How Firstcliq works, in detail
The homepage shows the path a review takes. This page answers the questions that path raises — how long a hold really lasts, how rank is measured, and where unhappy feedback goes.
How does it know what a review is about?
A single model call at the moment a review is polled returns four things at once: sentiment, a confidence score, up to three topics from a fixed list of twelve, and the language it was written in. Temperature is set to zero, so the same review always classifies the same way.
“Lovely spot, but we waited 25 minutes for a table we had booked. Staff were apologetic and the food made up for it.”
One call returns four things
Sentiment
neutral
Confidence
0.82
Topics
3 found
Language
English
Twelve fixed topics — never free text
If that call fails
Sentiment falls back to the star rating — four and above positive, three neutral, below three negative — and topics come back empty. The review still gets handled. The product degrades rather than stopping.
Temperature is set to zero, so the same review always classifies the same way. Sentiment and topics appear as chips on your reviews list.
What you control
- Nothing — this runs automatically on every review
- What you see: sentiment and topics appear as chips on your reviews list
How do reply templates work?
Each language gets ten boxes — one per star rating, with and without a written comment — because a five-star review with a paragraph attached and a bare five-star rating need genuinely different replies. Leaving a box empty is a deliberate choice: in Template mode that review is held for you, in Hybrid the AI writes it from scratch.
An empty box in Template mode
That review is held for your manual reply. Template mode never writes anything on its own.
An empty box in Hybrid mode
The AI writes that one from scratch — it does not need a template to work from.
Ten scenarios per language, because a 5★ with a written comment and a bare 5★ rating need genuinely different replies. A second language is a separate complete set, not a translation of the first.
What you control
- Your exact wording for all ten scenarios
- A second language with its own complete set, not a translation
- Which boxes to leave empty, and therefore which reviews come to you
What happens to a review in another language?
Firstcliq detects the language a review was written in and can reply in it, including right-to-left languages. You set a primary and optional secondary language per location; anything outside those follows a rule you choose — reply anyway in the reviewer's language, or hold it and email your alert recipients.
A review arrives. What language is it in?
Reply anyway
The AI answers in whatever language they wrote in, right-to-left included.
Hold and alert
Held with the reason unlisted_language, and your alert recipients are emailed.
There is no fixed list of supported languages — the model handles what it is given. The setting is a policy choice, not a capability limit. Template mode is the exception: a language with no templates is always held, because there is nothing to send.
What you control
- Primary and secondary language, per location
- What happens to any other language: reply anyway, or hold and alert
- Who receives the alert when one is held
What happens when a bad review comes in?
A review rated 1 or 2 stars is never auto-replied. Firstcliq holds it for a window you choose, reminds you at the halfway point and again two hours before it expires, and if it does expire it takes only the fallback action you set in advance — including doing nothing at all.
48h — the hold expires. It does only what you told it to.
Three options, set per location:
Keep holding
Nothing posts. It waits until you deal with it.
Post your template
Your saved wording for that rating goes up.
Post the AI draft
The reply Firstcliq prepared goes up as written.
48 hours is the default. You can also set immediate, 24h, 72h, or fully manual — in which case nothing is ever posted without you.
What you control
- Hold window: immediate, 24h, 48h, 72h, or fully manual
- Who receives the escalation alert, beyond the account email
- The fallback: keep holding, post your template, or post the AI draft
What if Google rejects the reply?
The failure is recorded against that review along with Google's own error message, and the job moves on. There is no automatic retry and no email — the recovery path is replying manually from your dashboard, where the review is still waiting with the error attached.
Reply is sent to Google
Google rejects it
The recovery path is a manual reply
The review stays in your dashboard with the error attached, so you can see what Google objected to and answer it yourself.
Rejections are rare, and usually mean the profile connection has lapsed or Google has flagged the content. We would rather say this plainly than claim an automatic retry that does not exist.
What you control
- Whether to reply manually once you see the error
- Reconnecting the profile if the rejection was an expired connection
How is Google Maps ranking actually measured?
Firstcliq checks where your business appears in Google's local map results for a specific search phrase, searched from a specific area — because the same keyword returns a different order depending on where the person searching is. Positions refresh every 30 days.
One keyword. Two places. Two different answers.
That is why one keyword can use two slots.
