Google has run a full-page advertisement in the New York Times promoting their services to Celsious, a laundromat in Brooklyn, New York. In the ad, the headline reads “Helping local businesses adapt to a new way of working.” Google shows how they can enable dedicated drop-off and pick-up times for local first responders and those who are at risk from Coronavirus for a critical local business service.
Reserve with Google (also known as “RwG”) is the appointment booking system behind the “BOOK ONLINE” or “SCHEDULE” buttons associated with many business listings in Google.
If you haven’t heard of RwG it it’s not surprising: it is typically a “behind the scenes” part of the larger Google Maps brand, surfacing during Google searches, or showing up as part of the Google Profile for many businesses that participate.
If you click on the “BOOK ONLINE” button for Celsious, you’ll see a list of appointments, including “Priority Drop-Off” for a variety of groups including essential workers, families with small children, or high-risk groups.
This type of appointment labeling through descriptions is a good use of RwG to help describe and promote the services offered.
What’s interesting about Celsious is they had successfully positioned their laundromat as a fun place to hang out, or “a place where this you can do your laundry while also enjoying a nice cup of coffee or tea while you wait for your cycle to end.” With the advent of the pandemic, the ability to reposition their business model–similar to restaurants transitioning to delivery and pick-up–was facilitated by appointment scheduling.
At the bottom of the list of appointments, you’ll notice that “Booking times are provided in partnership with Square Appointments.” Square Appointments is one of the vendors working with Reserve with Google, with a focus on small business retail shops.
The TASBIA Bottom Line
Since Reserve with Google first launched commercially in 2017, the service has partnered with numerous “appointment scheduling” vendors (dubbed “Reserve with Google Partners”) who provide the nuts-and-bolts behind the “BOOK ONLINE” buttons a user sees in their search. There are now nearly 200 vendors that are approved (or pending approval) to provide appointments via RwG for a variety of industries, including beauty and wellness, fitness, retail, dining, financial services, and many others.
When Coronavirus started to impact many of the in-person appointments, the RwG team adapted to allow “virtual appointments” via web conferencing, as well as expanding the use of standard appointment types. By working with their partners (vendors), Google has been at the forefront of providing convenience for consumers by leveraging appointment scheduling in new ways.
Since Reserve with Google is not restricted by the technology to specific appointment types, there was really no reason not to expand to include laundry drop-offs, pick-ups, or any other transaction between a consumer and business that would be best served with a reserved date and time.
The industry coined the term “BOPIS” (Buy On Line, Pick up In Store) for retail stores. So, do we need to create a new one here? How about “DOYLS” (Drop Off Your Laundry Safely). Or maybe we have enough acronyms already! Whatever we call it, with the new reality of COVID-19 modifying many of our business interactions, it’s good to see technology adapting to allowing consumers to interact in new ways with business to the benefit of both parties.
