# Reviews Assistant

Reviews asks every customer for a Google review once their invoice is paid, and has a reply ready for each review that comes in.

Status: available; get started and we set it up with you. Checked 2026-11-06.

## Who it's for
- New Zealand trade and service businesses that finish jobs for local customers
- Owners who know reviews matter but never get round to asking
- Businesses already using Xero, Get Paid or Quoting, where a job's end is already recorded

## The problem it solves
Happy customers rarely leave a review unless they are asked, asking by hand gets forgotten, and replies to reviews wait for a quiet moment that never comes.

## Why businesses use it
- Every finished, paid job gets one well-timed ask, by text or email, with one tap to Google
- A calm reply ready for every review, in your voice, waiting for your yes
- Told the moment a one to three star review lands, with a reply that never argues
- Asks every customer the same way, as Google and NZ law require, and honours STOP for good
- Never texts at night, never asks the same person too often

## What it does
- **Asks when the job is done.** When a Xero invoice is paid in full, or a job is marked done in Quoting, it lines up an ask for a couple of hours later, from the person who did the job.
- **One link to Google.** Each ask is a short text or email with one link straight to your Google review box. Nothing is offered for a review and no rating is asked for first.
- **One reminder, only if needed.** If the link wasn't opened, one shorter reminder goes three days later. Never more.
- **Keeps people off the list.** Anyone who replies STOP or presses Don't send me these is never asked again, and you can add anyone yourself.
- **Drafts every reply.** Each review gets a reply written from How we talk in your AI control centre, signed the way you choose. Change a word and it learns how you like things said.
- **Takes care with low ratings.** One to three star reviews come to the top, the owner is told straight away, and the reply offers to talk it through on your phone, never in public.
- **Spots reviews from strangers.** A review it can't match to any customer is marked, with how to report it to Google if it isn't genuine.
- **Shows how it's going.** Results shows asks sent, reviews that came in, your rating over time and replies posted, month by month.

## How it works
1. **Find your Google profile.** It finds your business on Google from the details in the AI control centre, and makes your review link.
2. **Choose when to ask.** A paid invoice in Xero, a job done in Quoting, or both, and how long after.
3. **Check the message.** See the text exactly as the customer gets it on their phone, and change the words.
4. **Asks wait for you.** Each ask waits in Asks for you to approve, until you choose to let asks after a paid invoice go on their own.
5. **Reviews come in.** Each new review gets a reply ready. Post it from here once Google is connected, or copy it and post it on Google.

## Setting it up
About 10 minutes.

1. **Your Google profile.** Check it's your business on Google, and connect Google so replies post from here, or choose to copy replies.
2. **When to ask.** Choose what ends a job, how long after to ask, and who the ask comes from.
3. **Your message.** Change the words if you like, and tick that your privacy notice covers asking for a review.
4. **How replies sound.** See a reply written in your voice and choose the sign-off.
5. **Try it.** Send yourself a test on your phone.
6. **Go live.** Start asking. Each ask waits for you to approve it.

## How it uses the AI control centre
Every Buildloop assistant works off your AI control centre, which holds your company details, knowledge and settings, trains each assistant and passes what one learns to the others. The more it knows about your business the more accurate every assistant is, and each one you add makes the others stronger.

Your AI control centre keeps what it knows about your business in Content Sections you can open, check and add to, with what's missing shown. Each says whether it's for customers, staff or both. You start with About the business, Products and services, Pricing, Payments, Opening hours, Contact details, Locations and service areas, Booking and ordering, Delivery and collection, Returns, refunds and warranty, Terms and policies, Common questions, Staff knowledge, Other, and can add, rename or remove them; the AI suggests sections from what it reads. How we talk, Rules and Suppliers are kept beside them.

It reads:
- Your business name, address, phone and the people who do the work
- How we talk and your Rules, for every reply
- Paid invoices from Xero and Get Paid, and jobs done in Quoting

It adds:
- What customers praise and complain about, for a person to check
- How you like replies said, from the changes you make before posting

## How it gets better
- How you like replies to reviews written, from the changes you make before posting, into How we talk in your AI control centre.
- Kept as a test: every reply you edited before posting: what you took out must not come back.
- Kept as a test: no reply or ask ever asks for a rating or offers anything for a review.
- Anything it works out for itself waits for you to check before your other assistants use it.

## Training
A screen-by-screen narrated training video and guide are being made.

## What it connects to
- **Google Maps, through the AI control centre** (needed): Finding your Google profile and making your review link
- **Texts** (optional): Asks by text, from Buildloop's texting service in your business's name, with STOP honoured
- **Email** (optional): Asks by email in your business's name
- **Xero** (optional): Knowing when an invoice is paid in full, read only
- **Google Business Profile** (optional (coming)): Reading new reviews and posting your replies from here; until Google approves Buildloop, you copy replies to Google

## What a person approves
- Every ask waits for a person, until you let asks after a paid invoice go on their own
- Every reply waits for a person; only thank-yous to five-star reviews may go on their own, and only if you turn that on
- Replies to one to three star reviews always wait for a person

## Price
NZ$49 a month, including 100 texts a month, then NZ$0.30 for each text after that. Cancel any time. Plus a one-off set-up and configuration fee, agreed after a short call about your business. Every account also has the AI control centre, NZ$49 a month, once for all its assistants.

## What it doesn't do
- Google reviews only: not Facebook or other review sites yet
- One location per business
- It never offers anything for a review, and never asks only the customers it thinks are happy
- It never texts in quiet hours, 8pm to 8am
- It can't remove a review: it shows you how to report one to Google

## Your data
- Customers' names, mobiles and emails, and each ask, are stored in Sydney, Australia, and only people in your business can open them
- Texts go through our texting provider and emails through our email provider, Resend
- Anyone who says stop is kept on your never-ask list for good
- Reviews and replies are read by the AI model to write a reply, and are never used to train it

## Questions
**Can it ask only happy customers?**
No. Google's rules and NZ law don't allow it, and it can hurt your profile. Everyone gets the same ask.

**Can I offer a discount for a review?**
No. Offering anything for a review is against Google's rules, so the message won't save with an offer in it.

**What does a customer get?**
A short text or email from your business, naming the job, with one link to Google. Texts end with Reply STOP to opt out.

**Do I need to connect Google?**
No. Without it you copy each reply and post it on Google. Connecting lets you post from here and see new reviews straight away.

**What does a text cost?**
Your monthly price includes 100 texts (see Price); after that each text is charged on your bill. A long message can take two or three texts, and a reminder is a text too. Emails cost nothing extra.

**How do I start?**
Watch the demo, then choose it on Get started and tell us about your business. A short call agrees your set-up price (see Price), then we set it up with you.