Yago Paramo

Automotive Entrepreneur

Parking difficulty now on Google maps:

image001 (1)Google just announced https://blog.google/products/maps/know-you-go-parking-difficulty-google-maps/ that it will display parking difficulties on its next update.

The system will only be available at this time in 25 metro areas in the US. Look at the P(arking) icon in the maps screen shot.

It should be a dealer’s concern that if this expands into businesses the same way busy times show now on Google places desktop results, it may give customers a negative outlook if we always have a “limited parking” icon in our listings.

It is a bit too early to act on this but I would keep an eye on how Google assigns the parking limitations. What can we do as a business to show customers that it is easy to park?

Until now we didn’t watch this because by the time customers drove to the dealership and realized you almost have no parking available it was easier to just do whatever they had to do to get their business done. This may be a big decision factor for both service and sales for a customer trying to save time and comparing two similarly distanced dealers to visit.