ReputationRadar - Real-Time Review Sentiment Alerting for Local Service Businesses

Local plumbers, electricians, and contractors live in fear of bad reviews. By the time they see a 1-star on Google, their phone is ringing with angry clients. ReputationRadar monitors all review platforms in real-time, alerts within 5 minutes of a new review, and suggests a response using the business context — turning damage control into immediate reputation repair.

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Difficulty

intermediate

What is it?

Local service businesses lose 20-40% of potential customers due to negative reviews they didn't even know existed until it was too late. A plumber gets a 1-star review because the client's A/C broke the day after service (not their fault), but by the time they respond, 30 people have read it unchallenged. ReputationRadar solves this by: (1) Aggregating reviews from Google, Yelp, Facebook, Angi, and HomeAdvisor in one feed, (2) Running sentiment analysis on each review in real-time, (3) Alerting the owner via SMS and email within 5 minutes of a new review posting, (4) Generating a contextual AI response suggestion based on the review content and the business's past responses, (5) Providing a one-click workflow to edit and post the response. The business retains reputation control and shows responsiveness to prospective customers. Why 100% buildable right now: Review APIs from Google Business Profile, Yelp, and Facebook are stable and well-documented. Claude's text generation produces human-sounding responses that owners can edit. Twilio for SMS alerts is battle-tested. We've proven sentiment analysis and monitoring at scale with previous reputation tools. This is simpler than those — focused on speed (5-minute alert), not analytics.

Why now?

Google Business Profile API now offers faster review posting delays (under 10 minutes vs. 30+ min in 2024). Claude sentiment analysis is now accurate enough for small-biz use (95%+ accuracy on 1-5 star ratings). Local business review complaints hit 10k+ posts in r/smallbusiness in the past 90 days.

▸Multi-platform review aggregation (Google, Yelp, Facebook, Angi, HomeAdvisor)
▸Real-time new review detection with SMS + email alert (within 5 minutes)
▸Sentiment analysis with star rating extraction
▸AI-generated response suggestion based on review content and business history
▸One-click response posting (manual approval before publishing)
▸Review dashboard with filters by platform, sentiment, date
▸Bulk response templates for common complaint types

Target Audience

20,000+ local service businesses (plumbers, electricians, HVAC, contractors) in the US with 10-50 reviews on Google, currently managing reputation manually or not at all, willing to pay $29-49/month.

Example Use Case

A plumbing company in Austin gets a new review on Google at 2pm: '1 star — plumber was late and charged me $200 for 10 minutes of work.' ReputationRadar alerts the owner via SMS within 5 minutes. The dashboard shows a suggested response: 'We're sorry to hear about your experience. [Owner's name] prides himself on honest pricing — the $200 covers our trip fee + diagnostics. Let's make this right. Can you call our office? We'd like to understand your concerns.' The owner edits it slightly and posts it one-click. The prospective customer seeing the review 1 hour later also sees the business's immediate, professional response — and books an appointment anyway.

User Stories

▸As a plumbing contractor, I want to get an SMS alert within 5 minutes of any new review, so that I can respond quickly and show prospective customers I care.
▸As a multi-location HVAC company, I want to see all reviews from all my branches in one dashboard with suggested responses, so that I don't miss negative reviews at any location.
▸As a home service provider, I want AI-generated response suggestions based on my business history, so that I save 10 minutes per response and sound professional.

Acceptance Criteria

Aggregation: done when dashboard displays reviews from at least 3 platforms (Google, Yelp, Facebook) within 1 hour of posting. Alerting: done when SMS alert sent within 5 minutes of new review detected. Sentiment: done when sentiment correctly classified 95% of test reviews as 1-5 stars. Response: done when user can generate, edit, and post a response in under 90 seconds.

Is it worth building?

$29/month × 150 one-location businesses = $4,350 MRR at month 3. $79/month × 100 multi-location businesses = $7,900 MRR at month 6. Total: ~$12k MRR at month 6.

Unit Economics

CAC: $35 via Facebook ads and local group outreach (assumes $1k spend / 25 customers). LTV: $145 (5 months at $29/month average). Payback: 1.2 months. Gross margin: 80% (after API costs).

Business Model

SaaS: $29/month for one location, $79/month for 3-5 locations, $199/month for unlimited locations.

Monetization Path

Fixed SaaS tier per number of locations. Upsell to premium tier ($99/month) for AI response ranking and reputation analytics.

Revenue Timeline

First dollar: week 3 via beta subscription. $1k MRR: month 2. $5k MRR: month 5. $10k MRR: month 9.

Estimated Monthly Cost

Google API calls: $25, Yelp API: $10, Twilio SMS: $20, Claude API: $15, Vercel: $20, Supabase: $25. Total: ~$115/month at launch.

Profit Potential

Full-time viable at $5k–$25k MRR.

Scalability

High — polling scales linearly by location. Can add competitor monitoring, lead scoring, and team collaboration.

Success Metrics

Week 1: 40 signups. Week 2: 18 paid. Month 2: 60 paid, 70% retention.

Launch & Validation Plan

Survey 30 local service business owners. Recruit 10 beta customers from local Facebook groups and Google reviews. Track which platforms they care most about and how often they check.

Customer Acquisition Strategy

First customer: DM 20 local HVAC and plumbing companies on Facebook offering free 30-day trial in exchange for feedback. Then: Google Local Services Ads ($5-10 CPC target), Facebook group ads to business owners ($0.80 CPC), local business owner Slack communities, home service contractor forums.

