How to respond to Google reviews, with templates for every rating

To respond to Google reviews, sign in to your verified Business Profile, open your reviews and select Reply next to the one you want to answer. Your reply appears under the review as coming from the business, and the reviewer gets a notification (Google's reply help page).

Replies affect how you show up. Google's local ranking tips say "Positive reviews and helpful replies can help your business stand out" (Google). A peer-reviewed study of hotels found that once they started responding, their ratings rose 0.12 stars and their review volume rose 12%, while the negative reviews they received became fewer but longer (Proserpio and Zervas, Marketing Science).

Google's review tips ask for four things: answer the specific point, vary your thank-yous, keep deals and promotions out, and never share a reviewer's private information (Google's review tips).

How do you reply to a Google review?

You need a verified Business Profile first, because Google doesn't let an unverified owner reply. Then it takes four steps:

1. Open your Business Profile. While signed in to the Google Account that manages it, search Google for "my business" or for your business name and city, or open the Google Maps app and tap Business (Google).
2. Select Read reviews, then select Reply next to the review.
3. Write your reply and select Reply again to post it.
4. To change it later, select Edit under your reply. To remove it, select Delete.

After you post, Google checks the reply against its content policies. That usually takes up to 10 minutes but can take up to 30 days, and a reply that isn't approved comes back to you to edit. Customers can still change their review after reading your reply, which is why a complaint you can fix is worth answering (Google's reply help page).

What should a reply to a Google review say?

A good reply answers the one thing the reviewer said, in a few plain sentences written as much for the next customer as for the reviewer. Google warns that people might stop reading a long reply before they reach the main point. It also asks you to address the reviewer by name, acknowledge their specific feedback, and admit real mistakes without taking responsibility for things outside your control (Google's review tips).

Match the reply to the review:

Reply templates for every star rating

Copy these, fill in the brackets, and change the wording until it sounds like you. Treat each one as a first draft, never as a paragraph to paste under every review.

5 stars, with a comment

Thanks, [first name]. We're glad [the detail they mentioned, such as "the crew cleaned up before they left"] stood out, and we've passed your note to the team who did the job.

4 stars

Thanks for the review, [first name], and for telling us about [the issue]. [What you've done about it, such as "We now text an arrival time the evening before."] Glad the rest of the job went the way you wanted.

3 stars

Thank you for the detail, [first name]. You're right that [the problem], and that's on us, so [the specific change]. We're glad [the part they liked] worked for you, and if anything from the job still needs attention, call me at [direct line].

1 or 2 stars, a real problem

[First name], I'm sorry. [Plain statement of what went wrong, such as "We missed the window we gave you and didn't call ahead to say so."] We've [the change]. I'd like to put this right, so please call me directly at [number] or email [address] and mention this review.

1 star, and you have no record of the customer

We checked our records for this name and couldn't find a visit or an order. If we've got that wrong, please contact [name] at [number or email] so we can look into it. We'd like to hear what happened.

Health practices and law firms should use the next reply instead.

Law firms, health practices and anyone bound by confidentiality

Our professional duties mean we can't discuss anyone's [case or treatment] online, or say whether they are a [client or patient]. If you'd like to talk about your experience, please call [name] at [number].

Sign every reply the same way, with your name and role. Google says a personal sign-off shows the customer that their experience matters to you (Google).

Can you get a bad Google review removed?

Only if it breaks Google's content policies. Google says it doesn't get involved in disagreements between businesses and customers, and it asks owners not to report a review just because they dislike it (Google's reporting page).

Reviews that qualify include fake engagement, such as paid reviews, reviews not based on a real experience and reviews a competitor posts to damage you. Rating manipulation qualifies too, including reviews posted for an incentive, unusual volumes or patterns of reviews and reviews from a conflict of interest such as current or former employment. So do harassment and posts that share personal information (Google Maps content policy).

To report one:

1. Open your Business Profile, select Read reviews, then select Report next to the review. Pick the reason and send the report. Google says evaluation typically takes several days.
2. Track the report in Google's Reviews Management Tool. It shows "Decision pending" until Google has looked, and "no policy violation" if the review stays up.
3. If the review stays up, you can appeal once, with up to 10 reviews in one appeal. An escalated appeal shows as "Escalated," and Google emails you the final decision (Google's reporting page).

Review extortion

A sudden run of 1-star and 2-star reviews followed by a demand for money, goods or services to remove them is an extortion scam. Google tells owners not to pay or engage with the people behind it, and to report it through its merchant extortion form with screenshots of every demand, links to the reviews and the dates (Google).

In April 2026, Google said that when a profile gets a sudden spike in spam reviews, it would remove the fake reviews, pause new ones and alert the owner. It blocked or removed more than 292 million policy-violating reviews in 2025 (Google).

What the FTC rule says about your reply

A calm public reply is allowed while you wait. The FTC's Q&A on its review rule says: "Yes, you can respond publicly to the review, and yes, you should watch what you say" (FTC). The rule bars four tactics for stopping a review or getting it removed. They are an unfounded legal threat, a physical threat, intimidation, and a false public accusation made knowingly or with reckless disregard for the truth (16 CFR 465.7).

