What are you paying for in review management?
Review management bundles several jobs that can be bought separately or done in-house, and quotes differ in which of them a provider takes on. Google Business Profile lets a verified owner or manager read and reply to reviews directly, so the tool for Google replies is already in your hands. What costs money is the time to watch for reviews, write replies, approve them and follow up. List the jobs below and mark who does each one today, so you can see which ones a quote covers.
- Monitoring: noticing new reviews on each platform and flagging complaints quickly.
- Drafting: writing a reply that answers the specific review.
- Approval: a person checking facts, privacy and tone before publishing.
- Publishing and records: posting the reply and keeping a record of what went out.
- Reporting: flagging reviews that break platform policy and tracking the outcome.
- Review requests: asking customers for reviews, which some providers quote separately.
How does review volume change the cost?
Volume is the most visible driver, but the mix of reviews matters as much as the count. A short five-star review needs little more than a line of thanks. A detailed complaint takes longer, because someone has to check what happened, agree a remedy and get the reply approved. Two businesses with the same number of reviews can need very different amounts of work if one gets mostly short praise and the other gets frequent complaints. Seasonal peaks matter too: a business that gets most of its reviews in summer needs cover for that period.
Why do locations and platforms add cost?
Each Business Profile is a separate listing with its own reviews, its own access settings and often its own manager. Google lets owners add managers who can reply to reviews without sharing a password, but someone still has to set up and maintain that access for every location, and remove it when staff leave. Each extra platform, such as Facebook or an industry directory, adds another login, another set of rules and another place to watch. A business on Google alone, at one location, sits at the low end of the effort scale.
How much does the approval step add?
Approval is easy to leave out of a cost estimate. Every extra approver adds a round of waiting, and a draft that sits for a week loses much of its value. Regulated businesses need more careful checks: health practices have to consider Ahpra's advice on engaging with reviews, and any business covered by the Privacy Act has to keep customer details out of replies. Budget for the approver's time as well as the drafter's, and agree who approves when the usual person is away, because that gap is where replies stall.
Are review requests part of the cost?
Asking customers for reviews is a separate job with its own costs. A QR code at the counter costs little to produce. SMS requests cost money per message, and connecting requests to a booking or job system takes setup work. If a request carries any promotion, the Spam Act applies, which means consent records and an unsubscribe process. Some providers include requests in a package and others quote them separately; at AI Reputation, review request campaigns are quoted separately from reply drafting. Ask every provider which way they do it before you compare quotes.
How do you work out the cost of doing it yourself?
Estimate the hours, then multiply by the hourly cost of the person who would do the work. Count the time to notice reviews, write replies, get approval and follow up complaints privately. Include the follow-up, which is easy to forget and is where complaints get resolved. The hypothetical example below uses round numbers that are assumptions rather than measurements, so replace them with figures from your own last three months of reviews.
Hypothetical example: a clinic with one location receives 40 reviews a month, 34 of them routine and 6 of them complaints. Assume 4 minutes for each routine reply and 25 minutes for each complaint, including checking the record and getting approval. That is 136 minutes plus 150 minutes, or 286 minutes, just under 5 hours a month before any review requests or reporting. Multiply that by the hourly cost of the person doing it to get the in-house figure to compare with a quote.
What should a written quote cover?
A quote you can compare should state what is monitored, who drafts each reply, who approves it and what is excluded. Vague quotes make the cheapest option look cheaper than it is, because the missing work falls back on your staff. Ask for the items below in writing and compare like with like. Timing for setup and turnaround should be confirmed in the written quote rather than promised in a sales call.
- Which platforms and how many locations are included.
- Whether every reply waits for your approval.
- Whether reporting policy-breaking reviews is included.
- Whether review requests are included or quoted separately.
- What access the provider needs, and how it is removed when you leave.
- The notice period and any setup or exit fees.