Terminology
The following terms appear throughout the site.
appointments
Used synonymously with bookings. A user books or makes an appointment for a particular slot.
bookings
A booking is the association of a service offered by a merchant for a specific block of time. A Google user may create a booking. A service offering may be a fitness class or a haircut, for example.
inventory
The set of merchants, services, and slots that you send to the Actions Center.
leases
The Actions Center requests a lease after a user has selected a particular slot. The lease places a hold on the slot so that no other user can book this particular appointment until the lease expires or the booking is completed. Leases are optional in v2 of the API and we recommend using CheckAvailabilty instead.
reservations
A reservation is a tentative booking. It applies specifically to dining.
services
Services are offered by merchants. A particular service slot may be booked by a Google user.
slots
A slot is a specific instance of a service that is available for booking. There can be multiple slots for each day and slots may overlap.
scheduling partners
A scheduling partner sends inventory data to Google. We send you user data when a user makes a booking and you perform the actual booking.
Content Editorial Guidelines
When providing service names and descriptions, your submissions should follow three principles:
- Be honest and factual.
- Describe service clearly and accurately.
- Include relevant and complete information about merchant services with attributes.
In addition, make sure you:
- Use standard spelling and grammar.
- Avoid any repeated and unnecessary use of punctuation, capitalization or symbols. Don't use exclamation points in your service titles. The use of symbols, numbers, and letters should adhere to the true meaning of the symbol.
- Avoid repetition. You may not post excessive, repetitive, or irrelevant keywords.
- Avoid offensive or inappropriate language.
- Do not include double quotes around the description field.
- Do not include any extraneous characters, e.g. asterisks that do not point to a footnote. If you must include a footnote or disclaimer, make sure to include it as the last line in the attribute.
- Make sure to include relevant variant information in services to allow customers to distinguish them.
- Do not include misspelled or incorrectly punctuated text in any field.
Partner Portal alerts
Reference this page to find out more information about Partner Portal alerts. There are links to the appropriate next steps for your issue included in each section.
Merchants missing availability
A merchant needs to have one or more future availabilities in the Availability feed. If the merchant doesn't have at least one future availability in the Availability feed, the merchant cannot be live on Actions Center. Refer to the "Merchants Missing Future Availability" table in the Inventory Details dashboard of the Partner Portal to see a full list of these merchants. This table is updated every two hours.
Merchant missing services
A merchant needs to have one or more services in the Services feed. If the merchant doesn't have at least one service in the Services feed, the merchant cannot be live on the Actions Center. Refer to the "Merchants Missing Services" table in the Inventory Details dashboard of the Partner Portal to see a full list of these merchants. This table is updated every two hours.
Merchants in an unsupported country
A merchant needs to be within a supported country that your implementation supports. If the merchant’s country isn't supported by the Actions Center, or your implementation doesn't support that country, the merchant cannot be live on the Actions Center. Refer to the "Total Live Merchants by Country" table in the Live Merchants dashboard of the Partner Portal to see your full list of merchants by country. This table is updated every two hours. Open a case in the Partner Portal to see which countries your implementation currently supports or which merchants aren't live due to the country they're in.
Merchants missing a complete address
In order to be live on the Actions Center, a merchant needs to be matched to a listing on Google Maps. The address of a merchant is a big determinant for how Google detects which merchant goes to which Google Maps listing. It's strongly recommended to regularly view the "Merchants Without Complete Addresses" table in the Partner Portal to see your full list of merchants without a complete address. These merchants aren't live on the Actions Center. The table is updated every two hours.
Merchants missing a telephone number
In order to be live on the Actions Center, a merchant needs to be matched to a listing on Google Maps. The telephone number of a merchant is a determinant for how Google detects which merchant goes to which Google Maps listing. It's strongly recommended that you include the telephone number to increase the chances that Google can automatically match your merchants to a Google Maps listing. Refer to the Merchants feed to see the proper format of the telephone number.
Services without a price
A service which has an additional cost associated with it must include a valid price. If the service’s price doesn't reflect a valid price, or is $0.00, the service cannot be live on the Actions Center. Refer to the "Services With No Prices" table in the Inventory Details dashboard of the Partner Portal to see a full list of these services. This table is updated every two hours.
Services without a description
A service needs to include a valid description. If the service’s description is missing, we strongly encourage you to provide one. This allows important details to the users who need to know what they're booking. Open a case on Partner Portal to receive a list of services that don't have a description.
How to get help
Here are instructions for finding help.
New partners
If you're interested in integrating with the Actions Center, complete this interest form.
Existing partners
Filing an inquiry or complaint
If you are a current Actions Center partner and have a question or complaint, you can create a new case in the Partner Portal to contact us. From within the Partner Portal, you can access your case history from going to the Help and Support > Cases page. To create a new case, fill in the "How can we help?" box and click "Start" to go to the new case form.
When creating a new case, you will be asked a few questions that will allow us to better assist you. Please answer these questions to the best of your ability.
Once you open a case, you will be able to view and respond from your inbox or from the Partner Portal. You will receive an email whenever there is an update to your case. Once a case is closed, you will not be able to respond to that case again and will need to open a new case for any future questions.
Anyone that you grant access to your Partner Portal account (see the Accounts & Users guide on how to manage access) will be able to see any previous cases and respond to any open case from within the Partner Portal. Each case will have a case number that you may reference at any time. In addition, emails we send to you may have a reference id associated with them as well. Please include that reference id, or any other identifiers (such as a merchant id) that are applicable to the case within your inquiry.
Following up on a case
If a case you submitted has been closed and you have a follow up to that case, you can “re-open” it using the Follow up on a case button. This button is located at the top of the closed case when viewing the case from the Partner Portal Help and Support > Cases page.
Your follow up case will appear as a new case within the Partner Portal after you click "Submit".
Request for business data
To initiate a new request for business data that is not already available using the reports in the Actions Center, contact us using the Business User Data Access Request Form.