How to Use a Google Reviews Responder for Your Multi-Location Business?

Managing customer reviews effectively can make or break your business’s online reputation, especially when juggling multiple locations.

So, when customers leave you a review, you must send a personalized reply thanking them for their contribution and promising to deliver quality services.

With the growing importance of Google reviews, finding an efficient way to respond to customer feedback becomes essential in such cases.

In this blog post, I will show you the best option for doing just that: utilizing a third-party Google reviews responder that allows you to send replies to all the reviews you’ve collected across all your Google locations from a single dashboard!

Ready to have the best customer service out there? Read on!

What is a Google reviews responder?

A Google reviews responder is a tool that helps businesses manage and respond to customer feedback on Google quickly and efficiently. It’s particularly valuable for multi-location businesses that need to handle more than one Google Business Profile at once.

With this tool, you can automate responses based on review ratings or other triggers, saving time and effort. It also allows you to manage Google reviews from one centralized platform, making it easier to keep things organized.

Additionally, you can use templates to personalize responses, ensuring consistency in tone and branding while addressing individual reviews.

For companies managing multiple locations, a review responder streamlines the process and helps build stronger customer relationships.

Benefits of using a centralized platform to reply to Google reviews

Responding to Google reviews is not just about maintaining customer relations—it’s a key to your reputation management strategy, especially for a multi-location business.

Here are all the reasons why you should sign up with a centralized platform and reply to your Google reviews regularly:

• Time-saving—by using one place to view and reply to reviews across multiple Google Business Profiles (GBPs), you eliminate the need to log in and out of each profile separately, which dramatically reduces the time spent managing reviews, especially for businesses with multiple locations;
• Efficiency—with all reviews visible in one dashboard, your review management process becomes streamlined. You can filter reviews (e.g., waiting for a reply, highest rating, newest) and quickly prioritize which ones need attention, making the process more organized and less prone to oversight;
• Dedicated review manager—assigning a dedicated person to handle responses allows for consistent and professional communication. Since they only need access to EmbedSocial, there’s no need to grant them direct access to each GBP, improving security and control over your accounts;
• Scalability—this approach works well for businesses with multiple locations in different cities or countries, as it ensures reviews are handled promptly, regardless of time zone differences, while still maintaining centralized control;
• Enhanced focus on feedback—instead of focusing on managing access and multiple accounts, you can focus on what really matters—responding to customers and improving their experience, i.e., you work smarter, not harder.

Responding to reviews promptly and professionally is an excellent online reputation management strategy for multi-location businesses as it boosts their online presence, improves customer retention, and maintains a consistent brand voice.

Therefore, implementing a review responder tool, such as EmbedSocial, is a necessary and powerful method to achieve these goals. With it, you can view and reply to all reviews in one place without switching between multiple GBPs, making the review management process seamless and effective.

How to set up a Google review responder

Most Google review responders work in a similar fashion: they collect all your reviews in one place and allow you to send out a quick reply to them.

That said, EmbedSocial offers a very easy-to-use and yet effective Google review responder that will have you sending out those replies in seconds.

Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Create your account and log in

Before doing anything else, you must create your free EmbedSocial account. You can do that easily via this registration form:

Step 2: Navigate to the ‘Responses’ section

Once you log in, you have to navigate to the ‘Responses’ tab:

Step 3: Find the online reviews you want to respond to

Once you access the ‘Responses’ section, scroll through the list until you find the exact review. You can also filter all your reviews by date, rating, or status:

Step 4: Compose and send your review response

The last step involves composing your review reply and sending it out:

That’s all! You can find all the reviews to reply to in this straightforward section. Even if you are managing reviews for multiple business locations, they will all be added here, so you won’t have to log into different profiles to respond to everyone.

If you need help with ideas for replies, feel free to check the article below with practical replies and chatGPT instructions:

How to delete or edit a Google reviews reply

Once you publish the reply, it will be sent live on the Google business profile, and the customer can read it. However, the responder offers an option to see all replies and, if necessary, delete or edit them.

To edit a Google reviews reply, follow these steps:

• Click on the Replied tab on the left menu.
• Click on the review you want to edit
• Click Edit reply at the top right, correct the text, and click Send reply.

Once you make the change, the new one will appear to live on your Google location.

Follow the same steps to delete a review; click the Delete reply button to delete the reply from your Google business profile.

Please note: There are no options to delete customer reviews, but you can only report and flag Google review as inappropriate. That will signal the Google review team to check, and if you detect any harm towards Google review policies, you might be lucky to get that review removed.

Why use a third-party review responder over Google’s built-in feature?

