You have 37 unanswered Google reviews.
You know you should respond to them. You may even have told yourself more than once that you’ll sit down and knock them out when things calm down.
But things rarely calm down.
So, can you simply have someone else respond to your Google reviews for you?
Yes. You can.
Google Business Profile owners can add managers who are allowed to respond to reviews, and each person can use their own Google Account. You do not have to hand an employee, freelancer, or outside provider your personal Google password just so they can answer reviews.
But that only answers the technical question.
The more important question is who should respond to your reviews.
- You could do it yourself. You could assign an employee.
- You could hire a virtual assistant or freelancer.
- You could use AI or review-management software.
- You could hire a reputation-management company; or
- you could pay a service specifically to write the responses for you.
Those options sound similar because they all promise help with reviews. But, they don’t remove the same amount of work from your plate.
Yes, Someone Else Can Respond to Your Google Reviews
Google allows Business Profile owners to add other owners and managers. Managers can edit business information, manage posts, and respond to reviews.
Google specifically notes that users can access the profile through their own Google Accounts, which means password sharing is unnecessary.
There are a couple of practical details to understand, though.
Your Business Profile must be verified before reviews can be answered. And when a response is published, Google displays it as a response from the business. The personal name of the individual who typed it is not shown publicly.
So, technically, the answer is simple:
Someone else can respond to your Google reviews. They can either be given appropriate access to your Business Profile or write the responses for you to review and post yourself.
The harder part is deciding which arrangement actually makes sense for your business.
First Decide What You Actually Want to Outsource
“Managing reviews” can mean several very different things.
Before comparing providers, software, employees, or freelancers, it helps to decide exactly what you want somebody else to do.
1. Outsource the writing
Maybe you are perfectly capable of monitoring your Google Business Profile.
You know when a new review appears. You know how to log in. You don’t need analytics, a dashboard, or an automated review-request campaign.
You simply do not want to write the replies.
In that case, the thing you need to outsource is the writing.
A freelancer, copywriter, virtual assistant, or specialized review-response service may be enough.
2. Outsource the review workflow
Perhaps the problem is bigger.
You want somebody—or some software—to:
- monitor new reviews
- draft responses
- flag difficult complaints
- route replies for approval
- publish approved responses
- keep track of what has and hasn’t been answered
Now you’re outsourcing a workflow, not merely writing.
That is where review-management software, a trained VA, or an ongoing managed service may make more sense.
3. Outsource broader reputation management
Some businesses need substantially more.
They may want help generating new reviews, monitoring several platforms, managing multiple locations, disputing policy-violating reviews, producing reports, tracking customer sentiment, or handling broader reputation issues.
That’s closer to full reputation management.
All three services can be advertised as “Google review management.”
But they are different purchases.
A useful question to ask before you spend anything is:
What work do I actually want removed from my business?
Who Can Respond to Google Reviews for You? 7 Options
There is no universal best choice.
The right answer depends on your review volume, your existing staff, how complicated the reviews are, and whether you’re solving an ongoing process problem or an existing backlog.
1. Respond to the Reviews Yourself
For some businesses, this is still the best answer.
If you receive three or four reviews a month, you may not need software, an agency, or a specialized service.
You know what happened with the customer. You know your business better than anyone else. And there is no additional vendor expense.
Owner-written replies can also feel especially authentic when the owner has firsthand knowledge of the customer’s experience.
The drawback is obvious: your time.
A handful of reviews is manageable. Thirty or forty unanswered reviews is a different Saturday afternoon.
Negative reviews can also be harder to answer when you’re personally involved. A complaint that looks simple to an outsider may feel unfair, insulting, or infuriating when it’s about the business you’ve spent years building.
So DIY works very well—until it repeatedly doesn’t get done.
2. Have an Employee Respond
An employee can be a very good choice because they already understand the business.
They may know your customers, policies, common complaints, terminology, scheduling problems, and the difference between a legitimate criticism and a misunderstanding.
The challenge is less about whether an employee can respond than whether review response is actually part of someone’s job.
If responsibility is vague, reviews have a habit of becoming one of those tasks everyone agrees is important and nobody quite owns.
