Last updated: 6 October 2026
TL;DR
- Replying to a Google review within 24 hours is a hard requirement for many dealerships, because the manufacturer or importer (the brand) measures response time per location and often ties a bonus to the deadline.
- A dealer group should agree with the manufacturer in advance what counts as response time: seen, replied or resolved, and whether calendar days or working days apply.
- Between a customer posting a review and the manufacturer seeing your reply sit several delays that you do not control yourself.
- In Repmanager you set a response time SLA as a KPI target, choose the delay per reply rule, and let urgent negative reviews escalate straight away through Rep Shield.
Should you reply to a Google review within 24 hours?
For positive reviews, 24 hours is a good and achievable target. For complaints it matters even more, because an unhappy customer is waiting. At dealerships the deadline often comes from the manufacturer, who measures response time per location. What we see: deadlines of 24 to 48 hours, sometimes five days.
The market does not get there on its own. In Repmanager's Automotive Google Review Study 2026 of the 30 largest Dutch dealer groups, 46 percent of answered reviews got a reply within 24 hours. A five-star review got a reply at a median of 26 hours, a one-star review only after 48 hours. So the customer with a problem waits longest. That pattern is the response-time gap.
Google itself recommends replying to reviews to show that you value customer feedback (Google Business Profile Help). Google does not set a deadline. That comes from your customers and your manufacturer.
What actually counts as response time?
That is the question every marketing manager asks, and the answer differs per manufacturer. Does the clock stop when someone has seen the review, when a public reply is up, or when the complaint is resolved? And do calendar days or working days count? Agree it up front.
The classic doubt is the Friday evening review. With 48 hours in calendar days, a reply has to be up by Sunday evening. With working days you have until Tuesday. That difference decides whether someone has to keep an eye on things at the weekend, or a reply rule takes over.
What you need to show in an audit is covered in audit-proof review management. How response time and response rate relate as metrics is explained in response time and response rate as a growth metric.
Where does the time go?
Into a chain of small delays. The review appears, your review tool picks it up, a person or a rule replies, and the manufacturer's dashboard processes it later still. If you only look at your own response time, you miss part of that chain.
| Link in the chain | What happens | What you can do |
|---|---|---|
| Customer posts review | In practice Google often shows it only after 30 to 60 minutes | Nothing, allow for it |
| Review tool picks it up | The tool syncs on its own interval | Ask your supplier how often |
| Reply rule | The reply only goes out after the delay you set | Choose the delay deliberately |
| Person, for a complaint | Waits until the owner picks it up | One owner per review, notifications on |
| Manufacturer dashboard | Often runs up to a day behind | Do not compare hour by hour with your own figures |
| Edited review | Some manufacturers count it as a new review | Reply to it again |
That last one surprises many dealers. If a customer edits their review, it can count as unanswered again for the manufacturer. What happens then, and whether you may ask for an edit, is covered in can a customer change their review.
Is faster always better?
Not always. A reply within a minute to a five-star review posted at 2 a.m. looks automated. For a complaint, a fast but poor reply is worse than a good one a few hours later. Speed is the goal for positive reviews. For complaints, what counts is the right person, quickly.
Dealer groups make different choices here. Some set the delay to zero minutes because the manufacturer rewards speed, and accept that a reply at night looks automatic. Others choose an hour or two, or stick to office hours. One middle way we saw: a delay of a few minutes, so a branch manager who wants to reply personally does not end up posting a second reply alongside the reply rule.
Those double replies are a real pitfall. At one Dutch dealer group, dealerships kept replying directly in Google during the first weeks, alongside the reply rules. One internal email with a clear agreement stopped it, and the delay went to three minutes. Which reviews to answer automatically, and with what delay, is covered in which reviews to answer automatically.
How do you hit 24 hours on a complaint?
By getting the complaint to the right person the same day. That is not about typing speed but about process: one owner per review, a notification when a negative review comes in, and a fixed moment to check open reviews. Dealer groups that arrange this hit their deadline in busy weeks too.
In the Automotive Google Review Study 2026, the Dutch dealer groups that ran the process centrally had a median response time of 9 hours, against 39 hours for the rest of the Dutch market. Who picks up which review in your group is covered in who replies to which review in a dealer group.
How do you set this up in Repmanager?
You record the deadline as a target, let positive reviews run through a reply rule, and make sure complaints reach a person straight away. This is how dealer groups working with Repmanager, mostly in the Netherlands, usually do it.
- Under KPI targets, set the response time SLA in hours, in line with your manufacturer's deadline. You can override it per location.
- Create a reply rule for four and five stars and set the Delay in hours and minutes. It starts at two hours when you create a rule, so change it deliberately. More on automatic replies is on the feature page.
- In Rep Shield, switch on Escalate urgent negative reviews, with an email address or webhook as the notification target. Those reviews get no automatic reply.
- Under Notifications, switch on alerts for new incoming reviews and for open reviews assigned to you.
- In Reviews, check the Open too long view every day and give every complaint an Owner.
- Reply to a complaint with Generate with AI: you get a draft in your own tone that you edit before you click Send. That is how the AI reply generator works.
- On the Dashboard, follow average response time against your SLA and how many reviews were answered on time.
What usually goes wrong?
Managing on the average across all reviews. Quick thank-yous on five-star reviews pull the average up and hide that complaints sit too long.
No agreement about weekends. The Friday evening review waits until Monday, and the deadline has already passed.
Double replies. A dealership replies in Google itself while the reply rule is also running.
A promise in the reply. "We will call you within 24 hours" only works if someone works through that list every day.
Frequently asked questions
Does replying quickly affect your position in Google Maps?
Google names replying to reviews as good practice for your Business Profile, but does not give a deadline as a ranking rule. The strongest case for speed is the customer and the manufacturer, not the algorithm.
Should you still reply to an old review?
Usually, yes. A late reply beats no reply, especially for a complaint that still shows near the top. How to do that without it looking fake is in clearing a backlog of unanswered reviews.
Do you reply at weekends?
A reply rule can handle positive reviews. For complaints, agree who keeps an eye on things at the weekend, or agree working days with the manufacturer.
How long can the delay on a reply rule be?
You set it in hours and minutes. Common choices range from a few minutes to a few hours, within the deadline your manufacturer uses.
Ready to set it up?
Want to see how to meet your manufacturer's deadline per dealership, weekends included? In a 15-minute demo we show it with your own dealerships.
