Draft replies to Google reviews and flag sensitive ones

Local businesses get reviews on Google and other sites every week, and replying to each one matters to future customers reading them. Owners fall behind, the backlog makes the business look absent, and a tired late-night reply to an angry review can do more damage than silence.

The agent checks your Google Business Profile (and any other review sites you use) for new reviews on a schedule. For each one it reads the rating and text, classifies it as routine praise, a mild complaint, or sensitive (a safety, health, legal, discrimination or refund claim, a named employee, or anything that looks fake), and drafts a short reply in your voice that thanks the customer and mentions something specific they said. Routine positive replies can go to a quick-approve list. Mild complaints get a draft that acknowledges the issue and offers an offline contact. Sensitive reviews get no public draft at all: the agent alerts the owner with a summary and the facts it would need, and a person decides what to say.

1. Connect the agent to your Google Business Profile with an account that can read and reply to reviews
2. Write a short voice guide: how you sign off, words you avoid, and an offline contact (email or phone) for complaints
3. Define what counts as sensitive for your business and route those to the owner without a draft
4. Run it in draft-only mode for two weeks and edit the drafts so the voice guide improves
5. Choose which categories, if any, may post after a one-click approval
6. Check weekly for reviews that were missed or misclassified

• Google Business Profile
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The owner or a manager approves every reply before it posts, or at least every reply below five stars. Sensitive reviews are always handled by a person. Nobody lets the agent offer refunds, admit fault or discuss a customer's details in public.

Generic or obviously automated replies can read as insincere, so keep them short and specific. Never confirm private details (appointments, health information, order contents) in a public reply. Do not use the agent to write or solicit fake reviews or to pressure customers into changing ratings; review platforms prohibit this. Check each platform's terms before automating replies.

Track the share of reviews answered, median time to reply and owner minutes spent per week before and after. The value is a consistent, timely response to every customer without the owner writing each one from scratch.