Smart Reviews: collecting feedback after a service

For administrators, and for the team members who follow up feedback. SpringFire may call your clients something else (participants, patients, customers) and your shifts something else (appointments, sessions, visits). This guide says "client" and "service" throughout.

After a service finishes, Smart Reviews sends the client a short text or email with a link. The link opens a simple page where they rate the service from one to five stars and can add a comment. No login is needed. Low ratings come straight to the people you choose, so you can follow up quickly. Everything lands under Compliance → Feedback.

Four things to know up front:

• It is off until you turn it on. Services that finished before you switched it on are never asked about.
• Every client sees the same thank-you page, whatever they rated. If you add a "Leave a Google review" button, everyone sees it, not only happy clients. Showing it only to people who rated you highly is against Google's rules and Australian consumer law.
• A low rating is a prompt to follow up, not a verdict. You decide what happens next. If the comment describes a complaint or something that may be a reportable incident, escalate it into your own complaints or incident process.
• Regular clients are not asked after every visit. You choose how long to wait before the same person is asked again (30 days unless you change it).

Who does what

Support workers and clients signed in to SpringFire never see other people's feedback.

Part 1: Set it up (administrators)

Go to Settings → Communications → Smart Reviews.

1. Turn it on

Switch on Smart Reviews in the card header. This saves straight away. The settings below appear once it is on. Change them and choose Save.

From this moment, any service that finishes is a candidate for an invitation once your chosen delay has passed.

2. When and how we ask

Good to know:

• Each invitation goes by one channel only, never both.
• Texts are never sent between 9pm and 7am in your business's time zone. A text that falls due overnight waits until 7am. Emails go when they fall due.
• Each text uses SMS credits, the same as your other texts. If you run out, the invitation is marked Failed and is not retried automatically.
• Invitations go out in batches every 15 minutes, so allow a few minutes after the delay ends.

3. Who we ask

For a booking, the person who made the booking is always asked. If someone booked on behalf of another person, the person who booked is asked.

For a client's service, choose one of:

• The client themselves first. Asks the client, unless they have no email or mobile, or their account is run by someone else. Then their nominated contact is asked instead.
• Their nominated contact first. Asks the nominated contact, or the client if there is no nominated contact. This is the starting choice for NDIS and aged care providers.
• Only the nominated contact. If there is no nominated contact, nobody is asked.

A nominated contact is a contact on the client's record with Text them about service changes switched on (Clients → the client → Contacts). If more than one contact has it on, the one with the most authority on the record is asked. They may be asked by email even though the switch talks about texts.

4. Include

• Bookings and Shifts: untick either to stop asking about that kind of service.
• Only after a worker has clocked off: appears if your team clocks in and out. Turn it on to ask only when someone has clocked off the shift. Leave it off to ask once the shift's end time has passed.

5. Alerts

• Alert me when a rating is below: 2, 3, 4 or 5 stars. With the starting value of 4, ratings of 1, 2 or 3 stars are flagged.
• Send alerts to: tick the people who should hear about low ratings. Leave everyone unticked and every administrator is alerted.

A flagged rating is marked Needs attention and the chosen people get an in-app notification, a push notification on the SpringFire app, and an email. Each piece of feedback alerts once, even if the client later changes their answer.

• Start this workflow for low ratings (shown when you have a suitable workflow template): pick a template, and every flagged rating starts it on the client's record, so the follow-up is tracked like your other work.
  • It starts once per flagged rating. If the same client rates low again while their follow-up is still open, the open one carries on rather than a second starting.
  • It goes on the client's record, not on the shift, so the worker who delivered the service doesn't see it.
  • Only templates your clients can't see are offered: nothing shown in the client portal or on a tracking link, no steps assigned to the client, and no automatic emails or texts. Templates with nested workflows, materials, or that are mandatory elsewhere aren't offered either.
  • Give the template's steps an assignee so someone owns the follow-up. The workflow doesn't pick one for you.
  • A customer who booked but isn't on your client list gets the alert only. The feedback says "No workflow started: not on your client list".
  • Feedback escalated as a complaint or incident never starts it; use your own process for those.

6. Google reviews

Switch on Show a "Review us on Google" button on the feedback page to add a button to the thank-you page.

• Link in use shows the Google link SpringFire will use. It comes from your connected Google Business Profile (Settings → Integrations → Google Business).
• Use this link instead lets you paste your own Google review link. It must start with https://.
• The button appears for everyone who gives feedback, whatever their rating. There is deliberately no way to show it only to high ratings.

If your business advertises services of registered health practitioners, you will also see a note here. Inviting clients to review you on Google is fine. Never copy reviews or testimonials onto your own website, social media or booking page. See "The rules, in plain words" below.

