Guide 2 of 17 · Medium

How to set up a Google review reply bot

Get a drafted reply for every new Google review, ready for you to check and post.

Tools: Google Business Profile, Zapier or Make, an AI model (ChatGPT/Claude API)
Difficulty: Medium
Setup time: 2-3 hours (estimate). A rough estimate.
Cost: Many of these tools have free tiers. Check current pricing before you commit.

Step by step

Make sure you're an owner or manager on your Google Business Profile.
In Zapier or Make, use the Google Business Profile trigger for new reviews (or a review-monitoring tool if your plan doesn't include it).
Add an AI step with a prompt that includes your business name, tone and rules: thank positive reviewers, never argue with negative ones, offer to fix offline.
Send the draft to yourself by email or Slack, not straight to Google.
Read, tweak and post the reply yourself.
Once you trust it, consider auto-posting replies to 5-star reviews only.

Keep a human on negative reviews. Always.
Never ask for or reward reviews in ways that break Google's policies or Australian Consumer Law.
Don't paste customer personal details into replies.

It can, but I wouldn't. Bad replies to unhappy customers are public forever.

Set up the review request first (see the review request guide), then this one.

Need prompts for the AI steps? See 40 AI use cases with copyable prompts. Want a hand? Get in touch.