Sorry Gary I didn't make it clear. We have three physical registered addresses for the three different named businesses we operate, one Doncaster, One Rotherham, one Sheffield. So they are three entities with three real offices/workshops. It's not a friends address in the area to make us look local, they are all legit local BUSINESS addresses we operate from, collect mail and drink tea at.
Our master franchise has NO more clout with Google than we do, so i might as well sort this myself to be honest.
We don't have multiple Google place listings in the same town, we only have one per area. We don;t even have multiple domain names in the same area so we can try to have two Google places at two different addresses, so we're as 'legit' as can be I believe.
Anyone should be 'worried' (if that's the right word) about losing one Google place listing when it removes you completely from the organic places listing. If you look at your stats for the clicks though and conversions from Google places you'd see that it's cheap as chips, effectively free jobs, so yes I am 'worried'. Obviously it won't bankrupt us but I'd rather have that additional 'free' work, wouldn't you? We believe in having many streams of income into the business, that way you're not reliant on any one of them, but when one which was working so well as Google places changes you have to look at fixing or replacing it dont you, not just think ah well?
And yes we do do Adwords, just another one of the drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip feeding of jobs into the business so we're not reliant on any one or few sources. I thought that's what businesses that move from good to great do, build multiple streams of income to reduce their exposure to any one?