5-Star.AI for Individual Store Owners

This guide is for a store owner or operator using 5-Star.AI to manage one business location. It walks through the customer-review, feedback, and social workflows and explains what access you may need.

Access note: The current product uses an agency workspace and invitation model; it does not offer a separate self-serve individual store-owner account type. Your agency or workspace owner must provision your access and assign the store. If you are set up as an OWNER, you may have organization-wide controls; if you are a TEAM_MEMBER, your access is scoped to assigned businesses and features.

1. Get access to the right store

Accept the invitation from the agency or workspace owner and sign in.

Open Businesses and select the assigned, active business that matches your store. If it is missing, ask the OWNER to assign it; do not try another client’s business.

Check that the business name and address are correct before connecting Google or social accounts.

2. Understand your permissions

For each assigned business, a teammate can be granted NONE, VIEW, or MANAGE access to Campaigns, Review Inbox, Feedback, and Social Media. Analytics is NONE or VIEW only. VIEW is for reading; MANAGE is needed for the feature’s write actions.

An OWNER manages organization businesses, teams, and invitations; a TEAM_MEMBER cannot grant themselves more access.

Permissions are checked by the service. If a control is missing or an action is denied, ask the OWNER to check your business assignment and feature grant. Being able to open a page does not override the server’s permission check.

3. Set up your Google Business location

Open Review Inbox for your business and connect the Google account that has access to its Google Business Profile.

If asked to choose a location, select the exact store. If it is not listed, ask the OWNER to confirm Google access and the business/location setup.

Use Sync to bring eligible reviews into the inbox. Search or filter the list to find new reviews and replies that need attention.

4. Ask customers for feedback with a campaign

Open Campaigns and choose an existing campaign or create one if you have MANAGE permission.

Review the campaign’s wording and key points. Use QR Codes to copy its share link or download a QR code.

Share the link or display the QR for customers. Customers use a browser; they do not need a separate 5-Star.AI app.

The customer-facing page helps customers recall highlights, create and edit an AI-assisted draft, and copy it to Google. The customer chooses whether to submit the review; the app does not post it automatically.

5. Reply to public reviews

Open Review Inbox and review the customer’s rating and comment before responding.

Use an AI draft as a starting point if helpful. Check accuracy, tone, and privacy, and edit the text before publishing.

Use the publish action and confirm the final reply. AI replies are drafts; they are not sent automatically.

Read any sensitive-review or low-rating warning. Some replies require approval before they can be published.

6. Review private feedback

Use the Feedback tab to read feedback submitted through the business experience and coordinate a service-recovery response with your team. This is separate from the public Google review inbox.

7. Use Social Media

Open Social Media and choose the connected Facebook Page, Instagram account, or Threads profile intended for your business. If the right target is unavailable, ask the OWNER to refresh provider access or reconnect it.

Create a post with text and supported media, choose its destination, and publish now or schedule it if you have MANAGE access.

For eligible published posts, import public comments and reply from the reply desk.

Check the channel and target before publishing. Provider access, selected social target, and your app-user permissions are different controls.

8. Review your store’s results

Business Analytics summarizes review, feedback, and campaign activity for the business. Teammates need Analytics VIEW to see it; Analytics has no teammate MANAGE permission. Agency-level Insights are available to the workspace owner, not as an individual store control.

9. Usage limits and troubleshooting

App allowances belong to the business and have their own usage windows. Google or social-provider capacity is separate and may be shared across connected businesses. A low or exhausted provider capacity does not necessarily mean your business allowance is exhausted, and switching accounts does not reset usage.

Read the Usage & Social Publishing Guide for allowance windows, provider capacity, reservations, and social publishing requirements.

• If Google reviews do not appear, check that the correct business is selected, the right Google location is connected, and a sync completed.
• If a social destination is unavailable, verify the connected provider account and selected Page/profile with the OWNER before disconnecting anything.
• If an action is unavailable, check your per-business MANAGE permission. Ask the OWNER to make changes to teams, business status, or assignments.

10. What the app does—and does not do

It helps manage review campaigns, QR/share links, Google review replies, private feedback, business analytics, social posts, and public-comment replies.

It does not create a standalone individual-user workspace, automatically submit a customer’s Google review, automatically publish an AI reply, or replace the access controls of Google, Facebook, Instagram, or Threads.