Google reviews & your business profile

Connect your Google Business Profile

1. 1In the sidebar, go to Customers → Google Reviews.
2. 2Click Connect Google Business Profile.
3. 3Sign in with the Google account that owns or manages your business listing and approve the Business Profile permission.
4. 4You land back on the Google Reviews page and your reviews start syncing in — they appear as they arrive.

• Connecting requires the "Connect Google Business Profile & reply to reviews" permission — owners and administrators have it by default. Anyone else sees a note to ask an owner or administrator.
• If Google reports the account manages no Business Profile locations, the connection fails with a message to sign in with the account that owns or manages the listing.
• If your Google account manages several locations, Pool Founder connects the first one and the page header shows "first of N locations". Choosing which location to connect isn't supported yet.
• Disconnect lives in the page header — click it, then click again to confirm ("Confirm disconnect?"). Disconnecting removes Pool Founder's access; your Google listing itself is untouched.

The Google Reviews page

Once connected, the page shows a summary strip — your average rating with stars, total review count, and a 30-day performance snapshot (profile views, and calls + clicks from your listing) — above the full review feed. Filter the feed by star rating with the All / 5★–1★ chips.

• Reviews refresh automatically every hour. The Sync now button pulls them immediately.
• A green Live sync dot in the header means real-time updates are on — new reviews can appear within moments instead of waiting for the hourly refresh. If it isn't shown, the hourly sync still keeps everything current.
• Copy review link copies your direct Google review URL — it opens the Google review box for your business. Text or email it to customers after a great visit.
• The small external-link icon next to it opens your listing on Google Maps.
• If a sync problem appears ("Last sync had a problem") saying Google access was revoked, disconnect and reconnect to restore syncing.

Reply to a review

1. 1On any review, click Reply (or Edit reply to change an existing one).
2. 2Write your public reply — it goes out under your business's name.
3. 3Click Publish to Google. The reply is live on your Google listing immediately.

Which customer wrote it: matching reviews to customers

Google only tells us the reviewer's display name — no email or phone, and often just "Jamie R." — so after every sync Pool Founder matches reviews to your customers by name, cautiously. A review is linked only when the name fits exactly one active customer: either the full name ("Melissa Hartman") or a first name plus last initial ("Jamie R." when you have exactly one Jamie whose last name starts with R). If two customers could have written it, nobody is matched. A matched review shows Matched to [customer name] under the review with a small by name tag, and the name opens the customer's page.

• Link to customer on any unmatched review opens a customer search so you can do it yourself — for reviews under a nickname, a spouse's name, or a name the matcher found ambiguous. Unlink reverses either kind. Both need the "Edit customers" permission.
• A matched customer shows Reviewed on Google with the star rating and date on their customer page, next to the Texts pill. Open it to see the review snippet and, for name matches, Undo match if it picked the wrong person.
• Mark as reviewed on the customer page records a review we can't see — left on a listing that isn't connected, or under a name that can't be matched. Clear removes it again.
• Why it matters: a customer marked as reviewed — by match or by hand — is never asked again by that automation, even after another thumbs-up and even once the 90-day cooldown has passed. Those skips show on the Phone → Activity page as "Customer already left a review". Clearing the marker (or Unlink on the review) turns it back on.
• The matcher never overwrites anything a person set by hand, and it never changes anything on Google — it only records who wrote what inside Pool Founder.

New-review notifications

When the sync finds a review it hasn't seen before, admins get a New Google Review notification. A review of 3 stars or fewer escalates to a high-priority Negative Google Review notification — a fast owner reply is the one lever that reliably softens a bad review. The very first sync after connecting doesn't notify (so a backlog of old reviews doesn't flood you). Manage these under the Google Reviews category in Notification Settings.

The Google Profile page: score + weekly coaching

The Google Profile page (sidebar → Customers → Google Profile, or the "Google Profile" button on the Reviews page) scores your listing 0–100 and breaks the score into factors: business description, business hours, categories, photos, Google posts, review count, review replies, recent reviews, and whether your review link is on service reports. Under the score sits a task list.

• Fresh tasks arrive every Monday from an automatic analysis of your profile, reviews, and activity. Refresh analysis runs one on demand — fresh score and tasks appear in about half a minute.
• Each task explains why it matters using your actual numbers (e.g. how many reviews have no reply). At most five at a time, ordered by impact.
• Check the circle to mark a task done, or dismiss it with the ✕. Handled tasks move to a collapsible Completed history where they can be reopened.

What the tasks can do

• Publish a Google post or update your business description: the AI writes a draft; "Publish to Google…" opens it in an editable window (posts up to 1,500 characters, descriptions up to 750). Read it over, edit anything, and only then publish. It goes live on your Google listing.
• Add link to service reports: one click adds your Google review link to every service report email you already send — the single easiest way to grow reviews steadily.
• Reply to reviews: links you to the Google Reviews page to write the replies.
• Ask for reviews by email: when review momentum has stalled, the AI drafts a short review-request email and links you to Email Blasts to send it to your customer list.
• Any task with a draft has a Copy draft button, so you can also take the text anywhere yourself.

What this feature does not do

• No automatic publishing of any kind — the AI never replies to a review, posts to Google, or edits your listing on its own. Every publish is a human clicking a button after reading the text.
• Review-request texts go out only after a thumbs-up, never after every visit — the Review request automation (Communication → Phone → Automated texts) is triggered by a customer tapping thumbs-up on a service report, is off until you turn it on, and needs a review link configured. Nothing texts a customer who gave a thumbs-down, nothing texts a customer who never rated anything, and nothing texts a customer who already left a review (matched by name, linked, or marked as reviewed).
• Name matching can't read minds — a review under a nickname, a partner's name, or a name shared by two customers stays unmatched until you link it by hand. There is no matching by email, phone, or photo; Google doesn't share those.
• No review gating — there is no mechanism that screens customers by satisfaction before showing them the review link (Google prohibits it).
• One location per company — multi-location Google accounts connect their first location only, for now.
• Reviews can't be deleted or hidden from Pool Founder — only Google can remove a review. Your lever here is the public reply.

Frequently asked questions

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