n8n Google Review Automation: AI Reply Drafts with Slack Approval
This n8n workflow checks your Google Business Profile for new reviews, uses an AI chat model to tag sentiment and topics and draft a reply in your voice, then posts the draft to Slack with Approve and Decline buttons. The reply goes live on Google only after someone approves it, so every public response has had a human check.
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Setup time
- About 45 minutes, plus Google's API access approval
- Nodes
- 9
- Checked against
- n8n 2.41
- Google Business Profile
- OpenAI or Anthropic
- Slack
Last reviewed October 2026
What this workflow does
Replying to Google reviews matters for local businesses. Prospective customers read the replies as well as the reviews, and a thoughtful response to a complaint often says more about a business than a row of five-star ratings. The problem is time: reviews arrive at random hours, the owner is busy, and replies end up rushed, copy-pasted or never written at all.
This template suits cafés, clinics, trades, salons, gyms and multi-location retailers that get a steady flow of reviews and want each one answered properly. The AI does the first draft and flags sensitive reviews, such as refund requests or safety complaints, while the owner or manager keeps the final say from Slack without logging in to Google Business Profile.
Who it's for
- →Local service businesses that want every Google review answered within a day
- →Multi-location retailers and franchise groups that need consistent reply tone across sites
- →Marketing agencies managing Google Business Profiles for several clients
- →Owners who want a human check on anything public without writing every reply from scratch
How it works, step by step
- 1
Watch for new Google reviews
The Google Business Profile Trigger polls your chosen account and location on a schedule you set and outputs each review that has been added since the last check.
- 2
Prepare the review data
A Code node skips reviews that already have an owner reply, converts Google's star rating to a number and keeps only the fields the AI needs: reviewer name, rating, text and date.
- 3
Analyse the review and draft a reply
A Basic LLM Chain with an OpenAI or Anthropic chat model classifies sentiment, lists up to three topics, flags reviews that need attention and writes a short reply following your tone rules.
- 4
Enforce a structured result
A Structured Output Parser makes the model return sentiment, topics, a needs-attention flag and the reply as separate fields, so later nodes can use each value reliably.
- 5
Ask for approval in Slack
Slack's send-and-wait operation posts the review, the AI tags and the suggested reply to your channel with Approve and Decline buttons. The workflow pauses until someone responds.
- 6
Post the reply or log the decline
An If node checks the response. Approved replies are posted to the review through the Google Business Profile node. Declined drafts trigger a Slack note that nothing was posted.
What you need
Google Business Profile with API access
A Google Cloud project with the Business Profile APIs enabled and access approved by Google, plus an OAuth2 credential in n8n for the account that manages your location.
OpenAI or Anthropic API key
Used by the chat model node to analyse each review and write the draft reply.
Slack workspace
A Slack app credential that can post to the approval channel. The approver needs to be able to open your n8n instance's URL when they click a button.
An n8n instance reachable from the internet
Slack's approval buttons link back to n8n to resume the paused execution, so n8n Cloud or a self-hosted instance with a public URL is needed.
Set it up in n8n
- 1
Import the workflow JSON into n8n and open the Setup Instructions sticky note.
- 2
Apply for Business Profile API access in Google Cloud if you have not already, then create a Google Business Profile OAuth2 credential in n8n.
- 3
In New Google Review, select your account and location. It checks for new reviews hourly, which suits most businesses; change the poll interval if you need it faster.
- 4
Edit the system message in Analyse Review and Draft Reply: add your business name, a contact email for complaints and a few words on tone.
- 5
Add your API key to the OpenAI Chat Model node, or replace it with an Anthropic Chat Model connected to the same chain.
- 6
Connect Slack in both Slack nodes and change the #reviews channel to the one your team uses for approvals.
- 7
In Post Reply to Google, select the same account and location as the trigger.
- 8
Run the workflow manually to fetch your latest review, approve a test reply, check it on Google, then activate the workflow.
Ways to customise it
- +Auto-approve short thank-you replies for four and five-star reviews with no text, and send everything else to Slack.
- +Log every review, sentiment and topic to Google Sheets and build a monthly summary of recurring complaints.
- +Route reviews flagged as needing attention to a different Slack channel or tag a manager.
- +Swap Slack approval for Gmail or Microsoft Teams send-and-wait if your team lives in email or Teams.
- +Use a custom form response in Slack so the approver can edit the reply text before it is posted.
For Australian businesses
The ACCC's guidance on online reviews says businesses must not write or commission fake reviews, offer incentives only for positive reviews, or selectively remove negative ones, as this can mislead consumers under the Australian Consumer Law. Replies are statements by your business, so claims in them must not be misleading either; the approval step is where you check that. Do not ask reviewers to change or remove a review in exchange for anything. Reviewer names and complaint details can be personal information under the Privacy Act 1988 if your business is covered, and sending them to an AI provider may be a disclosure overseas. The OAIC's guidance on commercially available AI products recommends limiting personal information you put into these tools, so keep the prompt to what the reply needs. The workflow timezone is set to Australia/Sydney; change it for Brisbane, Adelaide or Perth.
Tools in this workflow
n8n
Free plan + paidAutomation
A workflow automation platform that combines a visual node editor with code when you need it. It connects hundreds of apps and APIs and includes AI agent nodes that can call language models, tools and memory. Teams can self-host the free Community Edition on their own servers or use n8n's hosted cloud.
Best for: Australian organisations that need automation data to stay onshore
n8n review →ChatGPT (OpenAI)
Free plan + paidGeneral Assistant
OpenAI's general-purpose AI assistant. It handles writing, coding, file and image analysis, data analysis and web research through a chat interface, with an API for building it into your own systems.
Best for: Small and mid-sized teams wanting one general assistant for everyday writing and analysis
ChatGPT review →Claude (Anthropic)
Free plan + paidGeneral Assistant
Anthropic's AI assistant, known for careful reasoning, long-document analysis, writing and coding. It can work through large documents and codebases in a single conversation, paid plans include the Claude Code agentic coding tool, and it is available through an API and major cloud platforms.
Best for: Legal, policy and consulting teams reviewing long documents
Claude review →Zapier
Free plan + paidAutomation
A no-code automation platform that links a large catalogue of web apps through workflows called Zaps. Beyond triggers and actions it now offers AI agents, chatbots, Tables for storing data, Interfaces for simple forms and pages, and an MCP server that lets AI assistants run Zapier actions.
Best for: Small businesses automating admin without developers
Zapier review →
Frequently asked questions
Can n8n reply to Google reviews automatically?
Yes. n8n has a Google Business Profile node that can reply to a review, and a trigger that polls for new reviews. This template deliberately adds a Slack approval step so no reply is posted without a person checking it first.
Why does the Google Business Profile node return no reviews?
The most common cause is that Google has not yet approved your Cloud project for Business Profile API access, or the OAuth credential belongs to a Google account that does not manage the location. Check both, then select the account and location again in the trigger.
Can I edit the AI reply before it goes live?
In this version the approver chooses Approve or Decline. If you decline, reply yourself in Google. To edit inside Slack, change the Slack node's response type to a custom form with a text field and post that field instead.
Is it allowed to use AI to reply to Google reviews?
Google's policies focus on the reviews themselves, not on how owners write replies. Under Australian Consumer Law, what matters is that your reply is accurate and not misleading, which is why each draft is checked by a person before posting.
Can I use Claude instead of OpenAI?
Yes. Delete the OpenAI Chat Model node, add an Anthropic Chat Model, connect it to the Language Model input of the chain and select a model. The prompt and output parser work unchanged.
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