01Name one owner and one backup
Start with a person, not a tool. Google's help page says a Business Profile can have multiple owners but only one primary owner, who cannot step down until primary ownership is transferred to someone else. Owners can add and remove users. Managers have mostly the same access, can respond to reviews, and cannot add or remove users. Our rule from that: the primary owner is someone who is part of your business, never a freelancer or an agency account you may fall out with. Name one person who reads and answers reviews, name a second who covers holidays, and write both names on the policy. When someone leaves, ownership changes the same day.
- Primary owner: a person inside the business, with a handover step written down for when they leave
- One named person answers reviews and one named person covers them
- Managers can reply to reviews but cannot add or remove users (Google Business Profile Help)
- Source read on 14 October 2026: support.google.com/business/answer/3403100
02Decide what gets watched, where and how often
List every place a customer can say something about you in public: your Google profile, your Facebook page, any directory listings in your trade, and a search for your business name. Then give each place a check frequency and an owner. For Google, the help page on notifications lists a Customer activity category, which sends alerts when customers leave new reviews or add photos, and says you might get Business Profile notifications through email, Search or Maps. You manage them on Search under More, then Notifications, or in the Maps app under Business. Switch them on and check that an alert really arrives. For any place where you have not set up an alert, the policy is a fixed look once a week. The interval is our suggestion, not a measured optimum.
- Google profile: switch on the Customer activity alerts (More, then Notifications) and test that one arrives
- Every other public place: written into the policy with an owner and a check day
- A fixed weekly look as the fallback where there is no alert (our suggestion, not a measured figure)
- Once a month, search your own business name and read what comes up
- Source read on 14 October 2026: support.google.com/business/answer/7198436
03Write the reply rules once
A reply policy has four lines: who, how fast, what voice and what is off limits. Who: the named owner, and the backup when the owner is away. How fast: pick a number of working days and write it down. Google's tips say only that a prompt response shows you value customers' feedback and give no figure, and we have no measured benchmark either, so choose a deadline you can keep. Voice: one register, polite, the same for everyone who replies. Off limits: the same tips say never to share a reviewer's private information or engage in personal attacks, and that replies are public. How to write a good reply is covered in our post on negative reviews. This section only decides that a reply happens, who sends it and by when.
- Who replies: a named owner and a named backup
- How fast: a number of working days you can keep, written in the policy (the Google pages we read give no figure)
- One voice and one sign-off style for everyone who replies
- Replies are public and never share a reviewer's private information (Google tips)
- Positive reviews get a reply too, not only complaints
- Source read on 14 October 2026: support.google.com/business/answer/3474122
04Escalation: when a reply is not enough
Sort every review into one of three lanes before anyone types. Lane one is an ordinary complaint or compliment: the named owner replies under the policy. Lane two is a review that looks like it breaks Google's content policies, for example fake engagement, or a conflict of interest, which Google lists under Rating Manipulation: flag it, and remember that Google decides, not you. Lane three is a review that states something false and damaging as fact, threatens someone, or raises a legal or safety matter: nobody replies until the owner has decided, and a lawyer's advice comes before the reply. We are not lawyers, we did not check Romanian rules for this article, and this is not legal advice. Add one trigger that has nothing to do with reviews: the same complaint three times in a month goes to a review of the service, not to another apology. Three is our number, not a measured threshold.
- Lane one, ordinary review: the named owner replies within your deadline
- Lane two, looks like it breaks Google's content policies: flag it, and Google makes the decision
- Lane three, false and damaging claim, threat or legal issue: no reply until the owner decides and a lawyer has been asked
- The same complaint three times in a month: review the service, not the wording (our threshold)
- A reply is checked before it appears, usually within 10 minutes and sometimes up to 30 days, Google says, so post it once (support.google.com/business/answer/3474050, read 14 October 2026)
05What you never do
Write this list down, because the day it matters is the day someone is angry or in a hurry. Google's policy says merchants may not offer incentives such as payment, discounts or free goods or services, may not selectively solicit positive reviews, may not request a certain number of reviews from staff, and may not discourage or prohibit negative reviews. It lists paid reviews as fake engagement and content based on a conflict of interest, including current or former employment, under Rating Manipulation, and says both will be removed. From that we draw our own rules: no reviews of your business written by you, staff or family, no discount for a changed review, no arguing in public, and no reply that adds details the reviewer did not give.
- No payment, discount or freebie in exchange for a review, and none for changing or removing one
- Ask every customer the same way, not only the ones who seem happy
- No reviews of your own business from you, staff or family, and no review quotas for staff
- No arguing in public and no private details in a reply
- Source read on 14 October 2026: support.google.com/contributionpolicy/answer/7400114
06Where PROOF48 is the wrong choice
A reputation policy costs an hour and no money, and you should write it yourself, because only you know who in your business answers a customer at 9 pm. With one location and a trickle of reviews, the owner and a calendar reminder are enough. We hold no data on how many reviews a typical small business gets, so we draw that line by experience, not by number. PROOF48's FOUND, 297 EUR a month, lists Google Business Profile management and competitor and review monitoring. It does not list writing or posting your replies, and it removes no reviews, because only Google decides that. It cannot fix a service problem or replace a lawyer, and we promise no rating and no ranking. Automated review management is a line in AUTOMATE, 2,997 EUR a month, which does not cover WhatsApp or phone.
- One location and few reviews: the owner and a weekly reminder are enough, write the policy yourself
- FOUND (297 EUR a month): profile management and review monitoring, not writing your replies
- We do not remove reviews, and a false claim stated as fact is a job for a lawyer
- Automated review management sits in AUTOMATE (2,997 EUR a month), which excludes WhatsApp and phone
Not a reputation job: a hotel that publishes a complaints line
Santorini Hotel in Eforie Nord is the nearest of our written-up builds, and it is not a reputation job. Its website publishes the reception, restaurant and complaints phone lines, on the page and in structured data. For a reputation policy that is the one idea worth taking: a complaint has somewhere to go that is not a review box. We make no claim about what it does to the hotel's reviews, we hold no review figures for it, and the case study records no reply policy.
See the build: Santorini HotelQuestions, answered
Do I need a written policy if I get few reviews?
A short one still helps. A named owner, a reply deadline and a never-do list fit on half a page and take an hour. We hold no data on how reviews are spread across small businesses, so this is our view, not a measured result.
Who should own the Google profile?
Google's help page says a profile has only one primary owner, who cannot leave until ownership is transferred. We would make that a person inside your business, with a named backup, and not a freelancer or agency account.
How fast should we reply to a review?
Google says a prompt response shows you value feedback and gives no number of hours. We have no measured figure either. Pick a number of working days you can keep and write it into the policy.
Does PROOF48 reply to reviews for me?
FOUND lists profile management and review monitoring. It does not list writing or posting your replies, and the decisions in this policy stay with you. Automated review management is a named line in AUTOMATE.
Where PROOF48 fits
A reputation strategy for a small business is a page of decisions: one named owner and a backup, a written list of places watched, a reply deadline, three escalation lanes and a never-do list. Google gives no reply deadline, so pick one you can keep. PROOF48's FOUND, 297 EUR a month, manages the profile and monitors reviews, but the decisions stay with you.
Cosmin Tiu · Founder, PROOF48
Cosmin has worked in online marketing and software development since 2018, and has built with AI every day since January 2023. He still writes code from scratch daily, in Python, React, Rust and C#. PROOF48 ships business websites in 48 hours and invoices afterwards, so every opinion on this blog was paid for in real builds, not in theory.