It seems that Google is testing or introducing a “request quotes” button in local results. This was discovered by Tom Waddington.
This comes as part of the Local Services Ads (LSAs). LSAs are currently delivering phone leads to local businesses participating in the program. LSAs are requiring businesses to be “Google Guaranteed” and pass licensing, insurance and background checks.
If this move is a test, it represents another option for businesses and consumers to connect and transact. The form is fairly brief (It doesn’t really capture enough details for businesses to deliver a reliable price quote) that consumers have to complete before submission. Right now, we don’t know how many businesses are able to be contacted, although the above tweet shows three.
The quote will be delivered to the business via Google My Business (GMB) messaging. In order for businesses to receive the quotes, the business owners will need to download the GMB app. This could be a problem, as there have been complaints about GMB’s messaging functionality, following Google’s abandonment of traditional SMS-based messaging.