Automation · Operations and reporting
Sum up your competitors' Google Maps reviews on WhatsApp with Apify
Ask on WhatsApp what your competitors' reviews say: an AI agent runs an Apify Actor with a spending cap and sums them up for you.
What do my competitors' Google Maps reviews say, without reading them one by one?
You write to your Met on WhatsApp something like "what do the Google Maps reviews of the bakery on the corner say?". The Met searches the Apify store for an Actor that extracts Google Maps reviews, checks what data it needs and what it charges, and runs it with a spending cap. If the run does not finish within the wait time, it checks it until it is done. Then it reads the reviews from the dataset and replies with what comes up most, the good and the bad. Apify charges the Actor to your account. Running Actors starts off until the admin turns it on, and the Met does not reply to reviews or write to Google Maps.
What starts it
When someone asks for it
It starts when someone on the team asks the Met on WhatsApp for a competitor's reviews. Each request is a run Apify charges for; this procedure does not leave a scheduled extraction.
A manual task: someone on the team runs it with a button, or asks the Met for it in chat.
Who runs it
Competitor analytics Met with Apify
This is not a named, seeded Met. It is an internal Met with Apify connected: its work ends when it gives you the review summary, or when it tells you the Actor failed or the price does not fit the agreed cap.
Channels: WhatsApp
What you need connected
- Apify Research and analyze
5 steps · 5 tools
The procedure, step by step
Each step shows the tool that runs. They belong to the real connector: if one of them stopped existing, this page would not build.
- 1
Find a reviews Actor
The Met searches the Apify store for an Actor that extracts Google Maps reviews and picks one of the results. If it does not find one that fits, it tells you instead of improvising.
- 2
Check the input and the price
Before running, the Met pulls the Actor's details: what data it needs, what it returns and what it charges. That way it knows how to build the input and can tell you the price before spending.
- 3
Run with a spending cap
The Met runs the Actor with the competitor's business and a spending cap per run. It waits up to 45 seconds for it to finish. This action starts off: the admin turns it on in Connections before using the procedure.
- 4
Wait if the run is still going
If the Actor did not finish in that time, the Met checks the run until it is done. If it fails, it tells you the status Apify reported instead of making up a result.
- 5
Read the reviews and reply
The Met reads the reviews from the run's dataset and replies with the topics that come up most, what people praise and what they criticize, with a few verbatim quotes as examples.
Before you start
What you need ready
The Met solves none of these for you. If one is missing, the automation stops there.
-
An Apify account
An Apify account. Each Actor has its own price and Apify charges it to that account, so this procedure's spending comes from there.
-
Apify connected in Met
In Met, open Connections → Apify → Connect and sign in with your Apify account. The Met that queries is internal, and your team writes to it on WhatsApp.
-
The run Actors action turned on
In Met, under Connections → Apify, the admin turns on the action that runs Actors. It starts off because the Apify server marks it as destructive.
The limits
What this automation does NOT solve
Better said here than discovered halfway through the rollout.
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It does not reply to the reviews. This procedure only reads and sums them up; replying on Google Maps is outside this connection.
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It is not free. Each Actor charges separately on your Apify account; the spending cap limits each run, but does not make it free.
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It does not guarantee the Actor keeps working. Store Actors come from third parties, and if one fails the Met tells you with the run status.
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It does not compare with your own reviews unless you ask. For that the Met runs the same Actor on your business, with its own charge.
FAQ
Questions about this automation
It depends on the Actor used. The Met checks its price with the Actor's details before running it and passes a spending cap per run.
Yes, if you ask; each competitor can be a separate run, with its own charge on your Apify account.
Not with this connection. Apify schedules are not included in the default endpoint Met connects to, and this procedure runs on request.
The Apify page has a tool to stop a run in progress, for example if it was launched with the wrong competitor. This procedure does not need it on the normal path, and it starts off until the admin turns it on.
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Want this automation running on your own data?
We will show it to you with your accounts connected, not with a canned demo.