Reviews are what decide whether a customer calls you or the business listed below you. Your Review Manager sits under Business Profile in the left menu, with Replies for answering reviews and Requests for bringing new ones in.
It covers your Google reviews, and your Yelp reviews too once you connect Yelp.
Why an unanswered review costs you
A review with no reply is a conversation your customer started in public and nobody answered. It stays there, at the top of your listing, for every person who looks you up afterwards.
The reply is not really for the person who wrote it. It is for the next one reading, who is weighing you against two other businesses and has no other way of finding out how you behave when something goes wrong. That is why a considered answer to a bad review often does more for you than the review itself cost.
💡 Your reputation is measured, not just displayed:
It is the Reputation half of your Marketing score, in your Marketing Audit: your rating, how many new reviews arrive each month, and how many of them you have answered. 📖 Read your marketing audit
Getting more reviews
Answering well is half of it. The other half is having reviews to answer, and Beside has five ways of asking for them, on the Requests tab. They stay switched off until you turn them on.
Where you stand
Your reviews gives you your rating, how many reviews you have on Google, and the breakdown star by star - so a single one-star review is visible rather than buried in an average.
Two counters sit underneath:
Need a reply - reviews nobody has answered
Replied - reviews that have been answered
And a plain sentence pulling it together, for example You're at 5 stars across 157 Google reviews. 68 of 157 still have no reply.
What customers are saying
Beside reads your reviews rather than just counting them, and tells you the verdict in a couple of words - Almost all positive - with the split between positive, neutral and negative.
Underneath, the themes: what customers keep praising or questioning, as short phrases such as Skilled, attentive technicians or Clean, welcoming atmosphere.
This is the part worth reading before you change anything about how you work. Your reviews already tell you what you are good at - most owners have never had it summed up.
Beside also files a Monthly Reputation Report in your Library, so you can see how it moves over time. 📖 Add your own documents to Beside
Work through your reviews
Filter the list by All, Needs reply, or Replied. Each review shows the customer's name, their rating, the date, what they wrote, and a No reply yet badge when nobody has answered.
Where a reply is drafted and waiting for you, you can edit the wording right there before approving it, without going through your approval queue. The reply that goes to Google is the one you left in the box.
Your Yelp reviews
Connect Yelp and your Yelp reviews sit next to your Google ones: on Replies, switch between Google reviews and Yelp reviews. Each Yelp review shows No reply yet or Replied, with your reply underneath when there is one.
To connect it, open Connectors, in Settings or in Beside's profile, and choose Yelp. There is no Yelp sign-in: Beside suggests the page it found for your business, or you paste the link to your business page, which looks like yelp.com/biz/your-business. Beside reads that page's public reviews when you connect and then every week. Refresh now reads it again straight away.
📌 Beside writes your Yelp replies, you post them: Beside cannot post on Yelp for you, so replies to Yelp reviews happen on Yelp, from your business account.
After each weekly read, Beside raises one to-do in Review, in Chat: Reply to unanswered Yelp reviews, with a reply already written for each review that is waiting, in the same voice as your Google replies.
Select Copy reply under a review
Select Open on Yelp and post the reply as your business
Answered reviews drop off the to-do, and it closes by itself once none are left. You can also select Mark as done, or I won't reply if you would rather leave them.
The to-do takes up to 10 unanswered reviews from the last 90 days, unhappy ones first. A review you already saw in a to-do you finished or dismissed does not come back. Your weekly digest also gets a Yelp summary: new reviews, your rating, and how many still wait for a reply.
No review is left unanswered
Beside checks your Google reviews once a day, at 9am your time, and drafts replies to the ones still unanswered. It also runs about fifteen minutes after you first connect your Google profile, and again when a new review lands.
What it picks up:
Unanswered reviews from the last 90 days, so the ones sitting there before you joined are caught too, not only new ones.
Unhappy reviews first. A 1 to 3 star review is drafted ahead of the rest, and the daily note leads with them, for example 1 unhappy Google review is still waiting for your reply. I drafted one for you to check.
A handful at a time rather than dozens, so you are never handed a wall of drafts.
Beside leaves alone anything already being handled: a review with a reply posted or waiting, one you turned down, and one whose reply failed to post.
💡 Drafts wait for you, they do not expire: A reply you have not approved stays exactly where it is until you approve it, turn it down, or the review gets answered on Google - in which case Beside withdraws the draft. If one has been sitting for a day, Beside reminds you in chat, so a written reply is not forgotten just because you were on a job that week.
How replies get written and published
Beside drafts a reply to every review that has gone unanswered, including the difficult ones. It does not quietly answer the five-star ones and leave the one-star review sitting there.
Replies that sound like you
There is no tone setting to fill in. Beside works out how you answer by watching what you actually do, and the drafts come back in your voice: your length, your greeting, your sign-off.
Three things teach it:
A draft you edited before approving. What you changed is the signal.
A reply you wrote yourself in Beside.
A reply written straight on Google, by you or anyone at the business. Connecting your profile brings your past replies in with it, so Beside has your voice from the first day rather than after a month of corrections.
