The window between when a diner walks out and when they post a review is roughly 6 hours. Miss it and the prompt is gone. The Review Automation lands a single, well-timed SMS in that window, reads the sentiment of the reply, and routes happy guests to Google or Yelp while sending unhappy ones straight to the owner’s inbox — without violating Google’s or Yelp’s review-gating rules.
What it ships with
- GHL workflows:
Review – Post-Visit Send,Review – Sentiment Branch,Review – Public Route,Review – Owner Alert - POS webhook listener for closed-check events (Toast/Square/Clover)
- Pre-written SMS templates: initial ask, public-platform link, recovery handoff
- Sentiment-detection logic on the reply (1-5 scale or thumbs up/down)
- Google Business Profile and Yelp deep links per location
- Custom fields:
last_review_request_at,last_review_sentiment,review_left_public,recovery_handoff_at
The flow (step-by-step)
1. Check closes
The POS webhook fires the moment the diner’s check is closed and tipped out. The contact enters a 2-4 hour delay branch — long enough that the meal has settled, short enough that the experience is still top of mind.
2. Initial ask
SMS: “Hi [first_name] — how was your visit tonight? Reply 1-5 (5 = amazing).” Short, low-friction, no app to download.
3. Sentiment branch
A reply of 4 or 5 enters the happy-path. A reply of 1, 2, or 3 enters the recovery-path. No reply within 24 hours quietly closes the loop with no follow-up — silence is not unhappiness, but it is also not consent to nag.
4. Happy path
“So glad you enjoyed it. Would you share two sentences on Google? It helps us more than you know.” The link is the restaurant’s GBP review URL. Diners who reply on Yelp get the Yelp deep link instead, alternating by location preference.
5. Recovery path
“Sorry it missed the mark — what happened?” Reply lands in the owner’s GHL inbox and triggers an SMS to the GM’s phone within 60 seconds. The owner gets to make it right before the diner reaches for a one-star public post.
6. Compliance gate
The system never asks the diner whether they will leave a positive review before sending the public link. Every diner who replies gets a path forward — happy diners are simply asked to share publicly, unhappy ones are asked to share with the owner. This is the line Google and Yelp draw.
What you can expect
Operators typically see a 4-7x lift in monthly Google review velocity inside 60 days, with average star rating climbing 0.2-0.4 points as the sample size grows. Negative reviews that would have hit the public profile show up in the owner’s inbox first roughly 60-75% of the time — the recovery conversation often turns a one-star into a comp visit and a five-star later.
Setup & customization
Pre-built: every workflow, every SMS template, the sentiment branching, and the GBP/Yelp link routing.
What you tweak in 10 minutes: the post-visit delay (2 hours default, some operators prefer 3 or 4), the SMS copy, which platform gets the alternating happy-path link, and which staff phone receives the recovery alert.
Compliance notes
Review-request SMS runs on a 10DLC-registered campaign. The trigger is a completed check — a transactional event with prior relationship — but the message itself is solicitation, so it is sent as marketing with full STOP compliance. Crucially, the workflow does not gate the public-review link based on sentiment in a way that violates Google’s prohibited practices: every responding diner is offered a path to share their experience. The recovery path is a service handoff, not a suppression mechanism. Owners who want to be extra-cautious can run the snapshot with public links sent to all responders regardless of sentiment.
Stop watching competitors with worse food collect five-star reviews while you wait for diners to remember. Get the Restaurant Snapshot for $997 or the lite build for $997, 30-day money-back guarantee. Buy now or book a walkthrough.