There are also quality-control questions.
Does the employee know how to respond to an angry customer without starting a public argument?
Do they know when not to admit something they cannot verify?
Do they know when a complaint should be escalated before anything is posted?
And will the tone remain reasonably consistent if several employees take turns responding?
If you already have the right person on staff and review volume is manageable, assigning the job internally may be the simplest solution.
3. Have a Virtual Assistant Respond
A virtual assistant can take much more of the recurring administrative work off your hands.
Depending on the arrangement, a VA could monitor reviews, prepare responses, post approved replies, and alert you when a review requires personal attention.
This can make particular sense if you already employ a VA.
Instead of hiring another provider, you can create a clear response policy and make review management part of the VA’s existing responsibilities.
Cost varies widely by location, experience, and skill. Upwork currently says virtual assistants on its marketplace generally cost around $10–$20 per hour, while its more detailed cost guidance notes higher rates for experienced or specialized marketing and customer-service support.
But the hourly rate isn’t the whole cost.
Someone still has to:
- hire the VA
- train them
- explain your business
- define the tone
- establish rules for difficult reviews
- answer questions when context is missing
- check quality
A good VA can become an excellent long-term solution.
A poorly trained VA can simply make responding to reviews one more process you have to manage.
4. Hire a Freelancer to Write the Responses
If you don’t need ongoing monitoring, a freelancer can be a very economical middle ground.
You might give them a batch of unanswered reviews, explain your preferred tone, provide relevant context, and pay for the completed writing.
Freelancers may charge hourly, by project, or sometimes by the number of responses.
This is especially attractive when the problem is temporary.
Perhaps your reviews were normally under control, but the last six months got away from you. You don’t necessarily need an ongoing reputation-management subscription. You need help catching up.
The main variable is quality.
“Freelancer” describes the working arrangement, not the writer’s ability.
One freelancer may carefully read every review and write thoughtful responses. Another may run everything through the same template and change the customer’s first name.
You also need to understand exactly what is included.
- Is the freelancer finding the unanswered reviews?
- Are they researching the business?
- Are they organizing the responses?
- Are they posting them?; or
- Are you responsible for collecting everything, sending it over, checking the drafts, and putting every response back into Google?
A low writing price can still make sense. Just make sure you know which part of the job you’re buying.
5. Hire a Reputation-Management Agency
A full reputation-management service is appropriate when reviews are only one part of the problem.
A provider may monitor multiple platforms, respond to customers, request new reviews, flag suspicious or policy-violating reviews, produce reports, and help manage reputation across several locations.
For a business with significant ongoing review volume, that can be extremely useful.
It can also be far more than you need.
Consider a local business with 28 unanswered Google reviews but no serious ongoing reputation problem.
It may not need:
- monthly reporting
- review-generation campaigns
- multi-platform monitoring
- reputation strategy
- another long-term vendor relationship
It may simply need 28 replies written.
That distinction matters when comparing prices because managed reputation services are often recurring.
For example, GroHound currently advertises an ongoing review-management service at $99 per month that includes monitoring, response management, automated review requests, and reporting.
That is a different product from paying someone once to clear an existing backlog.
6. Use Review-Management Software or AI
AI has made this option dramatically cheaper.
There are free tools that will generate a single response after you paste in a review, as well as connected platforms that monitor Google reviews, generate drafts, manage approvals, and publish responses.
If your goal is simply to produce responses as cheaply as possible, software may beat a human service on price by a wide margin.
For example, Reply Champion currently starts at $10 per month for one to two locations and includes AI review responses, approval controls, review requests, monitoring, analytics, and other features.
That’s not a reason to dismiss it.
For the right business, that’s a very strong value proposition.
Software may be particularly useful when you:
- receive significant ongoing review volume
- manage several locations
- want automatic monitoring
- want review-request campaigns
- are comfortable reviewing AI drafts
- want a repeatable system rather than one-time help
The distinction is that software usually gives you a system for doing the work more efficiently.
Even sophisticated tools may still involve some combination of configuration, approvals, exception handling, and quality control. Reply Champion, for example, specifically promotes approval controls for sensitive responses alongside its automation.
