Yext Tips To-Go: Ensuring Your Delivery Links are Front and Center During COVID-19

Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, people have been searching for information about the best, safest, and easiest ways to procure groceries and food for their families. They are searching the web to determine if shops are still open, delivering items, or offering pickup, and they don't want to spend hours researching; they want this information easily accessible so they can make a quick purchase.

You've most likely already taken action to update your key information, such as opening hours, but what if you now only offer delivery or pickup? How do you make sure that customers know about these changes to your business?

Note: You may have seen that**some businesses have changed their name to "[STORE NAME] – Temporarily Closed" or "[STORE NAME] – Takeout and Delivery Only". Both Google and Apple have stated that they will NOT accept these changes to business names. Instead, they've recommended using solutions like the status flag, attributes, or amenities to reflect these changes. If you need to temporarily close, please follow the steps described inthis blog post to update your business hours and closing information.

Yext makes updating the attributes associated with your business like "delivery" and "pickup available" easy by providing you with the option to select whether an attribute is relevant to your business on the Yext platform. These attributes are fields that you can update in the Knowledge Graph. When you select an option for an attribute, Google My Business (GMB) will automatically highlight this under your business description. The attributes synced will correspond to those defined in the GMB Attributes section for any given location. Note: You must sync your GMB account and Yext to take advantage of this functionality.

Image: Screenshot of Google My Business (GMB) Attributes in the Yext Knowledge Graph

It is important to highlight these attributes to consumers, as they're indicating that they still want to purchase items from you during this time, but may require delivery if they are in a high-risk group or self isolating at home and cannot leave. The image below shows an example of how a restaurant brand has implemented this change and how these attributes are showing up in their listing information. Note the red crosses and green tick marks for the attributes for the various locations.

Image: Search in Google showing attributes in Europe for Old Wild West

In the coming weeks, additional attributes will be added to all business profiles. For example, shopping attributes will also include 'curbside pickup' and 'no contact delivery'. Stay tuned for more updates and available attributes.

We wish you and your teams the best during this critical moment. If you need help updating your business attributes, or anything else, Yext is here to help. Please reach out to your Customer Success Manager as your first point of contact.