Social Inbox

Google Reviews brings the reviews from your Google Business Profile into Dealersip, so your team reads and answers them in the same place they work all day. From this one tab you can:

• read every review your business has received, with the star rating and the reviewer’s name and photo;
• reply to a review, edit that reply, or delete it — the reply is posted straight to your Google Business page;
• have the software write the reply for you with Write with AI;
• pick which reviews appear on your website;
• share a ready-made review link and a printable QR code, and let every sale ask the buyer for a review by itself.

Before any of this works, your Google Business Profile must be connected. That is a one-time setup done under Marketing → Integrations — see Connecting to Business Profile. Until it is connected this tab stays empty.

Reading your reviews

Go to Marketing → Social Inbox. The screen opens on the Google Reviews tab, split in two: the reviews on the left, the review-collection tools on the right.

The rating summary

Above the list sits your overall score: your average rating as a large number with the same rating repeated as stars underneath, the total number of reviews your business has on Google, and a Summary block with one bar per star level, from 5 down to 1, showing how your reviews are spread across the five levels.

Filtering by star rating

Across the top of the list is Filter by: with a checkbox for each rating — 1 Star, 2 Stars, 3 Stars, 4 Stars and 5 Stars.

• Tick one or more boxes to see only those ratings. Ticking 1 Star and 2 Stars together, for example, is the quickest way to find the unhappy customers who still need an answer.
• With nothing ticked, every review is listed.
• If no review matches, the list reads No reviews found!

Reviews are always listed newest first.

What each review shows

Every review is a card with the reviewer’s Google profile photo and their star rating on the left, and on the right:

• the reviewer’s name;
• the review text — when someone rates you without writing anything, the card says This user did not leave any comments. instead;
• the date and time the review was posted, in your dealership’s local time;
• a Visible on Website / Hidden switch;
• a Reply button — or, if you have already answered, your reply, the line Replied by <name> on <date>, and the Edit and Delete buttons.

Where a reply was posted directly on Google rather than through Dealersip, the replier is shown as Owner.

When the list is empty

A brand-new connection shows No reviews yet, with two possible reasons: the profile was only just connected — click Refresh to fetch the latest data — or your business has not received any reviews yet.

Keeping reviews up to date

Dealersip fetches reviews from Google on its own every two hours, starting as soon as the profile and location are connected. You do not have to do anything to keep the list current.

When a new review arrives, everyone with access to the Social Inbox gets an in-app notification — You got a new review on Google Maps! Click here to respond and make an impression. — and an email titled You’ve Got a New Review! with a link to the Social Inbox. Anyone with the screen already open sees the list refresh by itself.

Refreshing by hand

To pull reviews immediately rather than wait for the next two-hourly run, click Refresh in the toolbar at the top right of the Social Inbox screen. The software answers Hang tight! Your refresh request is being processed. — the fetch runs in the background, so give it a moment and then reload the list.

You can ask Google for an update once every 15 minutes. Click Refresh again too soon and you get Reviews were last refreshed at 10:42 AM. You can request an update from Google once every 15 minutes.

Each sync also picks up replies you posted on Google itself, so the two stay in step.

Replying to a review

A reply posted here goes straight onto your Google Business page under that review, where the public can see it.

1. Find the review and click Reply at the bottom right of its card. A reply box opens inside the card.
2. Type your reply in the Reply box.
3. Click Save.

The reply is posted to Google and the card redraws to show it, along with Replied by <your name> on <date>. The confirmation reads Review reply has been successfully posted.

Points to know:

• The reply cannot be blank — the software stops you with Reply cannot be empty.
• Cancel closes the reply box and throws away what you typed. Nothing is sent to Google.
• Only one reply box is open at a time. Open a reply on a second review and the first box closes on its own, taking anything you had typed there with it. Finish and save one reply before starting the next.

Editing a reply

Click Edit on a review you have already answered, change the text, and click Save. Google keeps one reply per review, so saving again replaces what was there.

Deleting a reply

Click Delete on the reply. The software asks This reply will be permanently deleted from Google business page and from Dealersip. Do you want to continue? Click OK and the reply is removed from your Google page as well as from Dealersip. The card goes back to showing a Reply button.

If something goes wrong

Because the reply travels to Google, two things can fail independently:

• Error occurred while updating reply on Google business page. — Google refused the reply and nothing changed. Try again.
• This reply has been updated on Google but was not updated in Dealersip. Please create a support request for this. — the public reply went through, but Dealersip’s copy did not update, so the card may look wrong until the next sync. Raise a support request with the error code shown.

Write with AI

Rather than composing every reply yourself, let the software draft it.

1. Open the reply box on a review (Reply, or Edit on a review you have already answered).
2. Click Write with AI, the blue link at the top right of the Reply box.
3. The software shows Please wait, this may take a minute or two... while it writes.
4. The suggested reply appears in the Reply box.
5. Read it, edit it to sound like your dealership, then click Save. Nothing is sent to Google until you press Save.

