Four steps, and you are only needed for one of them. Here is what happens in each, including the parts most products would rather not spell out.
Starlie needs somewhere to read from. That is the only setup there is: no till to plug in, no spreadsheet to upload, nothing for your staff to learn.
Both are read in full, old reviews as well as new ones, so you get two years of what people have been saying on the day you sign up.
Google lets an approved reply go up from Starlie. Yelp does not let any app post for you, so Starlie writes the reply and you paste it in. The screen tells you which is which rather than letting you find out later.
If a listing stops letting Starlie in, you get a plain sentence saying so and how long it has been. The thing you must never do is show an owner a quiet week that was really a broken connection.
The review text is the only thing Starlie ever looks at. There is no till, no booking system, no delivery app and no invoice anywhere in this product.
A five-star review that says they waited forty minutes is read as praise and a complaint, because that is what it is. The rating is never used to decide how somebody felt about a particular thing.
A dish, an item, a stylist, a job, a product. Your store type decides what Starlie looks for, and it copes with spelling: balayge finds the balayage.
When a customer names something that is not on your list, Starlie shows it to you to add in one tap rather than quietly inventing a menu item.
Every reply is written about that review and nothing else. If the customer named two things, the reply names those two things. If they named nothing, the reply says so instead of apologising for something they never mentioned.
A five star and a one star are not the same conversation. Which sentences a review gets is decided by the review itself, so the same review always reads the same way and two replies in a row never rhyme.
Once you allow it, four and five-star replies post without waiting for you. Anything unhappy waits, every time, and there is no setting that changes that.
A reply is held if it admits a specific fault, offers money, argues with the reviewer, threatens them, repeats something private, discusses a member of staff, or carries an emoji. That is the seven. Your store type adds its own -- a salon should not discuss a named stylist in public, a dealership should not confirm a price. You are told why in one sentence you can act on.
Every reply is read before it goes out
Starlie wrote
Thank you for telling me, Gary. That was our mistake and we will refund you in full. Ask for me by name if you come in. — Kate
This reply admits a specific mistake in public. Say that to the customer directly, not underneath their review.
Seven rules read the reply back before you can approve it, plus the ones your trade adds. One that admits fault, offers money, argues, threatens, repeats something private, names a member of staff or carries an emoji is held, and you are told why in a sentence you can act on.
This is the part an owner stays for. One review is a story; the same thing said four times in a week is a decision.
Waiting, speed, price, value, cleanliness, how you were treated, noise, parking, getting the order right. Two people have to say it in one week before Starlie calls it anything.
Praise that names somebody is kept and shown to you, with the sentence they wrote. A complaint that names somebody is counted as a complaint about how a customer was treated, and the name is not kept with it.
What to do, what people said, and the wins. A quiet week says it was a quiet week rather than padding itself out with something that sounds like insight.
Your week, on a Monday morning
Eleven new reviews this week.
A quiet week says it was a quiet week. Starlie will not pad it out with something that sounds like insight.
A product that texts you about every review is a product you learn to ignore. So there are rules, and they are not adjustable by us to get your attention.
What reaches your phone
Someone says they were made ill. Call them today, before anything goes up in public.
Three interruptions a week at most about things that can wait, and nothing during your quiet hours. Something that needs you tonight comes through whatever the hour, because that is what tonight means.
The four steps above are the same for every shop. Your store type adds the screen that knows what you sell.
Restaurant
Your dishes and servers, and what customers said about each of them.
Bakery
Your items, custom orders and staff, and what customers said about each of them.
Salon or barber
Your stylists and services, and what customers said about each of them.
Auto dealership or repair shop
Your advisors and jobs, and what customers said about each of them.
Retail shop
Your products and staff, and what customers said about each of them.