A slot is one keyword paired with one search area. Tracking the same phrase from two districts is two slots, because the answer genuinely differs.
Slots are pooled across your whole account — 20 on Starter, 50 on Professional, 100 on Agency — so you spend them wherever they matter, not evenly per location.
What you control
- The phrase you want to track
- The area it is searched from, which does not have to be your own
- Which locations get which keywords — slots are pooled across the account
Where do competitor and performance numbers come from?
Competitor ratings and review counts come from Google's Places API, and performance figures from Google's Business Profile Performance API. Both are limited by what Google exposes — competitor review text and visit numbers are not available at any price, and photo views and the discovery-versus-direct search split were retired with Google's old v4 API and have no equivalent today.
What Google gives us
What nobody can give you
Performance figures run two to three days behind, and Google revises them after publishing — so a rolling month is re-read nightly rather than each day being stored once. A number recorded Tuesday may be corrected by Thursday.
What you control
- Which competitors you track, by business type or by name
- Which month of performance data you are looking at
- Whether a report is generated for a client, carrying your brand
How does scheduling Google posts work?
You write an update, event or offer once, pick the locations it should go to, and one post is created for each of them separately — so a failure at one location does not affect the others. Updates stay visible for six months; events and offers run for the dates you set.
Midweek blow-dry offer — 20% off Tuesday to Thursday through September.
Written once
Marina Hair Studio
Posted separately
Business Bay
Posted separately
JBR Walk
Posted separately
One post is created per location you pick, so a failure at one does not affect the others.
Ten posts a month on Starter, thirty on Professional, unlimited on Agency. Updates stay visible for six months; events and offers run for the dates you set.
What you control
- Post type: update, event, or offer
- Which locations it goes to, and when it publishes
- An optional image, and a button linking wherever you choose
What is the profile health score out of?
One hundred, split into two halves: 55 points for how complete your Google Business Profile is, and 45 points for how actively it is being worked. Reply rate is the single heaviest check at 25 points, so the score moves when you actually use the product rather than only when you fill in a field.
Profile
55 pointsDescription earns partial credit under 100 characters.
Activity
45 pointsProportional to your reply rate
Tapers over 7 / 30 / 90 days
Two a month earns full marks
Reply rate is the heaviest single check, deliberately.
It is the thing you are paying for, which means the score moves when you actually use the product.
Unverified or permanently closed listings are flagged rather than scored — those are not fixed by filling in a field. Every failing check names the specific fix and links to where it is done.
What you control
- Which failing checks you act on first — each names the specific fix
- Whether you fix it in Firstcliq (replies, posts) or on Google (hours, description, categories)
Who can see what?
Three roles. You see everything. A teammate sees only the locations assigned to their seat, and can optionally be hidden from other teammates' assignments. A client sees their own reviews read-only by default, with four permissions you switch on individually — and one client can never see another.
| Can they… | You | Teammate | Client |
|---|---|---|---|
| See every location | assigned only | ||
| See their own reviews | |||
| Edit reply templates | optional | ||
| See the review page | optional | ||
| Receive escalation alerts | optional | ||
| See competitor data | optional | ||
| Change billing or plan | |||
| Add or remove clients |
“Optional” means you decide per client. Clients are read-only by default, and one client can never see another. Teammates can also be hidden from each other's assignments — off by default.
What you control
- Which locations each teammate seat is assigned
- Whether teammates can see each other's assignments — off by default
- Four per-client toggles: edit templates, see review page, get alerts, see competitors
How does QR review collection work?
A customer scans your branded QR card and picks a rating. Four and five stars are sent straight to your Google profile with the review box open; one to three stars are routed to a private form that reaches your inbox instead, so you hear about the problem before the internet does.
Customer scans your QR card
“How was your visit?”
They pick a rating
4–5★
Sent straight to Google
One tap to your profile with the review box already open. The rating they picked carries over.
1–3★
Comes to you privately
A private form instead. It lands in your inbox, not on your profile, and you get a chance to fix it.
Anyone can still leave a public review directly on Google whenever they want — this only changes where your QR card sends them first.
What you control
- Your logo, wording and button colour on the page
- The page name — firstcliq.io/c/your-business
- Where private feedback is delivered
More of it is coming
Competitor tracking, Google posts scheduling and team permissions get the same treatment next. In the meantime, the free plan needs no card.