That may be exactly what you want. But, buying a tool and buying completed work aren’t the same thing.
7. Use a Done-for-You Review-Response Service
The final option is narrower.
Instead of buying a complete reputation-management platform or asking your staff to incorporate review responses into their workload, you can pay somebody specifically to write the responses.
This model makes the most sense when:
- you already have unanswered reviews
- you don’t need a full reputation-management program
- you don’t want another dashboard
- you don’t want to configure an AI workflow
- individualized responses matter
- you mainly want the writing completed
The difference is simple:
A tool helps you do the job. A done-for-you-review-response-service performs the writing for you.
Neither is automatically superior.
They simply solve different problems.
Which Option Is Best for Your Business?
A simpler way to choose is to look at the situation you’re actually in.
If you receive only a few reviews each month:
Respond yourself or assign a capable employee. Paying for specialized help may be unnecessary.
If you already have a good VA:
Consider training the VA before hiring another vendor.
If you want low-cost automation for ongoing reviews:
AI or review-management software may be the better investment.
If you operate multiple locations or need monitoring, review generation, reporting, and reputation strategy:
Look at broader review-management platforms or managed reputation services.
If you need occasional writing help:
A freelancer may be perfectly adequate.
If you already have a substantial backlog and mainly want somebody to write the replies:
A done-for-you cleanup service starts to make more sense.
Notice that the decision isn’t really “human versus AI” or “agency versus software.”
The better question is:
After I buy this, how much of the work is still mine?
How Much Does It Cost to Have Someone Respond to Google Reviews?
There isn’t one meaningful average price because the options use completely different pricing models.
- A virtual assistant may charge by the hour.
- A freelancer may charge hourly or by project.
- AI software usually charges a monthly subscription.
- A managed reputation service may charge a larger recurring fee because it includes monitoring, reporting, review requests, and other services.
- A backlog-cleanup service can instead charge once for a defined group of responses.
Virtual assistant
Upwork currently puts general VA rates around $10–$20 per hour, while its detailed guide shows higher ranges for more experienced or specialized customer-service and marketing support.
What that becomes per review depends on the person, the complexity of the reviews, the amount of research required, and how much supervision you provide.
There is no good reason to manufacture an average cost per response from an hourly rate.
Freelancer
Freelancers may price the work by hour, project, or batch.
That can make freelance writing one of the least expensive human options, particularly if you handle the collection, context, organization, and posting yourself.
Again, make sure you’re comparing the same scope of work.
“Write 30 responses from this spreadsheet” and “find all my unanswered reviews and get the entire backlog ready for me” aren’t identical jobs.
AI and review-management software
Focused AI tools can be inexpensive.
Reply Champion, for example, currently starts at $10 per month and includes substantially more than a simple text generator.
Broader review-management platforms can cost more because they may bundle review generation, monitoring, analytics, website widgets, multi-location management, customer messaging, and other features.
If you need those features, comparing the monthly software fee with the price of a human writer isn’t especially useful. You’re buying different capabilities.
Managed review services
Recurring managed services generally charge more because a provider is taking ongoing responsibility for some portion of the process.
Current publicly advertised examples include services starting around $99 per month, with pricing climbing as the scope expands. GroHound, for example, publicly lists $99 per month for monitoring, response management, automated review requests, and reporting.
The important phrase here is current published examples.
There isn’t enough consistency across providers to pretend one price is “the average cost of review management.”
One-time review-response cleanup
A cleanup model works differently because there is no required monthly commitment.
ReplyMasters currently charges:
- $225 for 9–15 completed responses
- $347 for 16–30 completed responses
- $497 for up to 50 completed responses
The goal isn’t to provide monitoring software or an ongoing reputation-management program.
It’s to complete a defined batch of response writing.
If your business has more unanswered reviews than the package covers, the package should not be interpreted as clearing the entire backlog. The number of responses being purchased matters.