📌 Approving a draft untouched teaches it nothing:
If you were happy enough to publish it as written, that is Beside's voice rather than yours. Only the replies you changed or wrote count, which is also why editing one or two early is the fastest way to make the rest sound right.
It works from your last year of replies and leans on the ones you wrote to reviews like the one in hand, happy or unhappy. Your style outranks Beside's own habits on length and sign-off.
What never moves is the substance: no name, fact or promise is carried over from an old reply into a new one.
Whether a reply goes out on its own
That is set by your autonomy for Reviews & Google profile. There are three choices, the same three you get on every area:
Your choice | What happens to a new review |
Always ask | Every reply waits for you to approve it, happy or unhappy. This is where you start. |
Always allow | Beside answers on your behalf, and you read the replies afterwards. This covers unhappy reviews too, so choose it only once you are happy with how Beside has been answering them. |
Deny | Beside stops replying to reviews and stops proposing replies |
You can also set these on the individual actions underneath the area, so review replies and profile updates do not have to be on the same setting. 📖 Choose what Beside can do on its own
💡 Reviews is where most people loosen up first: An unanswered review costs you more than an imperfect reply. If you are going to let Beside act on its own anywhere, this is usually the place to start - and the usual way in is to leave it on Always ask for a few weeks, read what Beside writes to your unhappy customers, and move it once you trust the tone.
Automatic replies wait an hour
When Beside is allowed to answer on its own, it holds the reply until the review is at least an hour old. A reply that appears seconds after someone posts reads like a machine, which is not the impression you want on your listing.
That wait applies only to replies Beside sends by itself to a brand new review. Anything you are involved in goes out straight away:
A reply you approve
A reply you ask for in chat, or write yourself on the Replies page
Replies to older reviews, including everything caught by the 90-day catch-up
Every reply that ships appears as its own item under Activity in Beside's profile, marked Done only once Google confirms it, with a link to the review. A published reply costs 50 credits; drafting one costs nothing.
Your reviews on your website
Beside pulls your Google photos and reviews onto your website every day, turning your strongest reviews into a testimonials wall in your customers' own words. They are also published in a form search engines can read.
FAQ
What does Beside do with a bad review?
What does Beside do with a bad review?
It answers it. Beside drafts a reply that acknowledges what went wrong and says what you are doing about it - unanswered criticism does more damage than a considered reply. A 1 to 3 star review is drafted ahead of the happy ones, and the daily note puts it first so it does not get lost.
Whether that reply waits for you is your Reviews & Google profile autonomy. On Always ask, which is where you start, every one of them waits. On Always allow, Beside answers unhappy reviews on its own as well - so leave it on Always ask if you want to read every one before it is published.
Can Beside reply to my Yelp reviews?
Can Beside reply to my Yelp reviews?
It writes the replies, but you post them. Beside cannot post on Yelp for you, so it raises one to-do with a reply ready for each unanswered review: copy it, open the review on Yelp and post it from your business account. Beside also never asks customers for Yelp reviews.
Can I tell Beside what tone to use?
Can I tell Beside what tone to use?
There is no tone setting, and you do not need one. Edit a draft or two before approving them, or write a couple of replies yourself, and Beside picks up your length, your greeting and your sign-off from there. If you have been answering reviews on Google already, those count too, from the day you connect your profile.
Approving a draft without changing it is not a signal, so if the replies do not sound like you yet, the fastest fix is to rewrite the next one rather than approve it.
Will Beside reply to reviews from before I joined?
Will Beside reply to reviews from before I joined?
Yes, going back 90 days. The daily check looks at every unanswered Google review from the last three months, not only the ones that arrive from now on, so your backlog gets worked through rather than ignored.
Why has my reply not appeared on Google yet?
Why has my reply not appeared on Google yet?
If Beside is answering on its own, it waits until the review is an hour old so the reply does not look automated. Replies you approve, ask for in chat, or write yourself go out immediately, as do replies to older reviews. If more than an hour has passed and nothing is there, open it under Activity in Beside's profile (select Beside's name at the top of Chat): it is marked Done only once Google confirms the reply.
What happens to a draft I never approved?
What happens to a draft I never approved?
It waits for you. Review reply drafts do not expire: a draft stays until you approve it, turn it down, or the review is answered on Google, in which case Beside withdraws it. Beside reminds you in chat once a draft has been waiting a day.
A reply you actively turned down is not written again - your no is final.
Can I change a reply before it goes out?
Can I change a reply before it goes out?
Yes. A draft waiting for you is editable: change the wording on the Replies page, or in the approval queue, and what you leave in the box is what gets published. That is what Always ask gives you. On Always allow, replies go out without that step - which is the point of choosing it.
Editing is also how Beside learns your voice, so a reply you rewrite is never wasted effort.
How do I know a reply actually went out?
How do I know a reply actually went out?
Open the reply under Activity in Beside's profile. It is marked Done only once Google confirms it, with when it was completed and a link straight to the review.
Beside is not showing my reviews. Why?
Beside is not showing my reviews. Why?
Beside reads your reviews from your Google Business Profile, so it needs that connection and your permission to use it. Check the Review list in Chat for a pending Google Business request.