How to reply to Google reviews: 8 templates for good and bad ones

Google reviews aren’t read only by their authors. Above all, they are read by people who are still choosing a business: they look at the stars and then check how the business reacts to criticism. A calm, specific reply under a one-star review often says more about a business than several more five-star ratings without comment.

I show where to reply, what Google recommends, what not to write so that you don’t violate a customer’s privacy, and how to report a fake review. Plus 8 templates to copy. I describe the situation as of 5 November 2026, and Google changes button names from time to time.

Where and how to reply to a review

Only a business with a verified Google Business Profile can reply to reviews. The profile’s owner or manager does it.

1. Sign in to the Google Account that manages the profile.
2. Type your business name into Google or open business.google.com. On a phone, you can do the same in the Google Maps app, in your business’s view.
3. Click Read reviews.
4. Next to the chosen review, click the reply icon, enter your text and select Reply.

Worth knowing:

• The reply doesn’t appear right away. In its Business Profile help, Google writes that checking a reply usually takes up to 10 minutes, but sometimes as long as 30 days. If the reply violates the policies, Google will ask you to correct it.
• The author of the review gets a notification about your reply and can then change their review.
• The reply appears as a reply from the business. The name of the person who wrote it isn’t visible. That is why it is worth signing your name at the end of the text.
• You can edit or delete the reply in the same place: with the edit icon or the delete icon next to your reply.

What Google recommends: 7 rules for a good reply

Google has a separate page with tips for replying to reviews. In short:

1. Polite and professional. Replies are subject to the same content policies as reviews.
2. Short. Long explanations put readers off.
3. No single “thank you” pasted under every review. Google advises focusing on reviews where you can add something useful or answer a question.
4. No advertising. A reply is no place for promotions and discount codes.
5. Privacy first. Don’t reveal the author’s details and don’t attack them. Move more difficult matters to a phone call or email.
6. Honestly. When the mistake was on your side, admit it and apologize. However, don’t take the blame for things beyond your control, and explain what the business can’t do.
7. Personally and quickly. Address the author by name, respond to their comments and sign with your name or initials. A quick reply shows that customers’ opinions matter to you.

Google doesn’t give a specific deadline. I recommend a simple rule: negative reviews within 1–2 business days, positive ones in a batch once a week. Don’t reply to criticism in the heat of the moment: write a draft, put it aside for an hour and only then publish it.

What not to write in a reply

A reply is public and stays under the review for years. A common mistake is trying to prove you are right with details. Don’t include:

• customer data: surname, address, phone number, order or invoice number, car registration number,
• details of the job that the customer didn’t describe themselves: amounts, scope of work, the course of conversations,
• judgments about the person, for example “the customer was rude” or “everyone knows who this person is”,
• an offer of a discount in exchange for changing or removing a review. Google prohibits offering incentives for leaving a review, for changing it and for removing a negative one.

Even if the customer described their case in the review themselves, don’t add any new information about them. It is still their personal data, and a business usually has no legal basis to publish it.

Medical practices and health information

In a doctor’s, dentist’s, physiotherapist’s or psychologist’s practice, you need to be even more careful. Health information is a special category of personal data (Art. 9 GDPR), and people in medical professions are bound by professional secrecy. Doctors and dentists are bound by Art. 40 of the ustawa o zawodach lekarza i lekarza dentysty (Poland’s Act on the Professions of Physician and Dentist). So in your reply:

• don’t confirm or deny that the author was a patient,
• don’t write anything about a diagnosis, procedure, medication or the course of the visit,
• invite them to get in touch by phone or email, outside Google.

This is not legal advice. In a serious dispute with a patient, consult a lawyer or your professional chamber before you publish anything.

A draft with AI help

If you write the draft in ChatGPT or Gemini, paste in only the text of the review, without the author’s name or data from your systems. Shorten the text before publishing: AI likes long, stiff thank-yous.

8 reply templates to copy

The templates are a starting point. Replace the brackets and add one sentence about the specific service, otherwise all your replies will sound the same.

1. A positive review with a description

Anna, thank you for such a detailed review! We’re glad that [what the customer praises] is working well. If anything ever needs fixing, just give us a call. Marek, [business name]

2. Stars only, no text

Thank you for the rating! We’re pleased that everything went well. If anything is ever missing, please let us know at [phone number]. Marek, [business name]

Change the first sentence every few replies so that they don’t look copied.

