Chad Wagner

Are there certain things I can do on my Google Business page to increase activity?

Great question, Dave. Google rewards profiles that stay active and fresh, so it's really about giving consistent signals. The things that move the needle most: Post weekly — use Google Posts for updates, offers, or quick tips. An active profile beats a dormant one. Get reviews steadily and reply to all of them — the flow of new reviews over time (and your responses) matters as much as the star rating. Add fresh photos often — recent, local photos drive more views and clicks. Fill out every field — categories, services, service areas, hours, attributes. Google only ranks you for what it knows. Use the Q&A section — seed and answer common questions; it's indexed and builds trust before anyone calls. Turn on messaging and reply fast — response time is a signal and captures leads who won't call. Do those consistently and you'll see both activity and ranking climb. Happy to help if you ever want to go deeper.

You mention that human connection is the 'last' competitive advantage. As AI becomes more sophisticated at mimicking empathy or personalizing experiences at scale, do you think there’s a risk that customers will eventually value 'simulated' connection over the real thing for the sake of convenience, or is there a 'humanity threshold' that technology can never cross?

The "humanity threshold" isn't just a philosophical concept; it’s a biological reality. While AI is becoming incredibly adept at mirroring empathy and smoothing out the friction of a transaction, it lacks the one thing that actually builds loyalty: skin in the game. When a customer interacts with a simulated personality, they know instinctively that the "empathy" they are receiving is the result of a probability map, not a shared experience. True connection requires a mutual vulnerability that code simply cannot replicate. In my work here in Tucson, I’ve seen that as digital interactions become more automated, the premium on human interaction actually skyrockets. We are entering an era where "convenience" is the baseline, but "trust" is the luxury. Customers will certainly choose AI for the routine—checking a balance or tracking a shipment—but when the stakes are high or the problem is complex, they crave the nuance of a person who can read between the lines. We don't just want our problems solved; we want to feel understood by someone who is capable of not caring, but *chooses* to care anyway. The risk isn't that customers will prefer the simulation; the risk is that businesses will stop investing in their people, leaving a void that AI can only poorly patch. If you lean too hard into the scale of automation, you lose the very "feeling" that differentiates your brand from a commodity. We should use AI to handle the data so that our teams have the mental bandwidth to handle the humans. I’d love to hear how you’re balancing automation with personal touch in your own workflow—feel free to reach out if you want to dive deeper into these 2025 trends.