Answer Customers Faster with AI · Lesson 5 of 7

Reply to online reviews

20 minutes. Thank, fix, never argue, never invent. Four rules, and a routine that takes ten minutes a week.

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An email reply goes to one person. A review reply goes to everyone who looks you up, for years. That's why reviews get their own lesson, and why the rules are stricter here.

The good news: AI is genuinely useful for review replies. The hardest part of replying to a review is often just starting, especially a bad one written at midnight. A calm first draft helps. A person still decides what goes up.

• Google Business Profile: you must verify your business before you can reply. To reply, go to your Business Profile, choose Read reviews, then Reply next to the review. Your reply shows publicly under the review, as your business (your personal name isn't shown), and the reviewer is notified. Google checks replies against its content policies first, which usually takes up to 10 minutes but can take up to 30 days. You can edit or delete your reply later from the same place. The customer can still change their review after reading yours.
• Yelp: you can respond with a public comment, which anyone viewing your page can see, or a direct message, which goes privately to the reviewer. Yelp's own advice for critical reviews is to start with a personalized public comment before sending a direct message, so other readers can see you took the concern seriously.
• Other sites (Facebook, industry directories, booking sites) each have their own reply tools. The four rules below apply everywhere.

1. Thank

Every review gets a thank-you, including the bad ones. "Thanks for taking the time to write this" costs nothing and shows readers you listen.

2. Fix

If something went wrong, say what you'll do about it, and offer a way to reach a person. "I'd like to make this right. Please call me directly at the office and ask for Dana." Then actually follow up. The fix happens offline. The reply just opens the door.

3. Never argue

Even when the review is unfair. Readers judge you by your reply more than by the review. Don't correct the customer's account point by point, don't blame them, and never threaten them.

There's a legal side too. The Federal Trade Commission's rule on consumer reviews, in effect since October 21, 2024, prohibits using groundless legal threats, intimidation or certain false public accusations to stop or remove a negative review. The FTC's own guidance says you can respond publicly to a review. Just don't accuse a reviewer of something you know is false.

4. Never invent

A review reply must only say true things. The AI doesn't know what happened on that job. If a draft says "our technician arrived on time," and you don't know that, take it out.

And the bigger one: never use AI to write reviews of your own business, or to post reviews under made-up names. The same FTC rule bans fake reviews, and it names AI-generated reviews from people who don't exist as an example. It also bans offering a reward for a review that's conditioned on it being positive.

This catches a lot of businesses. Never confirm or reveal anything private in a public reply. No job details the customer didn't mention, no account information, and no confirmation that someone is a client or patient if that's sensitive.

For clinics and other health care offices, this is strict: don't confirm that the reviewer is or was a patient, and don't mention their care, even if they did. A general reply works: "Thank you for your feedback. We take every concern seriously. Please call our office manager directly so we can talk." If you're not sure what your rules allow, ask whoever handles privacy for your practice before you reply to anything.

Add this to your Customer Replies project, Gem or agent, or keep it with your voice instruction:

> Draft a public reply to the online review below. Follow our voice instruction. Rules: > > 1. Thank the reviewer. > 2. If they had a problem, acknowledge it without admitting fault or blaming them, and invite them to contact [Dana] directly at [the office number]. > 3. Never argue, correct, threaten or blame. > 4. Do not state any fact about the job or the customer that is not in the review itself. Do not confirm they are a customer or patient unless they said so, and never add private details. > 5. Keep it under 80 words. No discount or refund offers in public. > > [paste the review text only]

For a positive review, the same prompt works. You'll get a short thank-you. Add one specific, true detail from the review ("glad the new water heater is working well") so it doesn't read like a form letter.

• Check each review site once a week. Same day, same time. Many sites can also notify you when a new review arrives. Look in the site's notification settings and turn it on if it's there.
• Sort. Positive, mixed, negative.
• Draft each reply with the prompt. Paste only the review text.
• Check every draft against the four rules and the privacy rule. Read negative replies out loud. If it sounds defensive, rewrite it.
• Hand off anything that mentions injury, damage, a lawyer, a health concern or a refund. The owner or manager writes those, after a phone call if possible.
• Post it yourself. Then, for negative reviews, make the follow-up call.

• Find your three most recent reviews on Google (or whichever site matters most to you), including at least one that isn't five stars if you have one.
• Draft a reply to each with the prompt.
• Check each draft against the four rules and the privacy rule. Fix them.
• Post the replies you're happy with. If a review is more than a year old and already answered, skip it.

Check it worked

• Every reply thanks the reviewer.
• No reply argues, blames or adds a fact you can't confirm.
• No reply reveals anything private.
• Any negative review has a named person who will follow up, and that person knows.

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Next: the messages that come in when nobody's there.

→ Lesson 6: After hours: honest auto-replies and AI agents

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