This article walks through the steps to set up review monitoring and response in Yext. If you are setting up Review Generation at the same time, complete this article first, then continue to Get Started with Review Generation.

Step 1: Assign Licenses

Reviews only pull in after you assign licenses to entities. Assign licenses from the Ultimate package, Professional package, Review Monitoring add-on, Review Response add-on, or Review Generation add-on depending on what your account includes.

You can assign licenses in two ways:

• Automatically, based on a saved filter: see Automatically Assign Licenses to Entities with a Saved Filter
• Manually, on an individual or bulk basis: see Assign Licenses and Feature Packs to Entities

To check whether an entity already has a license, navigate to Knowledge Graph > Entities and check the Subscriptions column. Entities with an active license display the license name. Entities without a license leave the column empty.

Step 2: Configure Optional Monitoring Settings

The following settings are not required but are worth reviewing before reviews start coming in.

Set up brand-level review monitoring. If you want to monitor reviews for your brand as a whole — such as reviews on the Google Play Store, Apple App Store, Indeed, or Glassdoor — you can set up a Brand entity in addition to your location entities. See Set Up Review Monitoring for Your Brand for steps.

Create notifications. Notifications alert you when reviews matching specific criteria come in, for example, all reviews with three stars or fewer. Notifications are most useful for people who need to act quickly on specific review types, such as a regional manager watching for escalation-worthy reviews. See Monitor and Filter Reviews for steps.

Configure deleted review behavior. By default, third-party reviews deleted from a publisher remain in Yext with a status of Removed. You can change this so deleted reviews are permanently removed from the platform instead. See Configure Behavior for Deleted Reviews for steps.

Configure HIPAA settings. If you manage healthcare entities, you can choose to omit personally identifiable information from reviews or remove reviews containing PHI entirely. See Manage HIPAA Privacy Settings for Reviews for steps.

Set up Booking.com review monitoring. If you manage hotel entities and want to monitor Booking.com reviews, you need to link your Booking.com account separately. See Manage Booking.com Reviews for steps.

Step 3: Determine Your Review Response Strategy

Before reviews start coming in, decide how your team will handle them. A clear strategy makes the setup in the next step much faster.

Prioritize by Review Type

Not all reviews need the same level of attention. Respond in this order:

1. Reviews with three or fewer stars and significant content: these are your highest priority. Customers who take the time to explain a negative experience expect a response, and a thoughtful reply can recover the relationship and sometimes prompt the customer to update their review.
2. Four- and five-star reviews with significant content: thank customers for specific feedback and reinforce what is working well. These customers are your advocates — acknowledging them keeps them coming back.
3. Reviews with no content: these can usually be handled automatically with a pre-written response, freeing your team to focus on reviews that need a personal touch.
4. Four- and five-star reviews with minimal content: lowest priority. A brief acknowledgment is sufficient, and automatic responses work well here too.

Target responding to at least 50% of reviews on key publishers: Google, Facebook, Yelp, TripAdvisor, Trustpilot, and first-party. Once your program is running smoothly, work toward responding to all or nearly all reviews.

Choose Your Response Tools

Yext provides several ways to respond to reviews. Your strategy should specify which tool to use for which review type:

• Freeform text: write a response manually for reviews that need a personal, specific reply
• Review response assets: pre-written complete responses, best for reviews with little or no content where a generic acknowledgment is appropriate
• Templated review response: modular templates for each component of a response (greeting, value statement, sentiment keyword, closing), assembled dynamically based on review content; best for reviews with content where you want personalization at scale
• Generative review response: AI-drafted responses that you can edit before posting; useful for reviews with content where you want speed without sacrificing personalization

Recommended Strategy

Use this table as a starting point and adapt it to your brand's structure and resources:

Decide on Workflows

Workflow rules check incoming reviews against criteria and route them to the right response process automatically. Before configuring them, think through the following:

• How many people will be involved in responding to reviews?
• Should different review types go to different people or teams?
• Do any responses require approval before posting?
• Which review types should be handled automatically?

Step 4: Set Up Labels, Users, and Response Templates

Set up Review Labels

Review labels categorize incoming reviews so the right people see the right reviews. Common uses include marking reviews that need escalation, assigning reviews to specific team members, or grouping reviews by topic for analysis. You can apply labels manually or create labeling rules that apply them automatically based on criteria like star rating, review content, or publisher. See Review Labels for steps.

Set up Users

Add users to your Yext account with the appropriate permissions for their role. Access has two components: scope (which entities a user can act on) and role (what actions they can take).

Built-in roles relevant to reviews:

• Full Control or Account Manager: can approve reviews and responses
• Reviews Only: can approve reviews and responses without access to other product areas
• Content Requester or Customer Care Requester: can suggest responses that require approval before posting

See Add a New User for steps.

If multiple users will be responding to reviews for the same entities, consider whether you need user groups for notifications. See Create a User Group for steps.

Set up Response Templates

Set up the templates your workflow rules will use before configuring the rules themselves.

• For automatic responses: create review response assets in Knowledge Graph > Assets. Select Reviews > Review Response as the usage. See Review Response Assets for steps.
• For templated responses: create assets for each component in Reviews > Configuration > Templated Response. See Templated Review Response for steps.
• For generative responses: add instructions in Reviews > Configuration > Generative Response to guide the AI model. Instructions are optional but improve response quality. See Generative Review Response for steps.

Configure Workflow Rules

After labels, users, and templates are in place, create workflow rules in Inbox > Workflow Management. Each rule specifies criteria for incoming reviews and what happens when a review matches. See Create Workflow Rules for Review Response for steps.

Step 5: Take Action on Reviews

With setup complete, your ongoing work happens across three screens depending on your role and what you are trying to do:

• Inbox > My Tasks: your primary working view if your account uses workflow rules. Reviews assigned to you appear here. Filter for Type = Review Response to focus on review tasks.
• Reviews > Response: all reviews awaiting a response, regardless of whether they have been assigned. Use this as a to-do list when you want to work through unanswered reviews without filtering by assignee.
• Reviews > Monitoring: all reviews for all entities, including ones already responded to. Use this for a broad view of incoming reviews, to apply advanced filters, and to take actions like exporting, sharing, or labeling reviews in bulk.

When a review is assigned to you, respond using whichever tool fits best: freeform text for reviews that need a personal reply, response assets or templated response for reviews with little content, or generative response as a starting point you can refine. See Respond to Reviews for step-by-step instructions.

For a deeper look at how your reviews program is performing, see Reviews Insights Screen, Reviews Summary Dashboard, and Sentiment Analysis.