Google removed request-a-quote. Put a front desk behind the link

If you're hunting for the request-a-quote button on your Google Business Profile, stop. Google removed it, and it isn't coming back.

It went away with Google's chat feature. Customers got notice on July 15, 2024, and as of July 31, 2024, chat and call history were removed from Business Profiles. The same help page answers the quote question flat out: "No, customers can no longer request quotes."

Google keeps closing its message lanes

Chat closed first, and quote requests died with it. Then Q&A: the public questions section on profiles lost API access on November 3, 2025, and the feature is being retired, with Google testing AI-generated answers in its place (Ask Maps in Maps, AI Mode in Search).

Put those two moves together and the direction is plain. Google is getting out of the business of relaying messages between you and your customers. It keeps discovery: the map pin, the reviews, the "plumber near me" pack. Everything conversational either moves to Google's own AI or routes back to you through the links on your profile.

Honestly, the old lanes were never great. GBP chat was one more inbox to check from a crawlspace. But they existed, and the customers who used them haven't gone anywhere.

The customer who wanted a quote still exists

It's 9:30 on a Tuesday night. The water heater is leaking, and someone just found you on Maps. They don't want to call a stranger at that hour. They wanted to type "roughly what does a 50-gallon swap cost, and can you come tomorrow?" and see what comes back.

The button they'd have used is gone. So they tap whatever's left. If what's left answers them, you get the job. If it rings a phone you can't pick up, or lands on a contact form that promises someone will "get back to you shortly", they return to the list and tap the next plumber.

What's left on the profile points at you

Three lanes survive, and you control all of them:

• The call button. Great when you can answer. If you're a solo operator, you often can't, because you're the one under the sink.
• The website link. Usually a brochure page with a dead form on it.
• The booking and appointment links. Google lets you add up to 10 of them, and plenty of tradespeople leave the section empty.

Google shut its own quote lane, so that intent now flows through these links. Whatever sits behind them is your front desk now. For most small shops, that's a form that answers nothing and a phone that's busy.

Put a front desk behind the link

Here's what ServiceFront does today, stated plainly. You paste your website URL. It reads your site and drafts your business profile. You check the facts: hours, service area, licensing, and the prices you're willing to quote as ranges. Then your front desk goes live on your own web surface. It answers what customers actually ask (do you do tankless, is a leaking water heater an emergency, do you cover 94401), and it only answers from facts you verified, so it never invents a price. When the customer's ready, it takes their name, number, and job details, and emails you the lead.

It does not answer your phone, doesn't send texts, and doesn't put anything on a calendar. The customer asks, the agent answers and captures, and you close the job the way you already do. That's the whole product right now, and it's exactly the conversational piece Google just vacated.

The setup, start to finish

1. Get your front-desk link. Go to servicefront.ai, paste your website URL, and review what it pulled. Fix what's wrong, confirm the facts, and your agent is live at yourbusiness.servicefront.ai. There's also a one-line widget if you'd rather host it on your own site.
2. Open your profile editor. Search your business name on Google while signed into the account that manages your profile, then click "Edit profile". Or go to business.google.com.
3. Add the link. In the Booking section, choose "Add link" and paste your front-desk URL (Google's steps). If your category doesn't show a Booking section, point the website field at the page where the widget lives.
4. Test it like a stranger. Open your listing in an incognito window, tap through, and ask the three questions you answer every week. If a reply is off, fix that fact in your profile and ask again.

One honest note on the booking label: the agent won't schedule the job by itself. It captures the request, you get it by email, and you call back to book it. What changes is that the 9:30pm customer gets real answers instead of a dead form, and you get their number instead of nothing.

The part worth sitting with

Google's replacement for Q&A generates answers about your business from your website, your profile, and your reviews. If your site says the wrong hours, that's what the AI reads. Onboarding with ServiceFront doubles as an audit here: the crawl shows you exactly what your site tells a machine, and the verify step is where you correct it. Clean facts help your front desk today and shape what Google's AI says about you tomorrow.

If you want to see what your front desk would say before you touch your listing, paste your URL into the box on the servicefront.ai home page and ask it what your customers ask you.