How to automatically respond to Google Business Profile reviews

Google Business Profile reviews are often the first thing potential customers see when they search for your business. A thoughtful response can reinforce your brand and differentiate you from competitors, especially since many businesses never respond at all. But keeping up with every new review, especially as your business grows, can quickly turn into another easily ignored task on a crowded to-do list.

With Zapier, you can automatically generate a response to new reviews with AI, so you can reply faster and more consistently. Instead of manually checking your profile each day, this simple workflow will write professional replies for you. In this guide, I'll show you how to set up an automated workflow to stay on top of your reviews without adding more busywork to your schedule.

Before you begin

Before setting up your Zap, you'll need an OpenAI account if you don't already have one. Go to platform.openai.com to sign up.

You'll also need to fund your account to make requests to the OpenAI API. Go to your Billing tab, and click Add to Credit Balance to fund your account.

Use AI and Zapier to respond to Google Business Profile reviews

Zapier lets you create automated workflows called Zaps, which send your information from one app to another. You can create your own Zap from scratch without any coding knowledge, but we also offer quick templates to get you started. 

If you'd like to start with a template, click on it to go to the Zap editor. You'll need to create a Zapier account if you don't already have one. Then, follow the directions below to set up your Zap.

Set up your Google Business Profile trigger

First, set up your trigger—the event that starts your Zap. If you're using the Zap template, the trigger app and event will already be selected for you. Otherwise, search for and select Google Business Profile for the trigger app and New Review for the trigger event, then click Continue.

Next, connect your Google Business Profile account to Zapier, if you haven't already, then click Continue.

In the Account & Location fields, select the business location you'd like to monitor for new reviews. If you'd like to monitor multiple locations, you can later create a duplicate of this Zap for each one.

Click Test Trigger. You should see one or more recent reviews. Select one—this will be used to set up the rest of your Zap—then click Continue with selected record.

Send a prompt to ChatGPT

If you haven't set up your Zapier connection to OpenAI, you'll have to do that now. To start, head back over to platform.openai.com to log into your account. Expand the left sidebar and click API Keys:

Next, click + Create new secret key to generate a new API key. You'll need this to connect to your OpenAI account within Zapier. Copy the key and store it somewhere safe.

Back in the Zap editor, add an action step to your Zap—if you're using the Zap template, this will already be set up for you. Select ChatGPT for your action app and Conversation for the action event.

If you haven't already, connect your OpenAI account, and paste the API key you just generated. If you've already set up your account connection, simply select your existing account.

Now it's time to set up your action step. The most important part of this step is your ChatGPT prompt. You need to provide enough detail about your business and desired tone so ChatGPT can respond to the review as if you were writing the response yourself. You'll want to experiment with the prompt to dial this in for your business. 

For my prompt, I started by telling ChatGPT what to expect (a Google Business review) and what I need (a response coming from me, Michael). Next, I provided ChatGPT with more context, like what my business is.

I also told ChatGPT that I work as an individual, as I found that it would generally write responses using the word "we" without this detail. Finally, I told it to be brief and not to include a signature at the end of the response, as I wanted my review responses to be relatively casual and short. You should customize all of these prompt details to your preferences and business needs.

Finally, I mapped the specific inputs from the Google Business Profile trigger step. Replace the bracketed content with the Reviewer Name, Comment, and Star Rating variables from your Google Business Profile trigger by selecting those fields from the Insert Data dropdown.

Now select gpt-4o in the Model field. You can leave the remaining fields as is. And here's what my completed action step looks like.

Click Test step to send the review over to ChatGPT and wait for it to generate a response. Review the response to make sure everything looks okay. You may need to spend some time iterating with different prompts to get it exactly how you'd like it. 

Once it looks good, you're ready to continue to the next step to send responses back to Google Business Profile.

Send responses back to Google Business Profile

Add a new action step to your Zap. Select Google Business Profile for your action app and Create Reply for your event. If you're using the Zap template, this will already be done for you.

Next, customize your action step. Click in the Review Name field and select Name from the data dropdown. This will ensure Google Business Profile knows which review you're responding to. Then click in the Your Reply field and select Reply, which is the response generated from ChatGPT, from the data dropdown.

Your completed action step should look like this.

Finally, click Test step to send the generated reply to the Google Business Profile review. Note that this will actually reply on your behalf, so be sure that you're ready for that reply to be sent before testing.

If everything looks right, just remember to publish your Zap. And...you're all set! With this system, responding to reviews is not only faster, but also more consistent and aligned with your brand voice. Build this Zap for your business to transform how you interact with your customers, enhancing your online presence and customer satisfaction, automatically.

This article was originally published in May 2024 and was most recently updated in February 2026.