3. A neutral review with a remark

Tomasz, thank you for your honest review. You’re right that [the customer’s remark, e.g. waiting for a quote] took too long. Starting this month, [specific change]. If you’d like to give us another chance, you’re very welcome. Marek, [business name]

Only write in a change you are actually making.

4. A negative review, the mistake was yours

Katarzyna, we apologize. The delay was our mistake, and we should have warned you about it earlier. We want to put it right: please call us at [number] or send a message to [email]. I will handle the matter personally. Marek, owner of [business name]

5. A negative review you disagree with

Piotr, we’re sorry that the result didn’t meet your expectations. We confirm every scope of work in writing before we start, so it will be easy to check this together. We don’t want to discuss the details publicly, so please contact us at [number]. Marek, [business name]

No irony and no account of what happened during the job. You settle the dispute by phone, not under the review.

6. A review that looks fake

Hello, we can’t find a job in our records that matches this description. If this is a mistake or the review is about another business, please correct it. If you did use our services, however, please contact us at [number] so that we can clear this up. Marek, [business name]

Don’t accuse the author publicly, even if you suspect a competitor. Report the review to Google (described below).

7. A medical practice: a review of a visit or treatment

Thank you for your post. Due to professional secrecy and the protection of personal data, we don’t comment publicly on visits or on who uses our services. Every comment matters to us, so please contact us at [number] or [email]. [first and last name], [practice name]

Use the same wording for positive and negative reviews, and then the reply reveals nothing.

8. A review in another language

Reply in the language of the review:

Thank you for your kind review! We are glad you enjoyed [service]. We hope to see you again soon. Marek, [business name]

A fake review or blackmail: report it to Google

You can’t remove genuine criticism, even if it seems unfair to you. Google removes reviews that violate its content policies, for example:

• fake engagement: the review doesn’t describe a real experience,
• conflict of interest: a review from a competitor, a current or former employee, or family,
• harassment, offensive content and profanity,
• personal information, for example an employee’s private phone number,
• off-topic content, for example a post about politics instead of the business.

How to report a review:

1. In the Business Profile panel, click Read reviews.
2. Next to the review, click the report icon, choose a reason and send the report.
3. You can check the status in the review management tool. Google writes that the assessment usually takes a few days.
4. If Google decides that the review doesn’t violate the policies, you can file a one-time appeal in the same tool, for up to 10 reviews at once. The decision arrives by email.

The details are in Google’s help on reporting reviews. Google asks you not to report a review just because you disagree with it. Report the ones where you can point to a specific policy.

Blackmail to remove reviews. If a series of 1–2 star reviews suddenly appears and then someone demands money, goods or a service to remove them, don’t pay and don’t negotiate. Take screenshots of the messages showing the date and the sender, save the links to the reviews and send an extortion attempt report. Google stresses that paying doesn’t guarantee the reviews will be removed. You can also report the extortion to the police.

When a review damages your business’s reputation and Google doesn’t remove it, there is still the legal route. That is a topic for a conversation with a lawyer, not for a reply under the review.

How to organize this in a small business

• One person responsible. Add them as a Business Profile manager, without sharing the password to your account. Agree which reviews they pass on to you, for example negative ones or ones with threats.
• A fixed schedule. For example twice a week: go through new reviews and check that every negative one has a reply.
• Your own templates. Copy the templates from this guide into one document and adapt them to your services.
• Unanswered older reviews. If nobody has replied for years, start with the negative reviews from recent months. New customers also see replies under older reviews.
• New reviews. Replies are half the work, and the other half is asking for reviews regularly. I describe how to do it in the guide How to get Google reviews. You can prepare a review link with a QR code and a printable sign in my free review tool.

If you run an online store and also show reviews on your own website, you must state whether and how you check that they come from customers. I give a template for such a notice in the guide on verifying reviews in an online store.

In its Business Profile help, Google writes that the more reviews you have and the more positive they are, the higher your business is likely to rank in local results. However, reviews are only one element of visibility on Maps: categories, business information and the website also count. I deal with this as part of the SEO and search rankings service.

Summary

A good reply to a review is short, personal, signed with a name and reveals nothing about the customer. Reply to criticism calmly and move the conversation to the phone, and report reviews that break the rules to Google instead of arguing.

If you would rather hand this over to someone, I will manage your Google Business Profile: I will complete the profile and reply to reviews on behalf of your business. Managing the profile costs from PLN 349 net per month. Write to me, I reply within 24 hours.