes give you the best opportunity to land the business, closing percentages start dropping off after that, and drop to almost zero after 30 minutes.
  • Knowledge: Speed to Lead is obviously important, use marketing automation to respond to leads fast to keep them engaged till you can get to them.
• Pricing on Your Website Will be the New Standard – This is going to freak a lot of business owners out, I can hear it now “You’re suggesting I list my services and prices online?”. In so many words, Yes, because you’re going to have to if you want to get business online. This is where it is going to become wildly important to tell your story online, sell your services, what you do different, and why people should want to do business with you. Pricing and booking on service area business websites is coming, it’s going to just be a matter of who will be the first to market at scale with some of these new technologies.
  • Pricing Advice: Consistancy in correct pricing is critically important – Basically, Gemini says this about consistency in your pricing:
    • AI Trust & Inclusion – AI needs parsable pricing data. That means your website, your Google Business Profile, and what your Customer Service Teams tells AI calls.
    • Customer Trust & Experience – Website needs clear price ranges or tier pricing using schema markup so AI can parse it. Inconsistant pricing that differs from what your website says, what your GBP says, and what your Customer Service Team says hurts your credibility and can make your business look dishonest and/or unrelaiable.
    • Train Your Customer Service Reps!
      • Training is Mandatory: Train your team on approved price ranges and the exact language to use when discussing pricing with a caller, including an AI bot.
      • Clarity Over Upsell: The CSR’s goal when talking to an AI (or any initial inquiry) should be clarity and consistency, not immediate upsell pressure that gives a confusing, high-end quote.
      • Review Calls: Review recorded calls (if applicable) to ensure the price ranges and pricing factors discussed are the same as those on your website.
• Buy & Schedule Online is the New Standard – Yes. If you’re still using paper calendars, outdated scheduling software, or similar systems, you’ll need to change. Your CRM/website will need to understand your team’s availability, the time required for each service, and more. People want to buy your services and schedule online now, you just don’t know because you don’t offer it.
• Thoroughly Fill Out Your Google Profile – Google relies on this information to understand when your business is open, where it serves, service options, and even some pricing options are available. Make sure it is filled out.
  • LSA Advice: Taking calls “after hours”, if your typical plan is to call them right back might not work so well here in the near future. Run LSA ads when you are ready to take calls.
  • Pro-Tip for GBP: Make sure your hours are correct and company pre-scheduled holidays are entered.
• IVR Systems & Phone Tree Businesses: This is a little more complicated. Google doesn’t appear to have issued any guidance for businesses using automated phone answering system. We here at City Ranked are monitoring and doing IVR testing to see if Google’s AI can and will navigate an IVR, and we will do a follow-up post on this subject.

Businesses looking to scale their marketing efforts online should look at these new advancements as opportunities to start moving their organizations towards a more automated marketing system that prioritizes the experiece they offer to their potential customers. Waiting to make these changes will just put businesses further behind the curve, trying to catch up to competitors that have embraced these new ideas and technologies.

Implementing marketing automation and AI into your marketing and sales systems doesn’t have to be a painful endeavor. The key is to just start.