Handling Sensitive Reviews

Identifying Sensitive Reviews

A sensitive review is any review that touches on topics requiring elevated caution. These reviews often involve higher stakes than a typical complaint about slow service or food quality. Mishandling them can result in legal exposure, regulatory issues, or significant reputational damage.

• Health and safety — reviews describing illness, injury, or unsafe conditions at your business.
• Legal threats — reviews mentioning lawsuits, attorneys, or legal action.
• Employee allegations — reviews naming specific employees and accusing them of misconduct.
• Discrimination claims — reviews alleging bias based on race, gender, disability, or other protected characteristics.
• Privacy concerns — reviews that include personal information about other customers or employees.
• Regulatory issues — reviews mentioning health inspections, licensing violations, or code enforcement.

Disable Auto-Publish for Sensitive Content

AI-generated responses are not equipped to navigate the nuances of sensitive topics. A response that is perfectly appropriate for a standard complaint could be legally problematic when the review involves health claims or discrimination allegations. For this reason, sensitive reviews should always be excluded from auto-publish workflows.

The simplest approach is to configure auto-publish only for 4 and 5-star reviews. Since sensitive reviews almost always carry low star ratings, this setting naturally ensures they land in your manual review queue. If you have auto-publish enabled for lower ratings, disable it or add rules that flag reviews containing keywords like 'lawyer', 'health department', 'sick', or 'discrimination'.

Review Manually and Consult When Needed

When you encounter a sensitive review, slow down. Read it carefully, consider the implications, and if necessary, consult with others before responding. For legal threats or discrimination claims, it may be wise to have your attorney or HR team review the response before it is published.

1. Read the review thoroughly and identify the specific sensitive elements.
2. Determine whether the review requires consultation with legal counsel, HR, insurance, or management.
3. If needed, gather relevant internal information before drafting your response — incident reports, camera footage, scheduling records.
4. Draft a response that is empathetic, factual, and brief. Do not admit fault or make promises you cannot keep.
5. Have someone else review your draft before publishing — a second set of eyes catches issues you might miss.
6. Publish the response and document the review and your actions internally for future reference.

Contact Support for Guidance

If you encounter a review that you genuinely do not know how to handle, reach out to ResponseIQ support. While we cannot provide legal advice, we can help you understand your options within the platform — such as flagging the review for Google's review team if it violates Google's policies, adjusting your auto-publish settings to prevent similar reviews from being auto-responded to, or temporarily pausing AI responses for a specific location while you sort things out.

• Reviews containing fake or defamatory content can be flagged for removal through Google's review policies.
• Reviews that include personal information about third parties may violate Google's content policies.
• Spam or competitor-posted reviews can be reported through Google Business Profile.
• ResponseIQ support can help you configure settings to prevent auto-responses to reviews matching certain criteria.