Google Review Response Options Compared
| Option | How You Pay | Who Writes? | Who Manages the Workflow? | Ongoing Commitment? | Best Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Owner | Your own time | Owner | Owner | No | Low review volume |
| Employee | Payroll/time | Employee | Business | Usually | Business with capable staff |
| Virtual assistant | Usually hourly/project | VA | VA + business | Optional | Businesses already delegating admin work |
| Freelancer | Hourly/project | Freelancer | Usually business | No | Occasional writing help |
| AI/review software | Usually monthly | AI + business oversight | Software + business | Usually | Recurring volume and automation |
| Managed reputation service | Usually monthly | Provider | Provider | Usually | Ongoing review/reputation management |
| Done-for-you cleanup | Fixed project | Provider | Defined project | No | Existing unanswered backlog |
Price matters.
But so does what remains on your to-do list after you pay.
Do You Have to Give Someone Your Google Password?
No.
Google allows Business Profile owners to invite other users as owners or managers. Those users access the Business Profile through their own Google Accounts rather than sharing yours. Managers are allowed to respond to reviews.
That is useful if you want an employee, VA, or outside company to manage responses directly.
But direct profile access isn’t required in every outsourcing arrangement.
You can also have somebody write the responses and deliver them to you.
Then you—or someone on your team—reviews and posts them.
That creates two basic models:
Direct management: The provider has Business Profile access and publishes responses.
Response preparation: The provider writes the responses, while you retain control of posting.
Neither arrangement is automatically better.
It depends on how much control you want to keep and how much work you want to delegate.
Should an Outside Provider Post the Responses for You?
Direct posting is appealing because it removes another step.
If you receive new reviews continually and want a genuinely hands-off workflow, letting a trusted provider or trained employee post responses may be the logical choice.
It also requires greater access and greater trust.
Some businesses would rather approve every public response before it appears.
That’s particularly understandable when reviews involve:
- refunds
- employee disputes
- accusations
- safety concerns
- legal threats
- medical or privacy issues
- complicated factual disagreements
A finished-response model keeps more control with the business.
You receive the written responses, review them, and post them yourself.
The drawback is obvious: somebody still has to copy and paste them.
So ask what matters more in your situation:
maximum delegation or maximum control?
What Should You Look for in Someone Responding for Your Business?
The person or service you choose is speaking publicly in your business’s name.
Price shouldn’t be the only criterion.
Individualized responses
Google itself recommends making replies relevant rather than sending the same generic “thank you” to everyone. Customers notice canned replies too.
BrightLocal’s 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey found that 50% of consumers surveyed said generic or templated business responses would make them unlikely to choose the business. The same research found that 89% expect businesses to respond to reviews at all.
That doesn’t mean every three-word five-star review requires an essay.
It means customers shouldn’t feel as though nobody actually read what they wrote.
Enough context to understand the complaint
A good writer should recognize the difference between:
“Great service!”
and:
“The technician arrived two hours late, charged more than the estimate, and nobody returned my call.”
The second review may require business context before anyone should confidently answer it.
A clear escalation process
Some reviews should not be handled casually.
If the review contains a serious allegation, legal threat, medical issue, safety complaint, privacy concern, or factual dispute the writer cannot verify, there should be a way to stop and ask the business what happened.
The objective isn’t to produce a reply at any cost.
Sometimes the professional response is to get more information before typing anything publicly.
An appropriate tone
Review replies should sound like the business understands another human being is reading them.
That generally means avoiding both extremes:
- robotic corporate language
- angry public arguments
The tone should fit the situation.
A glowing five-star review and an accusation of overcharging should not receive versions of the same paragraph.
No invented facts
This should be obvious, but it matters.
Someone writing from outside your business may not know what actually happened.
Neither a freelancer nor an AI system should casually invent explanations, promises, refunds, conversations, policies, or facts simply because they would make the response sound complete.
When the facts aren’t known, the response needs to reflect that.
A transparent workflow
Before hiring anyone, you should be able to answer:
- Who actually writes the responses?
- Is AI involved?
- Who checks them?
- Who posts them?
- What account access is needed?
- What happens when a review is sensitive?
- How is missing context handled?
If you don’t know those answers, you don’t yet know what you’re buying.
What If You Already Have a Backlog of Unanswered Reviews?
An existing backlog is not necessarily the same problem as ongoing review management.
Suppose your business has 32 unanswered reviews.
