What does handling reviews in-house involve?
In-house means an owner or staff member replies directly in Google Business Profile. Any owner or manager of the profile can reply: open the profile, select Read reviews, then Reply. Owners and managers can also see reviews in the Google Maps app under the Business tab. Google recommends that each person has their own Google Account, so nobody needs to share a password. The strength of in-house replies is knowledge: the person replying knows what happened. The weakness is time, because replies slip when the business is busy or the person is on leave.
What does review software add?
Review management software brings reviews from several platforms and locations into one inbox, sends alerts, tracks reply rates and often includes tools for sending review requests. Birdeye and Podium are examples of this category, and some products suggest AI-drafted replies. Software is most useful when there are many profiles to watch and staff with time to write. It does not decide what to say about a complaint or check your records. Before connecting any tool, check what customer data it stores and whether review text is passed to an AI service, in line with the OAIC's advice on due diligence for AI products.
What does a managed service do differently?
A managed service takes on the monitoring and drafting. An outside team watches your profiles, drafts replies in your voice and sends them to you to approve, edit or discard, then publishes the approved version. You keep the decision about every reply while the writing load moves off your staff. The service needs manager access to your profiles and a written brief on your services, tone and the details it must never use. AI Reputation works this way. The risks are a voice that does not sound like you and an approval step that becomes a rubber stamp.
Who should hold owner access to your profiles?
Google has two roles. Owners have full control: they can add or remove users, manage profile information and delete the profile, and each profile has one primary owner. Managers have mostly the same access, but they cannot add or remove users or remove the profile. Keep the primary owner role with the business itself, and give staff and outside providers manager access through their own Google Accounts. When someone is removed, Google says their earlier replies to reviews stay on the profile, so removing access does not erase their work.
If a former employee or a past agency is still the primary owner, sort that out before choosing any option. Google's help centre has a process to request ownership of a Business Profile, and a new owner has to wait 7 days before some changes, such as removing other owners or transferring primary ownership, are allowed.
Where does each option usually break down?
Each approach has a typical weak point, and none of them is a reason to rule an option out. Choose the option whose weak point your business can manage most easily, and assign someone to watch it from the first week. Review the arrangement after a month against the points below, and again whenever a key person leaves or your review volume changes. Write the outcome of each check in the same register you use for review themes, so problems are visible to whoever takes over.
- In-house: a backlog builds when the one person who replies is busy or away.
- Software: logins nobody uses, and template replies that read the same under every review.
- Managed service: drafts that miss your voice, or approvals that sit unread for days.
- All three: access left in place after a staff member or provider leaves.
Can you combine the options?
You can mix approaches. One split is that staff reply to short positive reviews themselves while complaints go to a service for drafting and to the owner for approval. Another is software for monitoring and alerts, with the owner writing every reply. Mixing works when each review type has one owner and the approval rule is written down. It fails when two parties reply to the same review or when nobody is sure who covers which platform. Whatever mix you choose, record it in one place that every person involved can read.