What the suggestion is based on: your dealership’s registered name, the kind of vehicles you sell, the star rating the customer gave, and the comment they left (if any). The result is a single plain-text paragraph with no greeting or sign-off, ready to use as it is.

If the draft cannot be produced you will see Failed to generate reply with AI. Please create a support ticket.

Showing reviews on your website

Every review card carries a switch that reads Hidden or Visible on Website.

• Click the switch to show that review on your website; click it again to take it down. The change saves straight away — there is no separate save button — and the label changes to match.
• New reviews arrive hidden. Nothing is published to your website until someone turns it on, so a poor review never appears on your site by accident.
• Your website shows the 20 most recent reviews you have switched on, newest first.

If the reviews do not appear on your website

Publishing happens through the Google Reviews plug-in on your dealership website. Where the website has that plug-in, the reviews you switch on are published to it; where it does not, nothing appears no matter how many reviews you switch on. If you have switched reviews on and still cannot see them on your site, contact your web developer or your account manager and ask for the Google Reviews plug-in to be set up on your website.

Getting more reviews

The right-hand side of the tab is headed Boost your credibility with more reviews! The first time you open the screen it reads Generating unique Google link to collect reviews... for a moment while the software fetches your link from Google.

Not having enough reviews can hurt your business. Reviews build trust, boost your visibility on Google, and influence new customers.

Your review link

Your unique Google review link is the direct link to your business’s review form on Google — a customer who opens it lands straight on the star-rating box, with nothing to search for.

Click the clipboard icon beside the link to copy it, then paste it into a follow-up SMS, an email signature, an invoice, or a thank-you message after delivery. The software confirms with Copied to Clipboard. If your browser blocks the copy you will see Cannot copy to the clipboard... — select the link text and copy it yourself.

Your QR code

Underneath is a QR code for the same link. Click Download QR Code to save it as an image, then print it and place it around your dealership — the showroom, the waiting area, the service desk, even inside a delivered vehicle. A customer scans it with their phone camera and the review form opens. Every scan counts.

If the link could not be generated you will see Failed generating "Ask for Review" link. — check under Marketing → Integrations that the profile and location are still connected.

Asking every buyer, automatically

Connecting your Google Business Profile also switches on the feedback request that goes out after a sale. Dealersip emails the buyer asking them to review your dealership on Google, and that email carries the same review link — so every vehicle you sell becomes a chance at another review, without anyone having to remember to ask.

You decide this sale by sale, while you are entering it. In the Buyer section of the sale entry screen sits a Feedback Request list with two choices: Send Feedback Request on Save, or Do not send Feedback Request.

Asking for the request does not email the buyer on the spot — it is queued and goes out the next morning, and the sale card on Manage Sales shows a Queued, Review Request Pending or Review Requested badge so you can see at a glance which customers have been asked. You can also send any request immediately from the sale card.

For the full detail — the badges, sending immediately, what has to be in place, and what the customer receives — see Sending Feedback Request to Customer.

Who can see this tab

The Social Inbox is permission-controlled. Administrators always have access; any other user needs to be given access to Social Inbox by an administrator under Admin → Users. The same list decides who receives the new-review notification and email, so someone who should be answering reviews but never hears about them is usually missing this permission.

This section displays comments received on your Facebook posts.

Similar to Google Reviews, you can:

• Reply to comments.
• Manage your replies.

Converting Users to Leads: Click on the Convert to Lead link below the comment text to directly convert users into leads.

The Contact Us tab collects the enquiries visitors send through the Contact Us page on your website, so a website enquiry lands in the same place as your reviews and Facebook comments instead of an inbox somebody forgets to check. Go to Marketing → Social Inbox and open the Contact Us tab, which carries the reminder This section displays enquiries submitted through the Contact Us page on your website.

When someone submits the form, everyone with Social Inbox access is notified in the software and by email, so the enquiry can be answered while the visitor is still interested.

What each enquiry shows

Enquiries are listed newest first. Each one shows the visitor’s name, the date and time they wrote, their phone and email, and their message in full.

An enquiry that has already been turned into a lead carries a green Lead badge beside the name.

Turning an enquiry into a lead

Click Convert to Lead on the right of the enquiry. The lead form opens with the visitor’s details already filled in — name, email, phone, their message as the description, and the lead source set to your website — so you only add what you know and save.

Once saved, the enquiry gains its Lead badge and the button becomes View Lead. Click View Lead at any time to open the lead itself on the Leads screen, which is how you find out which lead came from which enquiry.

When there are no enquiries yet

Until your first submission arrives the tab suggests promoting your website more widely — include the address in your email signatures and marketing campaigns, put a QR code on company vehicles, and place large, visible QR codes at the entrance of your showroom. Consistent promotion brings more visitors to the site, and more of them to this tab.