An agent does not treat every review the same. A 5-star thank-you can safely go out on its own. A 1-star complaint should not. The 2 rating bands in the Behavior section are how you say where that line is.
What you need: an agent. The bands are on every agent, with defaults already set.
The Automatic posting and Approval star pickers in the agent's Behavior section, with the sentence about the ratings between them.
The 2 bands
- Automatic posting. Reviews at this many stars and up are posted on their own. The caption reads, for example, "Post automatically at 4 stars and up". This band only works in Auto-reply mode. In draft mode it is grayed out with the note that draft mode never posts on its own.
- Approval. Reviews at this many stars and below go to the Approvals queue, for a person to approve or discard. The caption reads, for example, "Ask for approval at 2 stars and below". This band works in both modes.
The line under the 2 pickers names what is left in the middle in numbers, for example "Reviews of 3 stars get a draft only: nothing is posted and nothing waits for approval." A draft-only review shows its draft on the review card, for whoever answers it.
Approval has to stop below the stars that post automatically. If the 2 overlap, the editor says so and the agent cannot be saved until you fix it. If no rating falls between them, the line says every review is either posted or sent for approval.
The defaults
A new agent posts automatically at 4 stars and up, and asks for approval at 2 stars and below. 3 stars get a draft only. In draft mode, the default, that means 4 and 5 stars get a draft, 3 stars get a draft, and 1 and 2 stars wait in Approvals.
What overrides the bands
The bands decide between posting, approving and drafting. 3 things come first:
- A site without a reply API. The agent drafts, whatever the stars, because nothing can be posted there. The person copies the reply to the site.
- Private feedback. Always a draft, to send by email. Never posted and never sent to Approvals to be posted.
- A review with no stars. A Facebook recommendation has no rating, so the bands cannot place it. One that recommends you follows the mode: auto-reply posts it, draft mode drafts it. One that does not recommend you is treated like the approval band and is never posted on its own.
For a client of an agency whose plan has no reply approvals, the approval band becomes a draft instead. The draft waits on the review for the agency.
Choosing your bands
- Start careful. Draft mode for a week, then auto-reply with automatic posting at 5 stars only.
- Widen when the drafts are good. If you sent the 4-star drafts unchanged all week, lower automatic posting to 4.
- Keep approval on the low end. A 1- or 2-star reply is the one a future customer reads most carefully. It deserves a second pair of eyes.
- Raise approval in a bad week. Set it to 3 for a while, and every reply that is not to a happy customer waits for a person.
What this costs
The bands decide what happens to a reply, not what it costs. A short reply to a happy review costs less than a careful answer to a low rating, the cost shows under every draft, and the draft costs the same whether it is posted, approved or discarded. Approving and discarding are free.