While you can respond to your reviews via your Google Business Profile, that comes with several restrictions. Third-party tools are better for a few reasons:

• Enhanced automation – third-party tools offer more robust automation options, such as personalized responses for different star ratings, saving time and ensuring consistent communication across locations;
• Multi-location management – for businesses with multiple locations, third-party platforms allow you to manage reviews for all locations from a single dashboard, unlike Google’s built-in tool, which requires managing each profile separately;
• Customization options – many third-party responders let you create custom response templates, enabling you to tailor better replies than on Google;
• Advanced analytics – these tools often provide deeper insights and reporting features, allowing businesses to track response times, sentiment, and the impact of reviews on local SEO more effectively;
• Integration with other platforms – third-party tools integrate with other systems, making it easier to centralize review management across multiple platforms;
• Online review reports – tools like EmbedSocial can quickly and easily generate online review reports that give you all the customer insights you need.

Ultimately, using a third-party review responder streamlines the process, provides greater control, and allows you to efficiently handle reviews across all your locations. Plus, tracking down and seeing all your reviews on Google is somewhat more complicated than that.

9 best practices for responding to Google reviews

Since responding to reviews is an important step in managing Google reviews, you must always follow best practices to make the most out of them. From tailoring your responses to deleting fake reviews, this is what you need to know:

1. Respond quickly

Aim to respond to reviews within 24 to 48 hours, as this shows that your business is attentive and values customer feedback.

2. Personalize your response

Always address the reviewer by name and reference specific details from their review to demonstrate that you are not sending generic replies. So, send out your negative and positive review responses only when you understand the person you are responding to.

3. Be professional and polite

Whether the review is positive or negative, you must always maintain a polite and professional tone to protect your brand’s image.

4. Address negative feedback constructively

Acknowledge a negative review, apologize if necessary, and offer a solution to show your commitment to improving customer experiences. Remember: you can always convert unhappy customers once you respond to their customer complaints and fix the issue.

5. Express gratitude for positive feedback

Thank customers for positive reviews and highlight specific elements of their review, such as mentioning a helpful staff member or a product they loved.

6. Avoid over-automation

While automation can save time, you must ensure responses aren’t robotic. Always add a personal touch, even if using templates or automated responders.

7. Learn from common mistakes

Avoid common pitfalls like ignoring negative feedback or providing insincere responses. Regularly review your processes to ensure you’re continuously improving.

8. Delete fake or spammy reviews

Review fraudulent fake reviews or spammy feedback through Google’s platform in order to get them deleted, thus maintaining the integrity of your business’s reputation. Regularly monitor your reviews and take action when you identify reviews that violate Google’s guidelines.

9. Automate your responses via EmbedSocial

When using EmbedSocial, you can also quickly set up a Google review autoresponder function that will automatically send out review replies to your customers based on the star rating of your review. For instance, for all the 5-star Google reviews you get, you can send out a ‘Thank You’ type of response, and for the bad ones, you can promise you’ll fix the customer’s issue.

Conclusion: Respond to lots of Google reviews from multiple GBPs from one single dashboard

Effectively managing your Google reviews can significantly impact your business’s reputation and success, especially if you manage multiple locations.

This is where a Google reviews responder tool is very effective in streamlining the process, saving time, and ensuring consistent communication across all locations.

You can easily achieve these results via a tool like EmbedSocial, and by following best practices, such as personalizing responses, addressing feedback, and automating your replies to maintain a strong online presence and build customer trust.

Now is the time to enhance your review management strategy with professional GBP Software for multi-location businesses!

Implement our free Google review responder to boost your credibility, improve local SEO, and foster stronger relationships with your future customers.

FAQs about the Google review responder

What is a Google reviews responder, and how does it work?

A Google reviews responder is a tool or feature that helps businesses respond to customer reviews on Google efficiently, and it allows businesses to automate or streamline the process of responding to reviews, ensuring quick and consistent communication. This tool can be particularly helpful for businesses managing multiple locations or large volumes of reviews.

Can I automate responses to Google reviews?

Yes, many review management tools, such as EmbedSocial, offer an autoresponder feature that can automatically reply to reviews based on star ratings. For example, you can set up personalized responses for positive reviews or more empathetic responses for negative reviews. This helps ensure that you never miss a review, even with a high volume of feedback.

Should I respond to both positive and negative reviews?

Yes, it’s crucial to respond to all reviews, whether positive or negative reviews. Responding to positive reviews shows appreciation and helps build customer loyalty while addressing negative reviews demonstrates your commitment to resolving issues and improving customer satisfaction.

Can I use different responses for different star ratings?

Yes, most Google review responder tools allow you to create custom responses based on the star rating. For example, you can create an apology template for 1- or 2-star reviews and a thank-you message for 5-star reviews. Personalizing responses by rating is a great way to maintain a professional and consistent tone across your reviews.

How often should I update my Google reviews responses?

It’s a good practice to review your automated responses periodically to ensure they’re still relevant and effective. As your business evolves or customer expectations change, you may need to tweak the language or tone of your responses to keep them aligned with your brand.