Case Study: Nicotra Locksmith Secures 3 Clients in 7 Days with GBP

I want to use a client’s case, a local locksmith in France, to show you the power of having a Google Business Profile, even if not optimized. In only 7 days, François gained 3 new clients thanks to being positioned in Google’s local pack - the set of the 3 top businesses - showed for several search queries containing keywords related to his job and city names around him.

Recently, my door lock started to function poorly, and I decided to change it to prevent further bigger and more expensive issues. I visited a local locksmith/shoe repair store, as these shops are generally combined in France, who visited my home for a quote and sent me one of his freelance locksmith partners.

That partner has his own local company specializing in locksmithing, called “ABC Serrurerie Nicotra” in French, literally “ABC Nicotra Locksmithing,” “Nicotra” being his family name.

After he changed my lock, we sympathized and discussed lockpicking, and then business. He told me he was interested in SEO and getting more customers, and desired to have a Google Business Profile. I ended up offering him the creation of his GBP on the spot.

By the way, this is a great sales lesson for all business owners, in that all opportunities should be seized. 😎 In addition, a GBP will happen to be very useful for growing his business. That’s what we call a win-win situation.

To start creating my client’s GBP, I asked him for his business information. I have no reason not to trust my clients, but I always search for information about my clients online to ensure the data I have is consistent and complete.

When I checked his information by searching for his business online, I realized the following issues:

His official business name is “ABC Serrurerie Nicotra”, but online he uses often “Serrurerie Nicotra”. Data is inconsistent, and neither Google nor customers like inconsistency.

Talking to him, I realized he originally wanted to call his company “Serrurerie Nicotra”, but he has been convinced by an administrative employee from the French Chamber of Trade to use “ABC Serrurerie Nicotra” for better referencing.

When he realized that the name he ended up with didn’t help with referencing, he used his original choice, even if the business was registered under another name.

Unfortunately, his business name is recorded by the French government as “ABC Serrurerie Nicotra”, and multiple online databases buy or obtain business data from the government and display it online. These databases are used by Google to check the validity of business information. Google spots the inconsistency.

My client uses his address as a business address because he doesn’t have a store. He is rather a contractor sent to people’s homes or business sites to repair or install everything related to locks, doors, and windows.

His address is at the number 12 on his street, and his business address has been mistakenly registered at the number 10 on his street by the French Chamber of Trade.

He knew about the discrepancy in the data and told me that he never went back to the Chamber of Trade to make the change.

Here again, the number 10 is declared on official databases, but he uses the number 12 on profiles he created online. Therefore, this is another inconsistency that Google doesn’t like.

When I asked if he had a Google account I could use, he told me that he opened one in the past but didn’t know what it was, so I should create a new one.

Therefore, I created a brand new Google account, with a Gmail email address, to create his GBP.

As such, Google doesn’t know the user of that new account and does not trust it.

He had no website. Therefore, there were NO:

• Domain name dedicated to his business.
• Website dedicated to his business.
• Website verified by Google Search Console.
• Website with sitemaps submitted to Google.
• Historical traffic and user data known by Google.

Google has no data about this business, so Google does not trust it by default.

Note that my job is to ensure I deliver the optimal GBP, with the information I’ve been given. But for that to happen, I have to be able to verify the business with Google.

Note that I've created his website since his GBP was created.

Once the creation of his professional Google account, I started creating his GBP. Basic information are the NAP: business Name, Address, Phone number. When I started to create the GBP, I chose the official business name, “ABC Serrurerie Nicotra”, because that’s the business name mentioned in official databases.

However, I chose to declare the real address at the number 12 on his street, not the official one at the number 10, because I wanted to add correct data in his GBP. Fortunately, Google saw this address as the correct one. That was a risk I took.

Regarding the phone number, I just added it in the proper field. It is important NOT to add it somewhere else, like in the business description, otherwise, Google will not verify the profile.

Then, I filled in his business description as well as the date he started his activity. To give you an example of how to write a business description for humans and Google, here is the locksmith business description:

"François Nicotra, a state-certified locksmith with 15 years of experience, specializes in the installation of locks and doors (including reinforced doors), as well as opening locked or simply slammed doors.

I offer free quotes and operate throughout the Île-de-France region.

Approved by insurance companies, I specialize in interventions for lost or stolen keys, break-ins, or attempted break-ins. I am also skilled in non-destructive fine opening of car doors (lock picking).

Available 24/7, I provide fast, high-quality service, with free travel fees for any intervention within 10 km of Champigny-sur-Marne. Rated 5/5 by 130 customers on Allo Voisins."

I included his name and a lot of skills and social proofs to build trust and reduce the risks for potential customers:

Then, I provided clarity about the conditions in which he operates:

This information reassured leads enough to make them call the locksmith to get more details for an intervention.

My client serves businesses in the region of “Île-de-France”, the county “Val-de-Marne”, and the city of “Champigny-sur-Marne”. That’s the service area we implemented.

Once all the information was entered and double-checked, we decided to verify the profile. Google only offered the video verification method. As stated above, this verification method makes total sense, given the low trust level Google has for this business.

Google required confirmation that Nicotra Locksmith is the legitimate owner of the business and that the business is operational, to prevent a fraudulent site from appearing in its search engine.

Nicotra Locksmith had to create a video proving the business's existence.

The steps for video verification have been outlined below with screenshots Nicotra Locksmith has followed.

The locksmith completed the process above using Google Chrome from his mobile. Unfortunately, his video could not be uploaded for Google to review. He tried four times to complete the entire process, unsuccessfully.

This was the error encountered every time:

As Google would only allow video verification, we were stuck at this stage.

To unstuck the situation, we contacted Google’s Support to get in touch with a representative.

This is the form you use to get help: https://support.google.com/business/gethelp

To verify the profile, we had to fill in all of these (note, these are in French, not English, but what matters is the amount of information we had to provide).

Google will ask for every piece of information you can provide about your business, including pictures, administrative proofs of existence…

Google offered live video verification using Google Meet on mobile from the location to be verified.

My client started a chat with a Google representative, with me on the line to help him out. Then, acknowledging that we prepared him upfront, he stated the videoconference call with the Google representative who checked all of the information already sent to Google, but doing it live this time:

The verification process worked and his GBP was approved at that moment.

Because his GBP was well set up, he had been contacted by 3 new clients during the first week.

Clients wrote search queries containing “locksmith [city]”, each time with a different city from a surrounding county. He checked that he was appearing first in these cities, and is appearing in the top 3 (local pack) or top 5 for many cities in this county.

Therefore, just by having his GBP created and verified, not optimized yet, he has been able to gain clients and work. He was so happy with my services that he asked me to create his website (which I created since) and now has asked me to optimize his GBP!

In addition, he asked his new customers to add 5-star reviews on his GBP, sharing his link, and he received since then many more reviews from new clients.

François, the locksmith, had decided to use a Google Business Profile to become more visible, in the hope of finding new customers.

While creating his profile was straightforward, validating it was difficult due to Google’s lack of trust regarding businesses without consistent online information or lacking online data. Fortunately, we’ve been able to reach out to a Google representative who contributed to verify his profile.

François received 3 calls in the first week of the existence of his GBP. These 3 leads needed locksmithing services. He has been able to serve them well and has since received their 5-star reviews. He also obtained more clients since, thanks to his GBP.

I hope this case study will encourage you to create your GBP to become more visible to your local customers.