Automate Google Reviews with AI

Read Time: 6 minutes

Hey there, AI builder!

Ever feel like you’re constantly searching for that one killer app idea? The kind of idea that solves a real problem and has clear, actionable steps to build and launch? Well, this week’s app idea might just be what you’ve been waiting for—especially if you want to leverage the power of AI to help small businesses improve their customer relationships.

This Week’s AI App Idea: Google Reviews Automation

Imagine an AI-powered tool that connects to a restaurant or cafe’s Google My Business (GMB) account and generates personalized replies to customer reviews automatically. Instead of busy restaurant owners spending hours drafting responses to reviews, your app will do the heavy lifting—automating the process while still keeping replies on-brand and genuine.

Here’s why it matters:

Restaurant owners are often too busy to respond to reviews properly, but not responding can hurt their online reputation. By building a tool that handles this automatically, you’re solving a real pain point for small business owners and tapping into a huge market of local businesses needing time-saving solutions.

You’ll discover:

• How to connect to the Google My Business API to pull in reviews.

• Using AI to analyze sentiment and generate personalized replies.

• Automating the entire workflow so owners can set it and forget it.

Ready to build it? Let’s dive in!

Why This App Idea is a Big Opportunity

Businesses—especially in the food service industry—are increasingly reliant on maintaining strong online reviews. In fact, 93% of consumers say that online reviews impact their purchasing decisions. However, responding to every review manually is time-consuming and often neglected.

Your app could make life easier for restaurant owners by automatically generating responses to reviews based on sentiment (e.g., handling positive reviews with a friendly thank you, and addressing negative reviews with a thoughtful reply).

With AI and automation on the rise, you’re stepping into a growing space where businesses are ready to invest in tools that save them time and improve their customer relationships. And let’s face it, there’s no shortage of small businesses needing a better way to manage their reviews.

Challenges & Solutions

• Challenge 1: Google My Business API integration can be tricky to get right.
  Solution: The GMB API documentation is thorough, and using existing libraries can simplify your connection process. Start small with fetching reviews, then expand to posting responses once your system is stable.

• Challenge 2: Generating replies that don’t sound robotic or generic.
  Solution: Use AI to craft personalized replies by training models to mimic a business’s tone. You can even offer customization options, allowing owners to set their preferred tone (formal, casual, friendly).

• Challenge 3: Ensuring AI replies are always relevant.
  Solution: Incorporate sentiment analysis and escalation options for critical reviews (e.g., those mentioning serious problems) that require human intervention.

Now that you know the obstacles, you’re equipped to tackle them head-on!

Step-by-Step Workflow & Prompts

Here’s the process you can follow to build the Google review automation tool:

Step 1: Connect to Google My Business API
Get access to the GMB API to pull in reviews for any restaurant or business. Use OAuth 2.0 for authentication and ensure you’re gathering reviews consistently (e.g., setting up a cron job to fetch new ones daily).

Step 2: Analyze Review Sentiment
Implement sentiment analysis using an LLM. Categorize reviews as positive, neutral, or negative to ensure the right type of response is crafted.

Step 3: Generate AI-Powered Responses
For each review, set up a dynamic AI prompt like:
“Write a friendly reply to this positive review: [insert review text]. Include a thank you and mention something personal from the review.”
Or for negative reviews:
“Write a polite and apologetic response to this review, acknowledging the issue and offering a resolution.”

Step 4: Approve & Post Responses
Give users the option to approve AI-generated responses before they’re posted, or set it to auto-post based on their preferences.

Step 5: Monitor & Iterate
Send daily/weekly reports to the user, showing sentiment trends and letting them tweak their AI’s tone or escalate any particularly tricky responses.

Example Prompts:

Prompt to analyse the review:

I have a Google review, and I need a detailed analysis. Please provide the following:

- Sentiment Analysis: Determine if the review is positive, neutral, or negative.
- Criticality: Identify if the review is critical and should be escalated.
- Highlights: Extract what is good and what is bad from the review.
- Improvements: Suggest areas for improvement based on the review.

Here is the review:

'{Review}'

Please present the analysis in the following format:

Sentiment: [Positive/Neutral/Negative]
Criticality: [Yes/No]
Highlights:
Good: [List of positive points]
Bad: [List of negative points]
Improvements: [Suggestions for improvement]

Make the analysis short - max 2 paragraphs

Prompt to generate the response:

I have a Google review along with its analysis. Please help me craft a professional and empathetic response to the reviewer, addressing their feedback and suggesting any improvements or actions we are taking. Here are the details:

Review:
'{Review}'

Analysis:
{Analyse}

Please ensure the response is polite, acknowledges the reviewer's feedback, and outlines any steps we are taking to address their concerns. Use a friendly and professional tone.

The review should be short (one paragraph). It should be writen in such a way that when others read it they feel good about the business. You need to write in human tone, reading level 6th grade, don't use emojis.

Prompt to refine the generated response:

You are an expert in community management.

Given the following review and answer, please improve the answer by:

- Make it sound more human, use emotions
- Remove ALL placeholders such as [Your Name]. Output must not contain any placeholders.
- Remove and change anything which doesn't look like a human wrote it
- Make it succinct - max one paragraph

#Review
{Review}

#Answer
{Response}

Tools You’ll Need:

• Automateo: To build the workflows and manage API integrations.

• OpenAI / Anthropic API: For natural language processing and generating personalized responses.

• Google My Business API: To fetch reviews and post replies.

Why I’m Sharing This Idea

🤔 Why am I not building this myself? Because I want you to use Automateo to bring it to life! Automateo makes it easier for indie developers like you to build AI-powered apps without getting bogged down in the technical details.

Want a Personalized Analysis?

🔎 Got an AI app idea you want to explore? For just $9, I’ll create a custom report just for you—complete with all the insights you need to get started. Hit me up on X (@SaaSNoCap) to set it up!

Final Thoughts

There’s a massive opportunity for AI-powered tools that simplify mundane tasks like review management. By building this app, you can solve a real pain point for small businesses while also dipping into a market that’s growing every day.

Until next week, keep hacking and stay innovative!