Google Business Profile leads: reply in under 60 seconds

How Google Business Profile leads arrive

Google removed the original chat feature from Business Profiles on July 31, 2024 (9to5Google, May 2024). Today, the Chat option on a verified profile opens a text message or WhatsApp, using the textable phone number or WhatsApp link the business adds to its profile’s contact details. Google says chat options are available in select regions only (Google Business Profile Help).

• Chats: a text or WhatsApp message to the number or link on your profile, usually a short question about a service, availability or an appointment.
• Calls: a call from the Call button to the phone number on your profile.
• Website visits: a tap through to your website, where the visitor fills in a form or starts a chat.

A profile chat lands on a phone that someone has to be holding. During a job, an appointment or overnight, it waits.

Why speed matters for profile leads

A person who messages from your profile found you in a list of nearby businesses and can ask the next one in seconds. The research on response time and answered calls shows how much a slow first reply costs. These are industry figures, not Novacall AI results.

• In the InsideSales.com and MIT Lead Response Management study of more than 15,000 web leads, the odds of reaching a lead fell 100 times, and the odds of qualifying it 21 times, when the first call came at 30 minutes instead of 5 (study summary, 2007).
• Across 70 million calls to businesses in 10 industries, a person answered just over half of them (Invoca, 2026).

Every figure, with its sample, year and the source’s own wording, is in the speed-to-lead statistics. To set the research against your own numbers, try the speed-to-lead calculator.

What Novacall AI does with a Google Business Profile lead

Novacall AI replies on the channel the lead chose, in under 60 seconds, and works toward a booked appointment.

• Chats: when the number or WhatsApp account on your profile is connected to Novacall AI, each chat gets a reply in under 60 seconds on the same channel, then your qualifying questions and a booking on your connected calendar.
• Website leads: a visitor who taps through and fills in a form or starts a chat gets the same reply as any web form or website chat lead.
• Calls: Novacall AI can also pick up inbound calls to your profile’s number when your team is busy, qualify the caller and book the appointment.

Every conversation, its answers and its outcome are synced to your CRM, and anything unusual, sensitive or high-value goes to the person you choose, with the conversation attached.

What to set up for Google Business Profile leads

Your profile stays yours to manage in Google. Connecting the numbers and accounts it lists to Novacall AI is configured during onboarding. Before you switch it on, settle these points.

• The Chat number or WhatsApp link. The Chat field in your profile’s contact details takes a textable phone number or a WhatsApp link; that is the number or account to connect.
• The phone number on your profile, if you want Novacall AI to pick up the calls your team cannot take.
• Your website form and chat, so visitors who tap through get the same reply.
• Accurate hours, services and areas. Novacall AI answers from the information you give it, so keep it consistent with your profile.
• A test message. Tap Chat on your own profile from a phone and time the reply.

Related guides

• Every lead source Novacall AI replies to, and which to connect first.
• Website chat leads and web form leads: where profile visitors land on your site.
• Multilingual lead response: profile chats from customers who prefer another language.
• Industry guides for home services, auto repair shops, dental practices and med spas.
• How AI lead response works, step by step.