Google Review Guardian: catch every new review and get an AI-drafted reply before breakfast
An n8n workflow that checks your Google Business Profile for new reviews every morning, has Claude draft a personalized owner reply for each (with extra care on 1-3 star reviews), logs everything to a sheet, and pings your Telegram so bad reviews never sit unanswered for days.
- 1
Run every morning
Add a
Schedule Triggernode set to daily at 07:30. Reviews don't need minute-level monitoring — what kills reputations is the 2-star review that sits unanswered for a week. - 2
Fetch the latest reviews via SerpApi
Add an
HTTP Requestnode calling SerpApi'sgoogle_maps_reviewsengine with your business'sdata_id(grab it once from a SerpApi Google Maps search for your business), sorted by newest. Store the SerpApi key as an n8n credential — never in the node. - 3
Keep only genuinely new reviews
Add a
Google Sheetsread node that loads the review IDs you've already processed, then aCodenode that drops every review whose ID is already in the sheet. Without this step you'd re-answer the same reviews every morning. - 4
Let Claude draft the reply
Add an
HTTP Requestnode to the Claude API (/v1/messages). Pass the reviewer name, star rating, and review text. Prompt: reply as the owner, 2-4 sentences, thank them for something specific they mentioned, never sound like a template. For 1-3 star reviews: acknowledge the specific complaint, no excuses, offer to make it right offline. Ask for JSON withreplyandsentiment. - 5
Log review + draft to the sheet
Add a
Google Sheetsappend node: date, review ID, reviewer, rating, review text, sentiment, drafted reply, and apostedcolumn you tick after publishing. The same sheet doubles as the dedupe memory for step 3. - 6
Get pinged with the draft
Add a
Telegramnode that sends each new review with its draft reply — negative ones prefixed with 🚨 so they jump out. You paste the (reviewed!) draft into Google Business Profile in ten seconds. Never auto-post AI replies to reviews; the draft-then-approve loop is the whole point.
Frequently asked questions
Does the free SerpApi tier cover daily checks?
Not quite — daily runs need ~30 searches a month and the free tier gives 100, so one business fits comfortably, but the paid tier ($50/mo) is where multi-location businesses land. Alternative: drop the schedule to every other day and the free tier covers up to three locations.
Why not reply through the Google Business Profile API directly?
The GBP API requires a verified business profile with API access approval, which takes weeks and is overkill for a single business. Pasting an approved draft takes ten seconds. If you manage 20+ locations, then the official API is worth the setup — this recipe is for everyone below that.
Can I trust the AI drafts enough to auto-post them?
No — and the recipe is built so you can't by accident. Review replies are legally the business owner speaking; a hallucinated detail in a reply to an angry customer is a real liability. The draft-then-approve loop keeps the time cost near zero while keeping a human on the send button.