Last updated: 6 October 2026
TL;DR
- Review management in a dealer group differs from other sectors because the manufacturer or importer (the brand) scores dealerships on response time, response rate and rating per location, while one dealership often runs several Google Business Profiles.
- Dealer groups pick one of three role models: marketing answers everything centrally, a coordinator handles complaints, or the branch manager is first responder at each location.
- Most dealer groups let four- and five-star reviews be answered automatically and keep complaints, sensitive reviews and urgent negative reviews with a person.
- In Repmanager you set AI guidelines, reply rules, KPI targets and Rep Shield per organisation and per dealership, and the dashboard shows which location is falling behind.
What makes automotive reviews different from other sectors?
Three things: the manufacturer is watching, one dealer group manages dozens of Google Business Profiles, and the workshop generates a steady flow of reviews with its own kind of complaint. A restaurant answers reviews for its guests. A dealership also answers them for the manufacturer, who turns them into a KPI.
The manufacturer is the invisible client. Per dealership, the manufacturer measures how fast you reply, what share of reviews gets an answer and what rating you hold, and a bonus often depends on it. On top of that, a dealership selling two brands may run two profiles, each with its own tone of voice.
How big the gap in the market is shows in Repmanager's Automotive Google Review Study 2026. Across 204,976 reviews of the 30 largest Dutch dealer groups, 53.1 percent of complaints (one and two stars) went unanswered over the full review history. That is not unwillingness. It is a process problem: nobody knows exactly who picks up which review.
Who replies to which review?
That depends on the culture of the group. We see three models: marketing answers everything centrally, a customer satisfaction coordinator handles all negative reviews, or the branch manager is first responder while marketing owns the settings. All three work, as long as each review has one clear owner.
The three models and their trade-offs are set out in who replies to which review in a dealer group. A common frustration is that the decentralised model stalls because branch managers have no time for it. Why that happens, and what does work, is covered in why branch managers don't reply to reviews.
Which reviews should you answer automatically?
Almost every dealer group lets positive reviews be answered automatically and keeps complaints with a person. The cautious start is five stars without text only. The most common choice is all four- and five-star reviews automatically, with a fixed route for one to three stars to the right person.
Which option fits your group, and what delay to choose, is in which reviews to answer automatically. Automatic does not have to sound automatic. The signals customers use to spot an AI reply are listed in six signs your review reply was written by AI. How to set tone and salutation is explained in the guide to steering the AI in Repmanager.
What goes in a reply to a negative review?
Acknowledgement, an apology for the experience and one way to get in touch. Dealer groups do not admit fault in public and do not argue the details. The real conversation happens offline, with the branch manager, a staffed email address or the customer contact centre.
Which channel to choose, and what to promise or not, is covered in what contact details belong in a negative review reply. One practical lesson from the workshop: a one-star review saying "impossible to reach" is usually a call-back request that got lost. Making that call often fixes more than the best-written reply.
What does the manufacturer score you on?
Three things per dealership: how quickly you reply, what share of your reviews gets a reply, and your average rating. Exact standards differ by brand and contract. More and more often the manufacturer also asks, in an audit, how a complaint was resolved.
What those KPIs do to your review policy, and whether you may ask a customer for a top score, is covered in chasing a 4.7. What you need to show in an audit is in audit-proof review management.
Two questions usually follow. Why does a dealership score a 9 out of 10 internally and a 4.2 on Google? See internal score vs Google rating. And how many new positive reviews do you need to offset one bad one? That calculation is in how many positive reviews offset a negative one.
How do you start when there is already a backlog?
Not all at once. Clear the urgent complaints and problems first, then the past year, and meanwhile let new four- and five-star reviews be answered automatically. Do not post hundreds of replies in one night: it looks exactly like what it is.
The three-layer approach is in clearing a backlog of unanswered reviews. Watch out for edited reviews too: some manufacturers count an edited review as a new one that needs a fresh reply. What a customer can do with their review, and whether you may ask them to change it, is in can a customer change their review. What the manual work costs per location is worked out in the cost of answering reviews per dealership.
| Question | Short answer | Read more |
|---|---|---|
| Who replies? | Central, coordinator or dealership, one owner per review | Who replies to which review |
| What runs automatically? | Usually four and five stars, complaints with a person | Which reviews to answer automatically |
| What goes under a complaint? | Acknowledge, apologise for the experience, one channel | Contact details in a negative review reply |
| What does the manufacturer measure? | Response time, response rate, rating per dealership | Chasing a 4.7; audit-proof review management |
| How do you start? | Urgent first, then the past year, then the rest | Clearing a backlog |
What results do dealer groups show?
Mainly a stable response rate and time handed back to marketing. The figures below come from the public case pages of the dealer groups themselves.
Terwolde, a Dutch dealer group, manages 24 Google Business Profiles and went from a historical response rate of 73 percent to 97 percent over the past year and 100 percent in the most recent quarter, saving 2.5 hours of manual work a week (Terwolde case). Bochane Groep, another Dutch dealer group, receives 50 to 80 Google reviews a day and brought a backlog of more than 2,000 unanswered reviews back to zero (Bochane Groep case).
One lesson from the Terwolde case applies to any group: look at the past twelve months, not the all-time figure. An old number hides progress that has already happened.
How do you set this up in Repmanager?
Start at organisation level and only deviate per dealership where you have to. This is the order dealer groups working with Repmanager, mostly in the Netherlands, usually follow.
- Under Locations in the organisation settings, check that every dealership is listed and connected.
- Invite colleagues under Members and give each one an organisation role, or a location role if they should only see their own dealership.
- Set your targets under KPI targets: response rate, response time SLA and rating. You can override them per location.
- Fill in the AI guidelines for the entire organisation. A location with its own settings overrides the organisation, so only do that where it is really needed.
- In Rep Shield, switch on holding sensitive reviews and let urgent negative reviews escalate to a notification address.
- Create a reply rule for four and five stars. First use Generate with AI on a few real reviews to see how replies turn out: a new rule is active as soon as you create it.
- On the Dashboard, follow response rate, average response time and unanswered reviews per dealership.
What usually goes wrong?
Four mistakes come back in almost every dealer group, usually in the first weeks.
Dealerships still replying in Google directly. Then a review gets two replies. One internal email with a clear agreement usually fixes it.
Looking is not doing. A coordinator who does not open the tool for weeks. Book a fixed moment in the week, or give ownership to someone else.
One name under every dealership. A single central name under every reply raises suspicion. "Team [brand] [location]" is the safe default.
Managing on the all-time figure. If you only look at the number across all years, you will not see your own progress.
Frequently asked questions
Does this work for other review platforms too?
For Klanten Vertellen and Kiyoh, review platforms widely used in the Netherlands, yes. In Repmanager they arrive in the same reviews overview as Google, and you can filter by platform when you want to see them separately. Other platforms, such as Trustpilot, are not among the standard integrations.
Do dealers tell customers that AI helps write replies?
No. The reply follows the dealership's house style, and the dealer group sets it up and reads it. It remains their reply.
Why do negative reviews peak in certain months?
Those are the busiest workshop months. In our Dutch data, May and October stand out, with the seasonal tyre change among other things. More visits mean more reviews, and so more complaints. It is usually a volume effect, not worse service.
Does every dealership need its own tone?
Usually not. One tone for the group, with a signature and contact details per dealership, is the most common choice. Two brands at one location can be a reason for a separate tone per profile.
Ready to set it up?
Managing reviews for several dealerships and want to see what this looks like for your group? In a 15-minute demo we show it with your own dealerships.
