Every claim flow balances two goals in tension: make it easy enough that real owners actually claim their listing, and hard enough that someone can't falsely claim a competitor's or a stranger's business.
What a claim request should ask for
Enough verifying detail to make a fraudulent claim inconvenient — a work email at the business's own domain, a phone number matching the listing, or a simple attestation — without so much friction that a legitimate owner gives up halfway through.
Reviewing requests well
When you approve a claim request, the listing is marked claimed, any other pending claims on the same listing are automatically closed, and the claimant is emailed. That automatic closing matters: without it, a second bad-faith claimant could sit in the queue indefinitely after a legitimate one is approved.
Review with a simple checklist: does the claimant's contact detail plausibly match the business, is this the first claim on this listing or a dispute between two claimants, does anything about the request look automated or spammy.
Handling disputes
Occasionally two parties both claim the same listing — a former and current owner, or a franchise dispute. Don't guess; ask for whatever documentation resolves it (a business license, a domain-matching email) before approving either side.
Turning review into a habit, not a backlog
A claim request that sits unreviewed for weeks is a bad first experience for a business that took the time to claim. Weekly review — whether by you or an agent triaging the obvious approvals and flagging the ambiguous ones for you — keeps the flow feeling responsive, which is what actually drives claim rate up over time.