Customer Review Analyzer — Podium Alternative

Analyze Google Maps reviews or review records you supply. Return one action plan per review with priority, issue themes, response status, source details, and an editable reply draft for human approval. For local-business operators, each dataset row is one review action plan with a priority and editable reply draft.

Workflow: put the results to work

Select a known business or supply authorized review records. Review the issue themes and priority queue, edit the proposed replies, and approve responses in your chosen publishing system. The Actor prepares review work; it does not send customer messages or publish replies.

What one result means

One dataset item represents one source review selected for a human follow-up queue. The item preserves the candidate action and source evidence; a human-operated system controls every customer contact, published reply, and transaction.

Field	Meaning
priority	Deterministic urgent, high, or normal human-review priority from rating and response status.
responseStatus	needs_reply, already_responded, or no_text; it reports the observed source state.
issueThemes	Simple keyword themes from source text, separate from model-generated sentiment or a diagnosis.
responseDraft	An editable, deterministic suggestion that must be reviewed before use.
sourceUrl, sourceCollectedAt, retrievedAt	Provenance and freshness fields for the source observation and this Actor's work.

Quick start

The Google Maps mode starts from one precise business name and location. It collects only public review data with reviewer profile fields disabled, then produces an action-plan row for each selected review.

{
  "sourceMode": "googleMaps",
  "businessName": "Joe's Pizza",
  "location": "New York, NY",
  "countryCode": "US",
  "maxReviews": 10,
  "analysisScope": "needsReply",
  "responseTone": "warmProfessional"
}

If you already hold authorized records, use the caller-provided route instead:

{
  "sourceMode": "providedReviews",
  "businessName": "Example Bakery",
  "maxReviews": 2,
  "analysisScope": "all",
  "responseTone": "concise",
  "providedReviews": [
    {
      "reviewId": "review-001",
      "rating": 2,
      "text": "The staff was rude and the wait was slow.",
      "sourceUrl": "https://example.com/reviews/review-001"
    },
    {
      "reviewId": "review-002",
      "rating": 5,
      "text": "Great service.",
      "ownerResponse": "Thank you for visiting!",
      "sourceUrl": "https://example.com/reviews/review-002"
    }
  ]
}

Example output

{
  "reviewId": "review-001",
  "businessName": "Example Bakery",
  "rating": 2,
  "reviewText": "The staff was rude and the wait was slow.",
  "ownerResponse": null,
  "responseStatus": "needs_reply",
  "priority": "urgent",
  "issueThemes": ["service", "wait_time"],
  "responseDraft": "Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback about service and wait_time. We're sorry we missed the mark and would value the opportunity to learn more and make this right; please contact Example Bakery directly.",
  "responseGuidance": "Review and tailor this draft before sending or posting it. External sending and posting stay in your approved human-operated workflow.",
  "sourceUrl": "https://example.com/reviews/review-001",
  "sourceCollectedAt": null,
  "retrievedAt": "ISO-8601 timestamp",
  "dataSource": "caller-provided-review-records",
  "sourceRunId": null
}

How this bounded workflow compares with Podium

This independent Actor is a focused alternative for the public-review triage and reply-drafting step. It starts from a known Google Maps business or caller-supplied review records and returns one source-linked action-plan row per review. Podium remains the broader fit for its lead-conversion, private messaging, calling, booking, payments, team operations, customer database, and support workflows.

Decision	This Actor	Podium	Best fit
Scope	Read-only review queue and editable drafts	Broader local-business customer-journey platform	Use this Actor for bounded review operations; use Podium for its broader suite.
Billing	One persisted review-action-plan event plus platform usage	Current public pricing page is sales-led	Compare an exact workload before making a cost decision.
Starting point	One known Maps business or authorized review objects	Managed business workflow and product setup	Use this Actor for a small, defined input.
Output	Portable dataset rows with priority, themes, provenance, and draft status	Conversational and operational product workflows	Use this Actor when JSON/API output is the next step.
Operator efficiency	One bounded execution produces a batch of review action-plan rows for the next human review step	Broader operational customer journey	Use this Actor when the bounded output, rather than a full customer workspace, is the immediate need.
Automation	API-run batch with explicit terminal outcomes; no outbound side effects	Broader customer-journey automation	Use Podium when actions inside customer conversations are required.
Safety boundary	Never messages, posts, pays, books, or changes a profile	Those operations belong to a broader platform workflow	Keep a human approval step before any reply is sent.

Podium is a trademark of its owner. This independent Actor is not affiliated with, associated with, or endorsed by Podium.

API example

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('khadinakbar/podium-alternative').call({
  sourceMode: 'googleMaps',
  businessName: "Joe's Pizza",
  location: 'New York, NY',
  countryCode: 'US',
  maxReviews: 10,
  analysisScope: 'needsReply',
  responseTone: 'warmProfessional',
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems({ clean: true });
console.log(items);

Use with AI agents and MCP

MCP-ready agent prompt card:

Create a read-only review follow-up queue for this known local business. Return the highest-priority unanswered reviews with rating, source URL, response status, issue themes, and editable reply drafts. Keep customer communication and publishing in a human-approved workflow.

The Actor returns source-linked dataset records and a compact OUTPUT terminal contract. COMPLETE, PARTIAL, VALID_EMPTY, and INVALID_INPUT are successful transport outcomes; UPSTREAM_FAILED records a source interruption before useful action-plan rows exist. When the result is capped, retrieve additional rows from the default dataset or start another bounded request.

Best results and workflow guidance

• Start with an exact business name and city or country; broad category queries can resolve the wrong place.
• Keep maxReviews at 10 for a first source run, then increase only after reviewing costs and output quality.
• The draft is deterministic template text rather than a model judgment, and review text functions only as a keyword-classification input.
• Public review text can include personal information written by the reviewer. Keep processing aligned with your documented purpose, and keep reviewer profile data outside this workflow.
• Historical deltas, review invitations, contact management, private-account connections, and full customer-engagement operations belong in adjacent systems.

Responsible use

Use public review data or review records you are authorized to process. Review source terms, privacy obligations, and your internal approval policy before using a draft. This Actor keeps external communications and account changes in a human-operated system.

Builder's note

I designed the Google Maps source route to keep reviewer profile fields disabled while preserving a source-operation reference when available. I built the action-plan layer to validate every output row before persistence and billing, so an incomplete source record produces a diagnostic rather than a thin, invented result.

Pricing and run costs

This Actor uses Pay per event plus Apify platform usage. The Pricing tab lists the current event rates and billing terms.

Event	Billing unit	When it applies
apify-actor-start	Actor Start	Charged when the Actor starts running. Number of events charged depends on Actor memory (one event per GB, minimum one event).
review-action-plan	Review action plan	Charged only when one validated review-action-plan row with priority, issue themes, provenance, and an editable draft is persisted.

Run cost combines the charged events and Apify platform usage. Review the run charge limit and requested result count before starting.

Connect an AI agent

Use the Apify MCP configurator to choose an available client connection. Inspect this Actor’s current input schema and required credentials before running it.