Customers can't call you? How to fix your phone number on Google and other apps

Many customers decide in one tap. They see your shop, tap Call, and if the number is missing or dead, they call the next name on the list. Put one working number on Google first, then make every other app show the same one. It takes about 30 minutes.

Salim runs a small car repair garage. Most of his work comes from one phone call: the car will not start, a tyre is flat, the brakes make a noise.

Two years ago his phone was stolen and he took a new number. He put it on Google. He forgot about his Justdial page, his old Facebook page and the number painted on his garage board.

Last month a lady from the next lane told him, "I called you when my car would not start. The number said not in use. So I called someone else."

How many people had called that old number and never told him?

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Write down every place your number shows. Most owners find five or six:

• Google Maps and Google search
• Justdial, Sulekha, IndiaMART or your trade's own app
• Your Facebook page and Instagram profile
• Your website
• Your WhatsApp Business profile
• The board, the visiting card and any sticker you put up

Search your shop name on your phone and look at each one. Write the number you see next to it.

Choose the number you will always pick up, in shop hours and outside them. A mobile number is fine. If you use WhatsApp, use the same one, so people can call or message.

If a helper picks up a second number, Google lets you add it as an extra number. Keep your main one first.

Google's help page shows these steps for your Business Profile:

1. Sign in with the Google account that manages your listing.
2. Open the Google Maps app. Tap Business at the bottom right. On a computer, go to business.google.com.
3. Tap Edit profile. Find Phone number.
4. Type the new number under Phone number.
5. Tap Save.

Google may check the change before it shows. Give it a day or two.

If someone else made your listing and you cannot sign in, open your shop on Google Maps and tap Suggest an edit. It is better to claim the listing, so you control it.

Go down your list, one at a time.

1. Justdial and other listing apps. Sign in to your business page and edit the number. If you cannot sign in, use the app's edit or report option, or call their help line.
2. Facebook. Open your page, go to the page details, and change the phone.
3. Instagram. Tap Edit profile, then the contact options.
4. Your website. Ask your web person to change it on every page, at the top and at the bottom.
5. The board and cards. Print new ones. A wrong number on the gate sends people to the same dead end.

• Ask a friend to search your shop name and tap Call. Your phone rings.
• Ask them to do the same on Justdial, Facebook and your website. The same number every time.
• Your old number is gone from every place on your list.

Salim fixed his number on Google, Justdial and Facebook in one evening, and painted the new number on his board. Now, every few months, he searches his own name and taps Call, just to hear his phone ring.

Can I show two numbers?

Yes. Keep one main number the same everywhere. Add a second one only where the app allows an extra number.

I changed my number on Google, but the old one still shows.

Wait a day or two. Then search again in a private window, so your phone does not show you an old copy.

Is a landline better than a mobile?

Use the number you always answer. Customers do not mind which kind it is. They mind when nobody picks up.

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