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Hourly

Reply to good Google reviews automatically

Happy customers get a short, personal thank-you, and replies to low ratings come to you as drafts first.

Runs
Hourly
Apps
Google Business Profile
AI
Yes, uses the built-in AI allowance
Access
read+write

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every hour, find new 4 and 5 star Google reviews without a reply and post a short thank-you that mentions what they liked. For anything 3 stars or lower, email me a draft reply instead.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

A family-run restaurant has 300 Google reviews and a manager who is on the floor all evening. New reviews pile up for a week before anyone replies, and the rating that matters most, the one-star complaint about a cold dish, sits unanswered where every searcher sees it. Customers read the owner's replies when choosing where to eat, and silence reads as not caring.

Every hour, ClickRuntime checks your Google Business Profile for reviews that have no reply yet. For each one, its built-in AI writes a polite response that mentions what the reviewer actually said, and the reply is posted to the profile. For low ratings, the draft is emailed to you first instead, so a person decides what to say to an unhappy customer.

Dental practices, salons and hotels use the same pattern, with the tone adjusted to match their brand.

What you get out of it

  • Every review gets an answer quickly

    A reply within hours shows prospective customers that someone is paying attention. Local search results with answered reviews tend to feel more trustworthy than a wall of unanswered stars. Quick replies also invite happy customers to come back.

  • Unhappy customers are handled by a person

    Low ratings are routed to you as drafts instead of posting automatically. That keeps delicate situations human, and gives you a head start on wording an apology or an offer to make it right.

  • Hours of weekly typing disappear

    Writing thirty thank-you replies a week is repetitive work. With drafts produced for you, a manager spends a minute checking a few emails in place of an evening writing from scratch.

  • Replies sound specific, not canned

    Because the draft references details such as the waiter's name or the dish praised, it avoids the identical copy-paste feel. Customers notice when a reply was written for them. A reply that repeats the dish or the stylist named feels like it came from the owner.

  • Steady review activity helps local visibility

    Active profiles that respond consistently look maintained. That supports the impression, for both customers and Google, that the business is open, attentive and worth choosing over a competitor. Over months, that steady attention adds up to a profile that looks cared for.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. Every hour, ClickRuntime looks for new Google reviews you haven't replied to yet.

  2. AI writes a short, personal reply to each one that mentions what the customer said.

  3. Replies to happy reviews are posted on your profile straight away.

  4. Replies to low ratings come to you by email as drafts, with the review alongside, so you can check them first.

Before it runs live

  • Connect Google Business Profile

What you get

RunsHourly
Reply to good Google reviews automaticallytoday, 9:00Succeeded
Email · Draft reply for a 2-star reviewReview: Order arrived cold. Draft reply: Sorry your order arrived cold, Jamie. We've spoken to our delivery partner…

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.
  • Your own rules

    Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.

  • Any number of apps

    One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.

  • AI where it helps

    Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.

  • On a schedule or on each event

    Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

  • Act only on the items that match your own rules, and skip the rest
  • Change what the AI looks for, or how it writes the result
  • Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
  • Combine it with other Google Business Profile steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.
ai_drafted_review_replies.pyexample
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, http, notify, ai, report_fetched

LOCATION = "accounts/1234567890/locations/9876543210"
STARS = {"ONE": 1, "TWO": 2, "THREE": 3, "FOUR": 4, "FIVE": 5}

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    url = f"https://mybusiness.googleapis.com/v4/{LOCATION}/reviews"
    headers = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {credentials.connection('google', 'work')}"}
    new = [r for r in http.get(url, headers=headers).json().get("reviews", []) if "reviewReply" not in r]
    report_fetched(len(new))
    if not new:
        return {"new": 0}
    replied, drafted = 0, 0
    for r in new:
        stars, text = STARS[r["starRating"]], r.get("comment", "")[:1500]
        reply = ai.generate(f"{stars}-star review: {text or '(no text)'}", max_output_tokens=120,
                            system="Write a short, warm reply from the business owner. Mention what they liked or "
                                   "apologise for what went wrong. No emojis, under 60 words.").text.strip()
        if stars >= 4:
            http.put(f"{url}/{r['reviewId']}/reply", headers=headers, json={"comment": reply}).raise_for_status()
            replied += 1
        else:
            notify.email_me(f"Draft reply for a {stars}-star review", f"Review: {text}\n\nDraft reply:\n{reply}")
            drafted += 1
    return {"replied": replied, "drafted": drafted}

FAQ

Common questions

Which reviews are posted automatically and which are emailed?
Typically four- and five-star reviews are replied to directly, while three stars and below arrive as an email draft for your approval. You choose the cutoff. Some owners prefer to see every draft first for the first few weeks, and that is easy to set.
Can I set the tone and sign-off of the replies?
Yes. The instructions can include your preferred voice, such as warm and brief, a standard sign-off with your name, and phrases to avoid. Reviewing the first few replies and asking for adjustments gets the style close to how you would write them.
Does it reply to reviews that have no text, only stars?
Star-only reviews can get a short thank-you or be skipped, depending on what you prefer. Many businesses reply to those with a brief thanks. If you would rather not respond to wordless ratings, the check can leave them alone.
What permissions does it need?
read+write. Nothing else in your accounts is used.
Does it need AI?
Yes. It uses ClickRuntime's built-in AI, so you don't need an OpenAI or Anthropic key. Every plan includes a monthly AI allowance.
How many runs does it use?
One run each time it checks. Checks that find nothing new and stop right away aren't counted.
Can I change how it works?
Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

Set up “Reply to good Google reviews automatically” from your assistant

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