7. Feedback page

• Show the worker's first name on the feedback page. Off unless you turn it on. Even when on, a name only appears when exactly one worker delivered the service, and never for shift types set to hide worker names from clients.
• Ask for an identity check before the form opens. The person confirms the last four digits of their mobile, or their date of birth, before they can see the page. Use this if links may be forwarded, for example in shared households. After five wrong answers the link locks for 15 minutes. If SpringFire has neither detail on record, the link is sent without a check.

8. Advanced

9. Never ask after these

In the second card (shown while Smart Reviews is on), add anything that should never get an invitation:

• a shift type (for example, respite or overnight support)
• a booking service
• a client type (a whole category of clients)
• an individual client

Pick the kind, type a name (at least two letters for a client), and choose Add. Remove one with the ×.

How the list is applied:

• It is checked when an invitation falls due, after your Ask after delay. Adding something before then still stops that invitation.
• Shifts are matched on their shift type, and on each client's record and client type. On a group shift, one client can be excluded while the others are still asked.
• Bookings are matched on their booking service. A client or client-type exclusion applies to a booking only when the booking is linked to a client record. Shift types never apply to bookings.
• An excluded service shows on the Invitations tab as Skipped, "Excluded in settings". Removing the exclusion later does not send that one; only services that finish afterwards are asked.
• Invitations already sent are not affected. Their links keep working.

Other ways a client is never asked:

• No automated calls or texts is switched on in their record (Clients → Edit). This also stops feedback emails.
• They used the unsubscribe link in an earlier invitation.
• They unsubscribed from your marketing emails. This stops feedback emails to that address; a text can still be sent if they have a mobile.
• They replied STOP to one of your texts. This stops every text from your number, not only feedback.
• For a booking, automatic messages are turned off for that booking.

10. Email wording and email switches

• Settings → Communications → Email Templates: Feedback invitation (to clients) and Low rating alert (to your team) can be edited like your other templates. Keep the unsubscribe link and your business name in the invitation. The law requires both.
• Settings → Communications → Email Notifications, under Reviews: switch off Feedback invitation to stop invitation emails (texts are controlled by Ask by), or Low rating alert to stop the alert emails. The in-app alert is always sent.

Switching it off

Switching Smart Reviews off stops new invitations straight away, and links already sent stop working. Feedback you have already received stays where it is. If you switch it on again later, services that finished while it was off are not asked about.

Part 2: What your clients see

The message

A text reads like this:

Bright Physio: Hi Sam, thanks for your physio appointment on Tuesday 7 October. How did we do? Rate it in 20 seconds: https://… Reply STOP to opt out.

(Texts write the service name in lower case; emails keep it as you typed it.)

An email has the subject "How was your Physio Appointment with Bright Physio?" and a Rate your Physio Appointment button, followed by your business name, phone and email, and an Unsubscribe link.

The service is named the way you named it: the booking service name for a booking, or the shift type name for a shift. These are the names clients already see when they book or in the SpringFire app. If a shift has no shift type, your own word for a service is used. A shift type with an internal-sounding name ("Level 2 Weekday") will read oddly in an invitation, so rename it or add it to Never ask after these.

The feedback page

The page shows your business name and logo, what the service was, the date, and the worker's first name if you allowed it. It asks:

• How was your …? with five large stars (Poor, Not great, Okay, Good, Excellent)
• Anything you'd like to add? (optional, up to 500 characters)

At the bottom it says who the link was sent to, partly hidden (for example s***@example.com or 04** *** *78). This helps someone who received a forwarded link realise it wasn't meant for them.

The page never shows the client's name, their address, or anyone else who shared the service.

After sending

The client sees Thanks, your feedback has gone to [your business]. Then, if you switched them on:

• Leave a Google review, the same for every rating
• Change my answer, while the change window is open
• Prefer to talk to us? with your phone number and email

In the SpringFire app

Clients who use the SpringFire app (or the client portal on the web) can rate a finished service there too, without waiting for an invitation:

• They open the service, tap one to five stars, and can add a comment.
• They can change their answer for as long as Feedback can be changed for allows (24 hours to start with). The service shows "You can change this until …" while they can.
• A contact with full access to the client's account can give feedback for them. A contact with view-only access can't.
• Your team can't give feedback in a client's name. Staff who open a client's service (for example, to check them in) don't see the form.
• A service that was cancelled can't be rated.
• This works even when Smart Reviews is switched off. Low ratings are only flagged and alerted while it is on.

Feedback from the app and from an invitation link is the same record: a client who rated a service through the link sees that answer in the app, and can change it there while the window is open.

Opting out

• Email: the Unsubscribe link opens a page with one button. Nothing happens until the person presses it. After that, a client on your client list is not sent feedback invitations by you again, by email or text. For a booking customer who isn't on your client list, it stops invitations to that email address. It also stops your marketing emails to that address, which is the safer reading of the law.
• SMS: replying STOP stops every text from your SMS number.

Part 3: Working with feedback

Where to find it

Open Compliance in the sidebar, then the Feedback tab. The tab appears as soon as Smart Reviews is switched on, for administrators and internal users with access to shifts or bookings. Alerts and alert emails link straight to the right piece of feedback.

