Replying to customer reviews helps you build stronger relationships, demonstrate attentiveness, and turn feedback into growth opportunities. With Okendo, you can reply manually or use AI to generate natural, on-brand replies.
In this article, you will learn about;
Accessing the reply editor
The reply editor can be accessed in two ways.
Reviews > Moderation — locate the review and click Reply
Review details page — open via the Details button on the moderation page, or by selecting a review from the product page
From here, you can type your own reply or generate one using AI.
Replying to reviews
To reply to a review, type your response directly into the text box.
💡 A review reply can also serve as an internal note on the review. See the publishing states table below.
Response publishing states
Use the checkboxes to set the publishing state for your reply.
Visible to shoppers | Email a copy to the reviewer | Outcome |
✅ Selected | ✅ Selected | Reply is published on your storefront and admin panel, and emailed to the reviewer. |
✅ Selected | ⬜ Unselected | Reply is published on your storefront and admin panel. |
⬜ Unselected | ✅ Selected | Reply is emailed privately to the reviewer only. |
⬜ Unselected | ⬜ Unselected | Reply is saved in your admin panel only and not shared with customers. |
Click Save to publish the reply.
Replies not visible to shoppers display a padlock icon
in the admin panel.
Using AI to suggest replies
AI replies are trained on your past replies, adapting to your tone and making it faster to handle both positive feedback and sensitive situations like 1-star reviews.
AI replies are drafted based on:
The content of the customer's review
The language of the review (supports multilingual replies)
Your past replies to similarly rated reviews, to mirror your tone and structure
To generate an AI reply:
Open the reply editor for the review.
Click Suggest AI Reply.
Review the draft. Edit it directly or click Regenerate to produce a new version.
When you are happy with the reply, follow the same steps as replying manually to set the publishing state and save.
⚠️ There are no limits on how many versions you can generate. Once you regenerate a reply, the previous draft is discarded. There is no rollback.
Setting up automatic AI replies
⚠️ Auto Review Replies is available on Growth plans and above. To upgrade, go to Settings > Billing.
The Auto Review Replies feature automatically replies to new reviews using AI. Before enabling it, write several manual replies for positive, neutral, and negative reviews so the AI has examples of your tone and style.
To set up Auto Review Replies:
Navigate to Reviews > Settings > Replies.
Toggle on Enable Auto-Reply.
Set the Wait Time Before Replying.
Enable replies for each sentiment type you want the AI to respond to: positive, neutral, and negative.
For each sentiment, configure the Target Word Count, whether to Reply Privately, and whether to Email a Copy to the Reviewer.
Click Save.
Best practices for using AI replies
Start by writing several manual replies first. This gives the AI examples to learn your preferred tone and phrasing.
For negative reviews, consider adding an action step, such as inviting the customer to contact support or offering a resolution. AI can suggest these, but your input makes them feel genuine.
Use AI as a time-saver, not a replacement. Your personal touch builds trust.
Editing or deleting a reply
Locate the review with the reply you want to change.
Click Edit Reply.
To edit: update the text and click Save.
To delete: click Delete Reply.
Formatting your replies
You can format reply text using Markdown.
Italics:
*word*Bold:
**word**Links:
[link text](https://url.com)
For example, a link to Okendo:
[Okendo](https://www.okendo.io)
FAQs
Q: Are AI reply suggestions available on my plan?
A: Yes. AI reply suggestions are available on all Okendo plans by default.
Q: Which plan do I need for Auto Review Replies?
A: Auto Review Replies is available on Growth plans and above. To upgrade, go to Settings > Billing.
Q: Can I generate multiple AI reply suggestions for the same review?
A: Yes. Click Regenerate to produce as many alternative drafts as you need before publishing.
Q: Can AI reply suggestions mention product names?
A: Not always. If the review mentions a product, AI may include it, but you can edit the draft to add more detail.
Q: Can Auto Review Replies be published without my approval?
A: Yes, if Auto Review Replies is enabled. If it is off, you need to click Suggest AI Reply manually and publish the draft yourself.
Q: Do AI replies work across different languages?
A: Yes. AI generates replies in the same language as the customer's review, for both manual suggestions and Auto Review Replies.
Q: Does Auto Review Replies learn from its own generated replies?
A: No. The AI learns only from human-written replies. Automatically generated replies are not used for training, so quality does not degrade over time.
Q: An Auto Review Reply was posted that I am unhappy with. Can I remove or edit it?
A: Yes. Edit or remove it from your moderation queue. To prevent similar replies, update your reference examples to better reflect your preferred style, or disable automation for that sentiment type while you refine your setup.
Q: How does Auto Review Replies determine which reviews to respond to?
A: Sentiment is based on the review body text for supported languages. For unsupported languages, the star rating is used: 1-2 stars = negative, 3 stars = neutral, 4-5 stars = positive.
Q: How many past replies does the AI use when generating a response?
A: The last 6 replies per sentiment type. If no replies exist for a sentiment, the most recent replies across all types are used as a fallback.