- You may not need review-generation software.
- You may not need a multi-location analytics dashboard.
- You may not need monthly reports.
- You may not even need somebody monitoring future reviews.
- You may simply need the 32 existing reviews answered.
This is not an unusual operational problem.
In August 2026, UENI published an analysis of 229,882 Google reviews from small businesses connected to its platform. In that dataset, only 9.8% of one-star reviews had received a public reply, compared with 29.3% of five-star reviews. UENI appropriately notes that its data represents businesses connected to its own platform rather than every small business everywhere.
The study is useful because it shows how easily responses can remain unfinished in the real world.
A backlog changes the buying decision.
You are no longer necessarily shopping for a better system.
You may simply be shopping for completed work.
How ReplyMasters Handles an Existing Review Backlog
ReplyMasters was built for that narrower problem.
It is not primarily reputation-management software. And, it doesn’t ask you to adopt another dashboard so you can become more efficient at writing responses yourself.
The service identifies unanswered Google reviews, writes an individualized response to each review in the purchased batch, and prepares the finished responses for the business. And, then your business receives a clean response pack that can be reviewed and copied into Google.
There is no required monthly subscription.
Of course, that doesn’t make ReplyMasters the right answer for everybody. But obviously, if you receive hundreds of new reviews every month across multiple locations, a sophisticated review-management platform may make much more sense.
If you already employ a capable VA, train the VA. And, if you receive three reviews a month and don’t mind answering them, keep the money and write them yourself.
ReplyMasters is designed for a more specific situation:
You already have unanswered Google reviews, you know they should be handled, and you’d rather have somebody complete the writing than buy another tool for doing it yourself.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can someone else respond to my Google reviews?
Yes. Google Business Profile owners can add managers, and managers can respond to reviews. Each user can access the profile through their own Google Account, so password sharing is unnecessary.
Can an employee respond to Google reviews?
Yes. An employee can be added to the Business Profile with appropriate access and respond on behalf of the business.
For many businesses, this is the simplest option when an employee already understands the customers and has enough time to manage the work.
Can a virtual assistant respond to Google reviews?
Yes.
A VA can either be given appropriate Business Profile access or prepare responses for someone at the business to review and post.
The important part is training the VA on your tone, policies, escalation rules, and how to handle reviews where the facts aren’t clear.
Can I hire someone to manage my Google reviews?
Yes.
You can hire a freelancer, VA, specialized review-response provider, marketing agency, reputation-management company, or other authorized provider.
The better question is what you want them to manage: writing, posting, monitoring, review generation, or your entire reputation-management workflow.
Do I need to give them my Google password?
No.
Google specifically allows Business Profile owners to add owners and managers using separate Google Accounts.
Can AI respond to my Google reviews?
Yes.
AI can generate individual drafts, and connected review-management platforms can monitor reviews, prepare responses, and help automate publication.
For straightforward, high-volume review workflows, this can be inexpensive and efficient.
Businesses should still decide how sensitive, unusual, or disputed reviews will be reviewed before anything is published.
How much does it cost to hire someone to answer Google reviews?
It depends on the service model.
A VA may charge hourly. A freelancer may charge hourly or by project. Focused AI software can start around the low tens of dollars per month, while managed review services may charge recurring fees of $99 per month or more depending on what is included.
One-time cleanup services use a different model because you’re paying for a defined project rather than ongoing review management.
Can I outsource only my unanswered reviews?
Yes.
You do not have to outsource your entire review-management process simply because you’ve fallen behind.
If the primary problem is an existing backlog, you can hire someone specifically to help clear that backlog and then return to handling future reviews yourself.
So, Who Should Respond to Your Google Reviews?
If you receive only a handful of reviews, answering them yourself or assigning the job to an employee may be easiest.
If you’re managing significant review volume across locations, software or an ongoing reputation-management service may be worth the recurring cost.
If you already have a capable VA, you may not need another provider at all.
But if you’re staring at a backlog of unanswered reviews and keep putting them off, your problem may no longer be knowing what to do.
It may simply be getting the work done.
No required subscription. No new review-management platform to learn.
Just the responses that have been sitting on your list—written and ready to use.
