Auto-Replies in Reputation Manager (RM) respond to new, unanswered Google reviews that match one of your active rules.
Which reviews qualify
A review gets an automatic reply only when all of these are true:
- It's a Google review.
- It doesn't already have a reply.
- It matches an active Auto-Reply rule (star rating and whether it has review text or not).
- It was posted on or after the date your Manage Reviews report was created.
- It was imported into your report after the rule was switched on.
Each review is checked once when the Manage Reviews report first imports it. If it doesn't qualify at that point, it won't be checked again later.
Can Auto-Replies respond to old reviews?
Regardless of how old the review is, what matters is when the review was posted relative to your report's creation date, and when the review is first imported into your report.
The only check is your report's creation date. Reviews posted before that date are always skipped. Reviews posted on or after your first Manage Reviews report can qualify, regardless of how long ago that was.
Any reply delay you've set counts from the date the review was posted, not the date it was imported. So if an older review qualifies, its delay has usually already passed, and the reply goes out within minutes of the review being imported.
Turning on Auto-Replies for an existing report
Switching on a rule doesn't go back over reviews your report already has. Only reviews imported from that point onwards are checked.
Example: Your report has been running for a month, and you switch on Auto-Replies today. Reviews that have already been imported into the report won't receive automatic replies. New reviews imported from today will.
Why older reviews sometimes get replies
If Google reviews start being imported into a report some time after it was created, every unanswered review since the creation date is treated as new. If your Auto-Reply rules are already on, those reviews qualify and get replies straight away, even if they're weeks or months old.
This most often happens when a Google Business Profile is connected, or Google is added as a review source after the report is set up.
Example: A Manage Reviews report is created, and Auto-Reply rules are enabled on the same day, but then Google reviews are added to the report a month later. In this scenario, every unanswered Google review from the date the report was created gets an Auto-Reply.
Avoiding unexpected replies to older reviews
There's currently no setting to cap how old a review can be, or to limit replies to reviews posted after a rule was switched on.
To keep Auto-Replies to recent reviews only:
- Connect your Google Business Profile and add Google as a review source when you first create the report.
- If Google is added to an existing report, wait until its reviews have imported before switching on Auto-Reply rules.
- Temporarily disable Auto-Replies before adding Google as a review source. Once the Google reviews have been imported, then re-enable Auto-Replies.
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