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.