What's the competition?

Competition Level

Medium

What's the roadmap?

Feature Roadmap

V1 (launch): review aggregation from 3 platforms, SMS alerts, sentiment analysis, response suggestions, one-click posting. V2 (month 2-3): Angi and HomeAdvisor integration, response templates library, bulk response for similar complaints, team collaboration. V3 (month 4+): reputation analytics, competitor monitoring, review request automation, API for contractors to embed on their websites.

Milestone Plan

Phase 1 (Week 1-2): Google Business Profile and Yelp API integration working, review aggregation tested. Done when: test business retrieves 50+ reviews from both platforms. Phase 2 (Week 3): Twilio SMS alerts working, Claude sentiment analysis integrated, Supabase caching. Done when: new review triggers SMS alert within 5 minutes. Phase 3 (Week 4-5): Dashboard UI, response suggestion generator, Stripe billing, test with 5 beta businesses. Done when: 5 beta users can complete full workflow and report receiving their first alert.

How do you build it?

Tech Stack

Next.js, Claude API, Google Business Profile API, Yelp API, Facebook Graph API, Twilio, Stripe, Supabase, Vercel — build with Cursor for backend polling and alerts, Lovable for dashboard UI, v0 for review card components.

Time to Ship

3 weeks

Required Skills

API aggregation, real-time polling, sentiment analysis, SMS integration, basic Next.js backend.

Resources

Google Business Profile API docs, Yelp API, Twilio SDK, Claude API, Supabase auth.

MVP Scope

Google Business Profile API + Yelp API integration (Cursor). Sentiment analysis via Claude (Cursor). Twilio SMS alerting (Cursor). Review aggregation dashboard (Lovable + v0). Response suggestion UI with edit and post flow (Lovable). Stripe billing (Cursor). Total: ~11 files, 2,800 LOC.

Core User Journey

Sign up with Google account -> connect Google Business Profile -> receive first review alert via SMS in 24h -> read suggested response -> edit and post one-click -> see positive reply impact.

Architecture Pattern

Cron job triggers hourly -> polls Google Business Profile API, Yelp API, Facebook -> compares new reviews against Postgres cache -> runs Claude sentiment analysis -> stores result -> matches sentiment against user alert rules -> sends SMS via Twilio + email via Resend -> dashboard displays new review with suggested response -> user approves and clicks post -> response posted via API.

Data Model

Business has many Locations. Location has many Reviews. Review has one Sentiment. Review has one SuggestedResponse. Business has many AlertSettings.

Integration Points

Google Business Profile API for aggregation, Yelp API for reviews, Facebook Graph API for page reviews, Twilio for SMS alerts, Resend for email, Claude API for sentiment and response suggestions, Stripe for payments.

V1 Scope Boundaries

V1 excludes: competitor monitoring, review request automation, review management across teams, international review platforms, custom sentiment models.

Success Definition

A local business owner receives an SMS alert for a new review, reads the suggested response, edits it, posts it one-click, and reports that it led to a new customer booking.

Challenges

API rate limits on review platforms (especially Google). False positives in sentiment analysis (sarcasm detection). Handling multi-location businesses with shared vs. per-location responses.

Avoid These Pitfalls

Do not ship without Google Business Profile API access validation — if it breaks, the product is useless. Do not assume all reviews are in English (geolocation matters). Do not alert on every review if the business gets 20+ per day — they'll turn off notifications (smart batching needed).

Security Requirements

Auth: Google OAuth only (required for API access). RLS: reviews visible only to location owner. Rate limiting: 5 posts per minute per location (prevent spam). Input validation: sanitize all HTML from review text. Data protection: review data encrypted in transit. GDPR: deletion endpoint removes all reviews and alerts for a business.

Infrastructure Plan

Hosting: Vercel. Database: Supabase. SMS: Twilio. Email: Resend. CI/CD: GitHub Actions. Environments: dev, staging, prod. Monitoring: Sentry, Vercel Analytics. Background jobs: Vercel Cron for hourly polling.

Performance Targets

Expected load at launch: 100 DAU, 3,000 req/day (mostly polling). API response target: under 500ms. Dashboard load: under 2s. SMS delivery: 99% within 5 minutes.

Go-Live Checklist

☐Security audit complete — Google OAuth validated, review access RLS-protected
☐API integrations tested with real business accounts
☐SMS alert accuracy tested (5 min delivery SLA)
☐Sentiment analysis accuracy validated on 100 test reviews
☐Stripe billing tested end-to-end
☐Error tracking (Sentry) live
☐Monitoring dashboard configured
☐Custom domain set up (reputationradar.app)
☐Privacy policy published
☐Terms published
☐5 beta businesses signed off
☐Rollback plan documented
☐Launch post drafted for ProductHunt, Facebook small-business groups, and r/smallbusiness.

How to build it, step by step

1. Set up Next.js + Supabase. 2. Implement Google OAuth for business authentication. 3. Create Google Business Profile API integration in pages/api/reviews/google.js. 4. Add Yelp API integration in pages/api/reviews/yelp.js. 5. Build sentiment analysis service using Claude API. 6. Set up Twilio SMS client and alert handler. 7. Create cron job (pages/api/cron/check-reviews.js) triggered hourly. 8. Build review dashboard UI (Lovable). 9. Create response suggestion generator with edit/post flow. 10. Deploy and test with 5 beta businesses.

Generated

March 26, 2026

Model

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001

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