"We can't find a record of your visit" states a fact. "This is a fake review from a competitor" is an accusation, and a review you believe a competitor wrote belongs in a report to Google, not in your reply.

What should you never say in a review reply?

Nothing private about the customer, no offer in exchange for changing the review, and no threats. In practice that rules out five things:

• Details from the job or the account. Leave out invoice amounts, addresses, visit dates and anything the customer told you in confidence. A reply can say what changed without retelling the job.
• Health information. New Vision Dental, a California practice, paid $23,000 to the HHS Office for Civil Rights after disclosing patients' names, treatment and insurance information in responses to online reviews (HHS, December 2022).
• Client matters at a law firm. ABA Formal Opinion 496 says lawyers can't disclose information about a representation to answer a negative review. It suggests not responding at all, inviting the person to talk privately, or posting that professional considerations rule out a response (ABA, 2021). The confidentiality template above does this.
• Offers to change or remove the review. Google's policy bars incentives for revising or removing a negative review (Google). If Google finds an owner broke its fake engagement policy, it can stop the profile from receiving new reviews and unpublish existing ones for a set period, and show customers a warning that fake reviews were removed (Google).
• Threats. No legal or physical threats, and no pressure to take the review down. The FTC rule above covers this.

How to have AI draft your review replies

Write your reply rules down once, give them to the AI with the review and the facts you're happy to see in public, and have a named person approve every reply before it's posted.

1. Write the rules. One page covers tone, length, the sign-off, what each star rating gets, words you never use, and the reviews that go straight to the owner. A rule works when you can check whether it was followed, and our guide to writing rules an AI follows shows the difference.
2. Add three past replies you'd post again. Examples show the AI your length and tone faster than a description does. Our AI readiness assessment asks for three good examples of every task for the same reason.
3. Save the rules and examples as a reusable assistant in the AI that comes with your Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 plan, or in your business AI subscription, so nobody pastes them in by hand.
4. Give it the review and the public facts only. That means the review text, what you changed and who the customer should contact. Customer records, health details and legal matters stay out of the AI and out of the reply.
5. Approve before posting. A named person checks the facts, the tone and that nothing private slipped in, then posts the reply from the Business Profile. When a draft is wrong, correct it and add the rule that would have prevented the mistake.

Here is a starting set of rules to adapt.

Reply rules for Google reviews
1. Use the reviewer's first name once, as it appears on the review.
2. Mention one specific thing from the review.
3. Keep replies to 40 to 80 words, or one line for a rating with no comment. No exclamation marks.
4. Never mention prices, invoice amounts, addresses, visit dates, health or legal matters.
5. Never offer a discount, refund or gift in a public reply.
6. Never say a review is fake or that the reviewer is lying.
7. For 1 to 3 stars about a real mistake: own it, say what changed, and give [owner's name] and [direct line]. If we have no record of the customer, use the no-record reply.
8. If the review concerns a client or patient matter, use the confidentiality reply.
9. Don't draft a reply if the review mentions an injury, property damage, discrimination, a lawyer or the press. Send it to [owner] instead.
10. Sign off as "[first name], [role]".

If you'd rather not build this yourself, Optimitor's monthly work sets up five assistants in the first month, and review replies can be one of them.

Frequently asked questions

Should you respond to every Google review?

Reply to every review with a comment, and to every negative one. Google's review tips call replying best practice, and they suggest putting the effort into reviews where you can share a helpful update or answer a question (Google's review tips). A star rating with no comment needs one line at most.

How quickly should you reply to a Google review?

Within two business days for most reviews, and the same day for a complaint. There's no deadline in Google's review tips, only "Respond in a timely manner," because a prompt response shows you value the feedback (Google's review tips). If you have a backlog, answer the unanswered complaints first, then work back through recent reviews.

Can I message someone who left a Google review?

Not privately. Google's review tools let you post a public reply, which the reviewer is notified about, and edit or delete it later (Google's reply help page). If the reviewer is a customer you can identify, contact them through your own records and keep their details out of the reply.

How do you respond to a 3-star review?

Thank them for the detail, agree with the part of the complaint that's fair, and say what you've changed because of it. Then give a direct contact in case anything from the job is still open, as the 3-star template above does.

Can I ask a customer to change their review?

Yes, once you've fixed the problem, as long as nothing is offered in return. The FTC says its rule doesn't stop you asking satisfied customers to update their reviews (FTC), but Google's policy bars incentives for revising or removing a negative review. Ask once, by phone or email, and leave the decision to them.

Can AI write my Google review replies?

It can draft them, with a person approving each one before it's posted. Google checks replies against its content policies, so it won't catch a wrong price or a wrong date; the person approving does that. Keep AI on the reply side only: the FTC's rule bans fake reviews, "such as AI-generated fake reviews," including reviews a business writes about itself under made-up names (FTC).