If you browse Google Maps and search for a local business, you’ll notice that the business owners seem to be unaware of their listing, or are ignoring customer questions. A local business is not necessarily a small business.
Google Business Profile
You can feature your details if you are a business owner, but that’s another story. See https://www.google.com/business/ for more information.
Unanswered Comments
High-volume businesses such as banks, telephone companies, or internet providers will notice that customers who cannot get through to a human on the phone will look for other ways to enquire. A Google Business Profile can be seen in a Google Search result or a shorter format in Google Maps. Either of them enables visitors to leave their questions.
Say, you are looking for a bank branch in the city and you find your bank listing. Most banks have claimed their listings and have entered basic information such as the hours and days of operation.
You will see the option to ask a question and also notice an unanswered question above it. Here is the same question in another view.
Some questions seem to be asked of several banks – the SWIFT code is required when transferring money from a bank in another country.
Is There a Solution?
I worked as an SEO consultant for a Big-4 bank from 2010-2013 and encountered a similar issue. A branch had moved, but its profile still showed the old location. People had left angry comments on it after going to the location and not finding the bank there. Google Business Profile is usually the responsibility of the SEO team, except that I had to build this team from scratch. Banks can have dozens or hundreds of branches and ATMs. Other types of businesses can also have several physical outlets. Thus, they would have multiple profiles to manage.
The master account holder for Google Business Profile gets email notifications of any reviews or comments left on the profiles. They get dozens, sometimes hundreds, of such emails daily and might not even monitor that account.
The simple answer is to get more staff to answer any comments or questions (can I help?), but another solution for the FAQs is to add some more information to the profile description. SWIFT codes would be a great addition for bank branches.