When Call History is turned on, clicking the “call” buttons on your business listing will trigger a call to a Google number which forwards the call to your business number. Doing this allows Google’s system to “listen in” and report back on the calls that came from the buttons off your listings.
As mentioned before, there are a few issues that occur from time to time with the Call History feature.
- You have no control over the number assigned to your business. These numbers will typically have the same area code as your business phone number.
- The Google number assigned to your business is not linked to your business’ number just the “call” button itself.
There are a few other issues, but these are the ‘major’ issues that have ben noticed thus far. That being said, these minor limitations do not discount the benefits of measuring call performance, missed calls, etc. of your business all for FREE.
Any paid call-tracking solutions like CallTrackingMetrics will provide you with a lot more data on your calls. However, these more in-depth features cost money and the value depends on each service.
As a free service Google handles the basics but is limited by comparison to paid options.