Write and Manage Replies
Before You Reply
Section titled “Before You Reply”Open a conversation in Google Reviews. You need Google review management at its Location and an available connected reply feature. System owners and Administrators include this access; Location managers require an explicit assignment.
Replies are public business responses on Google. Your private draft does not become public until you explicitly submit it. Google controls publication and may review a reply before showing it. See Google’s guidance on managing reviews.
Save and Recover a Private Draft
Section titled “Save and Recover a Private Draft”- Select Write a reply, or Edit reply beneath an existing business reply.
- Type your response. Wait for Draft saved after Saving….
- You can return through My drafts to continue working.
Drafts are private to your FSRevs account and saved for 30 days after their latest save. Simply reading a draft does not extend its retention. They are not shared team drafts. A draft can expire or become inaccessible if you lose the required access.
The public submission counter is 4,096 bytes, not characters. Some accented characters and emoji use several bytes. The draft may save text longer than the public limit, but you must shorten it before posting. Draft saving itself has a limit of 16,384 bytes.
If Saving Fails
Section titled “If Saving Fails”Keep the page open and choose Retry saving. If navigation is blocked by Your draft isn’t saved yet, choose Keep editing to preserve the editor, or Discard draft only when you intend to discard the changes. The browser may also warn before leaving with unsaved text.
If Another Tab Has Changed the Draft
Section titled “If Another Tab Has Changed the Draft”- Load saved version replaces this editor’s text with the saved version.
- Keep my version replaces the saved version with this editor’s text after confirmation.
Check which version you want before choosing. These choices resolve draft conflicts; neither posts a reply.
Post a Reply
Section titled “Post a Reply”- Read the customer’s review and the listing name.
- Write and check your response. Avoid including private customer information in a public reply.
- If prompted, select Check Google before submitting to refresh the current state.
- Select Post reply once.
- Read the resulting status. A submitted response is not necessarily published yet.
For example: “Thank you for visiting our Kahului team. We appreciate your feedback and hope to see you again.” Adapt the wording to the actual experience rather than posting a generic response blindly.
Understand the Result
Section titled “Understand the Result”| State | Meaning and next step |
|---|---|
| Published/approved | Google confirms publication. The matching saved submission is cleared; a newer private draft is preserved. |
| Awaiting Google | Approval is pending. Check again later instead of posting duplicate text. |
| Not published | Google rejected the reply. Read the displayed reason, if available, and revise the saved text. |
| Check your last submission | FSRevs cannot confirm the outcome. Google may have received the reply; follow the uncertain-submission steps below. |
| A definite error | The attempt failed with a known error. Your text is retained; resolve the reported problem before explicitly trying again. |
A missing or unfamiliar Google status is not proof of approval. Use Check current reply or reload the conversation to inspect the latest available state.
Edit or Delete a Public Reply
Section titled “Edit or Delete a Public Reply”For an existing reply, select Edit reply, revise the text, and choose Update reply. Editing is another explicit submission and can require Google approval.
Delete reply asks for confirmation and removes your public business reply from Google if successful. It does not delete the customer’s review. Reload the review and inspect the result before taking another action.
Cancel leaves reply editing; it does not publish or delete a public reply. Use the draft controls when you intend to discard private text.
Recover a Saved Submission
Section titled “Recover a Saved Submission”Your saved submission · Private preserves your submitted text for up to 30 days while publication is unconfirmed. It shows its expiry date. Confirmed approval clears the matching submission and its matching draft version; another teammate’s reply does not clear your private text as though it were your approved submission.
For a rejected submission, choose Edit saved submission to restore the text for revision. If a newer draft already exists, FSRevs preserves it and explains that the submitted text remains available below. Review both before replacing anything.
Resolve an Uncertain Submission
Section titled “Resolve an Uncertain Submission”- Select Check current reply. Compare Google’s current reply with the text you submitted.
- Wait for the five-minute submission grace period before acknowledgement becomes available.
- Select Acknowledge current state only after checking the result.
- Decide whether any further action is needed. If it is, make a new explicit submission from the current state.
Acknowledgement does not send another reply. Refreshing the inbox, reloading a review, or background processing does not automatically replay the uncertain write. This prevents an ambiguous network result from becoming a duplicate submission.
If uncertainty persists, keep the displayed status and contact support using Troubleshooting.