When you run two, five, or ten locations, Google reviews quickly become a headache. Each location has its own listing, its own rating, its own customers. Without a method, some listings overflow with comments while others stay silent. Here's how to manage Google reviews across multiple locations and keep control.
One account, many listings: the foundation
It all starts with your Google Business Profile account. You can group every location under one manager profile. Each location stays a distinct listing, but you see them in one place.
For networks over ten locations, Google offers business group management. That lets you invite local managers while keeping an overview at head office.
The habit to build: name a review lead per location, and a central coordinator who watches the whole.
Reply fast, everywhere
A quick reply to a review sends a clear signal: you're present. The challenge with several listings is letting nothing slip.
A few simple rules help:
- Turn on email notifications for each listing.
- Aim to reply within 48 hours, good comment or bad.
- Prepare a few reply templates, but personalize every message. A customer spots a copy-paste from a mile away.
For a business with several locations, a short internal guide on tone and phrasing keeps everyone aligned, without flattening it into something that sounds fake.
Compare your locations without getting discouraged
The upside of multi-location is being able to compare. If one store collects far more reviews than another, it's no accident. Often it's the team on-site that remembers to invite customers.
Look each month at: number of new reviews, average rating, recurring themes. A location that keeps getting the same remark is telling you something concrete to fix.
Make collection easy on the floor
The real bottleneck isn't management: it's getting reviews in the first place. Asking a customer to search for your listing is already too many steps.
This is where a review plate on the counter changes the game. It's also known as a review plate, review card, review stand, or review sign. The customer taps their phone or scans the code, and the Google review page for that exact location opens in one gesture. Each store has its own plate, tied to its own listing. No confusion between locations.
A practical note for a network: Braavu has one plate per goal, each with its own design. For Google reviews, it's the green plate that points straight to your listing. And if a location also wants to push its booking, its Instagram, or its menu, the link-in-bio plate gathers all those links into one tap. You choose the plate based on what you're after at each location.
Centralize the tracking
Keep a simple dashboard, even just a shared file. One row per location, updated monthly. You see at a glance who's advancing, who's stalling, and where to focus your effort.
That overview turns a scattered chore into a clear routine. Your local managers keep their autonomy, and you keep the big picture.
Bottom line: Managing reviews across multiple locations comes down to three things: a central account that groups your listings, a fast reply everywhere, and easy collection on-site. One Google review plate per location simplifies that last link.