What is the Review Reply Assistant?
👉 Reply Assistant is a feature within PromoRepublic's Reputation Manager that automates and customises responses to customer reviews. It helps franchises manage their online reputation by ensuring timely, personalised, and consistent replies across various locations and review platforms.
How Does It Work?
👉 Reply Assistant allows you to set up automated response rules based on pages, rating, how long a review has gone unanswered, and whether it contains text. Note that first, you need to create saved reply templates (if you're using Saved Replies). 👈
AI-Generated Automatic Replies
👉 Reply Automation can use AI-generated responses instead of only predefined Saved Replies.
When AI-generated replies are enabled, PromoRepublic creates a response based on the review content and the brand guidelines configured for your account.
This is useful for multi-location businesses that want to maintain consistent review response coverage without creating and maintaining a large library of predefined replies.
Before enabling AI-generated replies
⚠️ Customer consent is required before AI-generated automatic replies can be enabled.
📋 Automatically published AI replies are recorded, so the activity can be reviewed later.
🛑 If PromoRepublic can't generate a reply successfully, the review remains unanswered and follows the existing unanswered review workflow.
What Are The Values of the Reply Assistant Feature?
Customize and automate responses by franchise location to resonate with local audiences and their unique preferences.
Implement location and brand-specific review response strategies to align with regional trends and standards, enhancing customer satisfaction across your franchise network.
Use saved replies with dynamic fields to keep responses consistent and personal.
Assign user permissions based on location, empowering local managers to fine-tune automation rules and responses for their specific area, fostering a sense of ownership and accountability.
How to Set Up a Rule?
At the top of the page, open Reputation Manager, click Reply Assistant > Create New Rule and define the rule parameters:
Name: Create a descriptive name for easy understanding.
Pages: Select pages with the page selector (use Select all to include every page). The rule saves this list, so pages connected later aren’t added automatically.
📍 Keep the rule scope up to date
Reply Automation applies only to the locations or pages included in the rule. If new locations are added to your PromoRepublic account after the rule is created, review the rule configuration and make sure those locations are included where required.
A newly added location that isn't included in the rule will not receive automatic replies from that rule.
💡 For organizations that regularly add locations, include review automation coverage in your location onboarding process.
Trigger conditions: They define when the rule should be activated.
For Google Business Profiles, choose the star ratings for which the rule applies.
For Facebook, select 1 (Not recommended), 5 (Recommended), or both.
No Response For: how long a review must stay unanswered before the rule replies:
24 hours
48 hours
72 hours
Reviews already past this window when the rule is turned on won’t be answered.
Text: define what kind of review the rule is designed for, either with text or without, or both.
Reviews with text: Use for detailed customer feedback;
For reviews without text: Set standard thank-you messages;
Rating thresholds - Respond differently based on star ratings.
Saved reply: Select a saved reply that corresponds to this rule. PromoRepublic automatically replies using the selected templates. If AI-generated replies are enabled for your account, you can choose the AI option in Reply Source instead of selecting saved replies.
Finish the rule creation by activating it with the appropriate toggle at the top right and clicking Save.
Handy Tips
✍️Auto-respond to 1, 2 and 3-star reviews with apology templates or rather manage these reviews manually (recommended).
✍️ Auto-respond to 4 and 5-star reviews with thank you templates.
✍️ Personalisation Options:
Insert reviewer name automatically;
Include business name and location;
Add relevant contact information;
Reference specific services mentioned.
✍️ When several rules match the same review, the most recently created rule applies.
✍️ Execute some testing by using a test rule before activating:
Verify trigger conditions work as expected;
Check for conflicts with other active rules.
✍️ We encourage you to track the rule and auto-response performance:
Track rule activation frequency
Monitor response effectiveness
Adjust triggers based on performance data
Disable underperforming rules
✍️ To modify the settings of an active rule, click the Edit button next to it. Only the user who created the rule can do this.
✍️ To delete the rule, click the Delete button. Only the user who created the rule can delete it.
Troubleshooting
☑️ Access levels are based on your subscription plan. Reply Assistant is available for the majority of our agency and franchise plans. If you don’t see the button to create the rule, you might need to contact your organisation administrator to check the permissions.
☑️ Assign permissions for creating, editing, disabling, and deleting rules based on user roles within your organisation. If you are an organisation administrator, contact your Success Manager for assistance.
☑️ If rules are not triggering:
Check trigger condition syntax;
Verify that page selection includes target locations;
Confirm the rule is enabled and active;
Check whether a more recently created rule matches the same reviews.
☑️ If wrong responses are being sent:
Check for conflicting rules;
Verify that trigger conditions are specific enough;
Test with actual review examples.
☑️ If there are any response quality issues:
Edit response template for clarity;
Add more specific personalization;
Review and update based on customer feedback;
Consider manual review for complex cases.
If you have any further questions, please contact us at
[email protected].