# Reply to customer reviews in your own words Version 1.1 ยท Kramaniti Kosh > How to use this file: fill in the Working template section below. It opens in any text editor, or you can paste the whole file into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini and ask it to help you fill it in for your business. ## Intended outcome A short brief that lets an assistant draft replies to your Google and marketplace reviews in the way you would actually say it, while the owner reads and approves every reply to a complaint before it is posted, so customers get a prompt, honest answer and nothing goes public that you would not stand behind. ## Before you begin - Ten to twenty recent reviews, good and bad, copied from Google, Zomato, Swiggy, Justdial, Practo or wherever customers review you - Two or three replies you or your team have written before that sounded right - One person who will approve replies to complaints, and who can call or message the customer when something needs fixing ## How to use 1. Fill in the business details, the voice rules and the complaint route below. Use your own past replies to show the tone you want. 2. Give the assistant the brief and the new reviews. Ask it to sort each review as praise, mixed or complaint, and to draft a reply for each one using only what the review and this brief say. 3. Praise replies can go up after a quick read by the person in charge. Every mixed or complaint reply goes to the owner first, who edits it, posts it, and decides whether someone should also contact the customer directly. ## Working template ## Business and owner Business: Where customers review you (Google, delivery apps, booking apps, others): Who reads new reviews and how often: Who approves replies to complaints: Backup when that person is away: Who contacts an upset customer directly (call, WhatsApp, email): ## How we sound Three words that describe how we talk to customers: A past reply that sounded like us (paste it): Words and phrases we use: Words and phrases we never use: How we sign off (name, role, or just the business name): Languages we reply in, and who checks replies that are not in English: ## Reply rules by type of review Praise (four or five stars, no problem mentioned): - What the reply does: thank them by first name if the platform shows it, mention one specific thing they liked, keep it short - Who can post it: Mixed (good with a complaint, or a middle rating): - What the reply does: thank them, answer the specific problem in one honest line, say what happens next only if it is true - Who approves it: Complaint (low rating, or any problem with safety, health, money, staff behaviour or a broken promise): - What the reply does: acknowledge the problem without arguing, keep details private, invite them to a named contact - Who approves it: - Who contacts the customer: Reviews we never reply to with a draft (abusive, clearly fake, or about a legal matter): ## What the assistant may and may not do The assistant may: - Draft replies that follow the rules above, using only what the review and this brief say - Sort reviews into praise, mixed and complaint, and flag anything that touches safety, health, money or staff - Point out reviews that look fake or mention a different business, for the owner to decide The assistant may not: - Post anything on its own - Offer refunds, discounts, free items or compensation in a public reply - Promise a change, a fix or a date unless the owner has written it into this brief - Mention any detail of the customer's order, booking, visit, bill or health in public - Argue with the reviewer, question their honesty, or blame a staff member by name - Ask anyone to change or remove a review, or offer anything in return for a review ## Complaint route Signs that the owner must read it first: How quickly a complaint reply goes up (and who makes sure it does): Who reaches out to the customer privately, and by when: Where the complaint and what was done about it are written down: When the same complaint comes up again, who looks at the cause: ## Stop rules - No reply to a mixed or complaint review is posted until the named person has read it against the review. - If a review mentions food safety, a health problem, an injury, harassment, a threat or legal action, do not draft a public reply. Send it straight to the owner. - Do not invent facts about what happened, what the business does, or what has changed. If the brief does not say it, leave it out. - Do not post the same reply word for word under different reviews. - If a reply would feel wrong to say to the customer's face in the shop, do not post it. ## Demonstration This is an illustrative scenario, not a client case study or a measured result. Do not reuse its details as facts about your work. A sample family-run South Indian restaurant in Jayanagar gets reviews on Google and two delivery apps. The son reads them on his phone late at night and replies when he can, sometimes too sharply. His mother, who runs the kitchen, wants complaints about food answered calmly and wants to know about them first. ### Sample inputs Demonstration inputs only. Names and review text are placeholders, not real reviews. Review A on Google: five stars, "Ghee roast dosa was crisp and the filter coffee was perfect. Will come back." Review B on a delivery app: two stars, "Sambar was cold and the vada was missing from my order." Review C on Google: one star, "Felt unwell after eating here last night." The family signs replies as "[son's name], [restaurant name]" and replies in English, with Kannada replies checked by the mother. ### Example output #### Business and owner [Fact within this demonstration] The son reads reviews each morning. The mother approves complaint replies. The son calls or messages customers when an order went wrong. #### Today's drafts [Inference] Review A is praise. Draft: "Thank you, [first name]. We are glad you enjoyed the ghee roast and the coffee. See you again soon. [son's name], [restaurant name]." Review B is a complaint about a delivery order. Draft for the mother to approve: "Sorry about the cold sambar and the missing vada, [first name]. That is not how we want an order to reach you. Please message us on [contact] so we can sort it out. [son's name], [restaurant name]." No refund or free meal is mentioned in public. Review C mentions feeling unwell, so no public reply is drafted. It goes straight to the mother under the stop rules. #### Stop rules applied [Recommendation] The mother reads the Review B draft before it is posted, and the son contacts the customer privately. The mother decides how to respond to Review C and whether anyone else needs to be told. This recommendation is not the business's decision. ## Quality check Every reply sounds like the business's own past replies; each one uses only what the review and the brief say; complaint and mixed replies were read by the named person before posting; no refund, discount, compensation or private customer detail appears in public; reviews about safety, health or legal matters got no public draft; no two replies are copied word for word. ## Limits and human review The template helps you answer reviews promptly and in your own voice; it does not check whether a review is true, settle a complaint, or tell you what each review platform's own rules allow. Read each platform's review policy before changing how you reply, and talk to a lawyer about any review that threatens legal action. A filled template is not approval to post replies, offer anything to a customer or contact them. Keep consequential actions with the named human owner. ## Edition notes New in Kosh at version 1.1. Provider-neutral Markdown instructions; no installation or platform compatibility is implied. Runtime behaviour has not been verified across AI providers. Reuse terms have not yet been published. Background reading: [Route the Claim Before You Polish the Message](/insights/route-the-claim-before-you-polish-the-message/). Setting up practical AI help around one customer-facing job, with review and handover rules, is Kramaniti's [Systems Engineering](/build/) work.