Reviews courseModule 7 of 7: Your Review SystemLesson 7.1
The Review Operating System: Roles, Routines and Scripts
Review management isn't fourteen separate jobs. It's one loop: ask every client, reply to every review, handle the difficult ones properly, run the platforms that count, watch the numbers, and use what you learn. It repeats every week, month and quarter, and it works when someone owns each part.
7 min read
By Morgan King, founder of Reyse Facts checked October 2026
01What it is
A kitchen runs because everyone knows their station: who preps, who cooks, who plates, who checks every dish before it goes out. Review management is the same. Write down the stations, and nothing gets missed when it’s busy.
The loop
| Step | The question | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Ask | Do we ask every client, at one set moment, within 24 hours, with one easy link and one reminder? | Module 2 |
| 2. Reply | Is every review answered promptly, in our own voice, without personal data? | 3.1 |
| 3. Handle | Do we have a process for negative, fake and legal cases, and a rule against incentives and gating? | 2.3, 3.2, 3.3 |
| 4. Cover | Do we run Google properly every week and the other platforms lightly? | Module 4 |
| 5. Watch | Do we hear about reviews the same day, count our numbers monthly and check a rival quarterly? | Module 5 |
| 6. Use | Do our website, marketing and AI answers reflect our real reviews? | Module 6 |
| 7. Fix | What's the next change, and who owns it? | 7.2 |
Who does what
| Role | What they do | Suggested owner |
|---|---|---|
| Review owner | Runs the system, owns the policy and the monthly report | Marketing lead, office manager or a director |
| Branch champion | Does the weekly Google check, makes sure requests go out, drafts replies | Branch manager, one per branch |
| Reply approver | Reads every reply before it's posted and checks it has no personal data | Branch manager or director |
| Escalation lead | Handles negative clusters, suspected fakes, legal letters and formal complaints | Director or compliance lead |
| Account owner | Holds every platform login in the company's name, and adds and removes access | Director, with IT or the web supplier |
| Data protection contact | Request wording, opt-outs, the privacy notice and data requests | Whoever handles data protection |
Every routine from the course, from the daily reply check to the twice-yearly policy review, is in one printable schedule.
Your one-page review policy
Write one page, have a director sign it off, and give a copy to everyone who touches reviews. Ask a qualified professional to check it once. It should say:
- What we ask and when, and that we ask every client in the same way.
- That we never offer anything for a review, never choose who's asked by how happy we think they are, and never ask staff, family or friends to review.
- How quickly we reply, and who approves replies.
- What a reply must never contain: personal data, allegations, fee details, tenant details.
- The negative review process, who owns it, and when we move a conversation offline.
- How we report suspected fake reviews.
- Who holds each login, how we record requests, replies and complaints, and how we handle data protection requests.
Training your team (30 minutes)
- The rules: no quotas, no scripts or suggested wording, no staff or family reviews, no asking only happy clients, no requests during a dispute or deposit disagreement, and no asking clients to name a colleague.
- Role-play the face-to-face line: "Once everything's complete we'll email you a short link. If you'd like to share your experience, we'd really appreciate honest feedback, whatever it is."
- Three example replies: a five-star review, a mixed one and a complaint.
- How to pass a complaint to the escalation lead.
The 15-minute weekly meeting
- New reviews and replies.
- Anything negative or odd.
- Requests sent, and any missed.
- One fix from the themes.
- Anything the review owner needs to know.
Go deeperHolidays, leavers and records
- Write a rota so the shared inbox and the Google check are covered when the usual person is away.
- When someone leaves, remove their access the same day, change shared passwords, check they weren't the Primary Owner of any profile, and reassign their replies. Don't delete reviews that mention them.
- Keep the request log, the review log, who approved each reply, and a record of every complaint and escalation. The Property Ombudsman's lettings code asks for complaint records to be kept for six years.
- Each branch has its own profile, review link, log and champion. A group sets the naming pattern, the shared policy and who owns each profile. Never copy one branch's replies onto another.
Go deeperTools by size
| Agency | What's enough |
|---|---|
| One branch | The free stack: a Google review link and QR code per branch, a Google Sheet for your logs and monthly view, a shared inbox, Google Alerts, and an AI assistant for drafts with a person approving every reply (lesson 1.3). |
| A few branches | Add automated requests from your CRM so they don't rely on memory (some, like Street, have this built in), or a tool such as Reviewflowz that connects to some property CRMs. Add a simple dashboard. |
| A larger group | A platform with reporting across branches, such as Grade.us or Birdeye. Check CRM links, contract length and who owns the data before signing. |
Go deeperChoosing a review provider
Nobody can honestly guarantee reviews, ratings, rankings or AI mentions, and that includes us. Before you sign with any tool, agency or freelancer, ask:
- What exactly will you do each month? Get it in writing.
- How do you ask for reviews? It should ask every client, with the same wording, and no step that steers unhappy clients away from the public review.
- Who writes and who approves the replies? A person at your agency should approve every one, including any drafted by AI.
- Whose name are the accounts in? You should own your Google profile, your review accounts, your domain and your data. The provider is added as a user.
- Does it link to our CRM, from which trigger, and does it log every send?
- What does reporting show? , reviews in the last three months, rating by platform, themes and reply times, by branch.
- What's the contract length, notice period and cancellation cost, and what costs extra?
Go deeperWhen something goes wrong: the first thing to check
| Symptom | First check |
|---|---|
| Few new reviews | The request flow, the trigger and who's being missed (lessons 2.1, 2.2 and 2.4) |
| A falling rating | Your last 20 reviews for a repeated theme, and a negative cluster (lessons 5.1 and 5.2), then the service behind it |
| Reviews missing or disappeared | Duplicate profiles, edits by the reviewer, and Google's removal routes (lessons 4.1 and 3.3) |
| AI says wrong or old things about your reviews | Your review facts sheet and the figures on your website (lesson 6.1), then GEO 8.3 on correcting AI answers |
| Good reviews but few valuation requests | How reviews are shown near your valuation form (lesson 6.2), and GEO 9.2 on speed to lead |
| A competitor looks stronger | A like-for-like comparison (lesson 5.3) |
| A tenant's hostile review | Is there something fair in it? Is it really about the landlord's decision? Holding reply, offline, complaints procedure (lesson 3.2) |
| Your Google profile is suspended or you've lost access | Who's the Primary Owner? Contact Google support, and don't create a new profile (lesson 4.1) |
See it happen
Six roles, four people. Hand them out and see the week that results.
Give each role to someone in this four-person agency. The suggestions follow the lesson; change any of them.
Runs the system, the policy and the monthly report
Weekly Google check, requests out, drafts replies
Reads every reply before it's posted
Negative clusters, suspected fakes, legal letters
Holds every login, in the company's name
Request wording, opt-outs, data requests
Your review routine
- Every day
- Tom checks for new reviews; replies go to Tom to approve
- Every week
- Monday: the 15-minute review meeting, and Tom's Google check
- Every month
- Jess counts the numbers and writes the one-page report
- Every quarter
- Jess checks a named rival and re-scores the audit
- When it goes wrong
- Priya takes negative clusters, fakes and legal letters
- When someone leaves
- Priya removes their access the same day
02Keep it up
Sources
- 1.Codes of practice · The Property Ombudsman
- 2.Prohibited and restricted content · Google Maps user contributed content policy
- 3.Fake reviews: guidance for businesses (CMA208) · Competition and Markets Authority
Facts checked October 2026, and re-checked every quarter. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.
That's lesson 7.1
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