At the top you see the last 90 days at a glance:

• Average rating
• Feedback received
• Needs attention (not yet resolved)
• Response rate (how many invitations were answered)

The Feedback list

Filter by All, Needs attention or Escalated. Each entry shows the date, the stars, the comment, the service and its date, the client, who delivered the service, its status, and who it is assigned to.

Who delivered the service is shown so you have the context. SpringFire never averages, ranks or compares ratings by worker. A single rating is not a fair measure of a person's work.

If a low rating started your follow-up workflow, the entry links to it. Deleting that workflow keeps the feedback; only the link goes.

Feedback clients give in the SpringFire app or on the client portal also appears here, with their stars. (Older versions of the app send a comment without stars.) A client who already gave feedback in the app is not sent an invitation for that service.

Statuses

Actions

Use the menu on each entry:

Every change is recorded in the audit log with who made it and when.

Your Google reviews

If your Google Business Profile is connected (Settings → Integrations → Google Business), the Feedback page has a Published on Google tab. It shows the reviews people have posted about you on Google, newest first, with Show more for older ones. The Feedback tab appears when Smart Reviews is on or Google is connected. If only Google is connected, the page shows just your Google reviews.

• Google's figures are Google's. The rating and count at the top are the ones Google shows. Google reviews never count towards the feedback figures at the top of the page, and your own feedback is never mixed into them.
• Nothing is copied into SpringFire. The tab reads from Google each time you open it. Google's rules don't allow reviews to be stored.
• Replying (administrators only). Choose Reply, write your reply and choose Post reply. You can Edit reply or Delete reply later.
  • Your reply is public on Google under your business name, and Google tells the reviewer you replied.
  • Google checks every reply before showing it. Until then it shows Waiting for Google to publish it. If Google turns it down, the reply says so; edit it and post again.
  • Each reply is recorded in the audit log (who, when, which review), without the text.
  • If your business advertises the services of registered health practitioners, a reminder appears above the box: don't confirm the person is your client or mention their care. A public reply is a public disclosure.
• New review alerts. Switch on New review alerts in the Google Business settings and SpringFire checks Google once a day. When new reviews have appeared, the people chosen under Send alerts to (or every administrator) get one in-app notification saying how many. Open Feedback to read them. Changes to an existing review don't send a notification. The first check after you switch it on only notes where things stand.

Complaints and incidents

A one-star rating that says "they were late" is a service issue. A comment that says someone was hurt, treated badly, or put at risk is not. Escalate it.

Escalating in SpringFire does not report anything to a regulator or to anyone outside your business. It makes sure your administrators know, and keeps a record. Your own complaints and incident procedures, including any reporting your registration requires, still apply.

The Invitations tab

This lists every invitation, with what happened to it:

Resend sends the invitation again with a fresh link. Use it after you add a missing email or mobile number, top up SMS credits, or remove an exclusion.

• It checks everything again using the client's record as it is now, so newly added contact details are used.
• If it still can't send, it tells you why. For example, the person has since opted out, or was asked about another service recently.
• It isn't offered when the person opted out or has already given feedback.
• Texts aren't re-sent between 9pm and 7am.
• The earlier link no longer opens the feedback form, but the unsubscribe link in the earlier email keeps working.

The rules, in plain words

This is a summary, not legal advice.

• Ask everyone the same way. Don't offer a discount, gift or anything else for a review. Don't show the Google button only to people who rated you highly. Google's policy prohibits both, and in 2017 the Federal Court penalised a business $3 million for steering only expected-happy guests towards a review site (ACCC v Meriton).
• Invitations are marketing messages under the Spam Act. That is why every email names your business, gives your contact details and includes an unsubscribe link, and every text says "Reply STOP to opt out". Don't remove these from the email template.
• Registered health practitioners: clients are free to review you on Google. You must not use testimonials in your own advertising, which includes copying reviews onto your website, social media or booking page. When you reply to a review on Google, never confirm that the person is your client or mention their care.

Questions

A client says they didn't get an invitation. Look them up on the Invitations tab. If they are there, the status and reason explain it. If they are not there at all, the service may not count as finished yet (for example a booking still waiting to be accepted, or a shift waiting on a clock-off), it may have ended before you switched Smart Reviews on, its invitation may have fallen due more than a week before SpringFire could send it, or bookings or shifts may be unticked under Include.

Can a client change their rating? Yes, from the same link or in the SpringFire app, while Feedback can be changed for allows it (24 hours to start with). After that the answer is final.

Can I delete a bad review? No. Feedback is a record of what a client told you. Resolve it with a note of what you did.

Does feedback appear anywhere public? No. It stays inside SpringFire. Only a review the client chooses to leave on Google is public, and that is between them and Google. You can read and reply to Google reviews under Published on Google, but they are never copied into SpringFire.

Can clients see what other clients said? No.