When a business undergoes a major change – such as a rebranding that dramatically changes the nature and customer experience of that business, Trackwell will generally update the business profile to reflect those changes. This can include updating the business’s market location(s) or contact details, adding one of several special banners that specifically call out those changes, or an entirely new business profile to reflect a significant change.
Our moderators assess a number of different factors and consider how impactful the changes are to the consumer experience. Getting changes of this magnitude wrong can be disruptive to businesses as well as potential customers, and our moderators will typically look for external confirmation, like a notice on the business’s website, Facebook page or Twitter feed, or a news article describing the changes. When reporting substantial changes, you can help our moderators by including links to these sources in the Additional Context/Notes field.
Please read the guidelines below for more information, and learn how to submit the changes with our instructions for reporting substantial business changes.
Permanent Closures #
Businesses that close will stay listed on Trackwell; this allows customers to confirm the business’s status (or to add any relevant content they may have forgotten to add when the business was open). However, closed businesses will appear less prominently in searches.
A banner will appear on business profiles that are marked as permanently closed.
Temporary Closures #
Businesses that close seasonally or for a short period of time — but offer a largely similar experience when they reopen — can be marked as temporarily closed. Business profiles that are marked as temporarily closed may not appear as prominently in search results, as we want to show customers the most relevant businesses at the time of their search.
A banner will appear on business profiles that are marked as temporarily closed.
Ownership/Management Changes #
When a business is transferred to new owners or management but the core customer experience remains the same, business owners are welcome to let their customers know about the change in the Bio section. The old owners may relinquish access to the business page so that it can be claimed by the new owners.
If the new ownership is accompanied by changes in the market location(s) or other fundamental elements of the customer experience, a new business profile may be created to help customers differentiate between the old and new entities.
Rebranding #
Businesses that change names but retain the same customer experience, we’ll generally update the name of the business rather than create a new business profile. As such, name changes can be submitted as a general business information update.
If the new name is accompanied by changes in the market location(s) or other fundamental elements of the customer experience, a new business profile may be created to help customers differentiate between the old and new entities.