Display Google Reviews in the Customer Portal

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Display Google Reviews in the Customer Portal

Showcase real Google Reviews directly on your OctopusPro Customer Portal homepage to build trust, increase enquiries/bookings, and strengthen your brand with credible third-party social proof.

This guide walks you through:

  • Creating a Google Maps Platform API key
  • Finding your Google Place ID
  • Getting your “Write a review” link
  • Adding credentials in OctopusPro and enabling the portal widget
  • (Optional) Configuring display settings per Trading Name and automating review invites

Google Reviews Customer Portal Integration overview diagram

On this page

How it works

OctopusPro connects to Google via the Google Maps Platform (Places) API and pulls your public review data into your Customer Portal automatically. You can also display a Leave a Review button that takes customers to your Google review form/link.

You typically need 3 items:

  1. Google Maps Platform API key
  2. Place ID (uniquely identifies your business location on Google)
  3. “Write a review” link (used by the Leave a Review button)

Before you start

  • An active Google Business Profile (your business must exist on Google).
  • Access to the Google Cloud Console to create an API key.
  • Billing enabled on your Google Cloud project (Google may charge for API usage depending on volume and quotas).

Helpful links (open in new tab):

Tip: Secure your API key by restricting it to only the APIs you need (and applying application restrictions where possible). Over-restricting can block the integration—see Troubleshooting if reviews don’t appear.

Step 1 — Create your Google API key (Google Maps Platform)

You’ll create a Google Cloud project, enable the required APIs (commonly Places API and Maps JavaScript API), then generate an API key.

1) Create a new project

Google Cloud Console - Create a new project

2) Enable the required APIs

Enable APIs in Google Cloud Console

Welcome to the API Library

Enable Maps JavaScript API

Enable Maps JavaScript API

API Library - find Places API

Enable Places API

Enable Places API

3) Create credentials (API key)

Create credentials - API key

Create API key in credentials

4) Copy your API key

Copy API key to clipboard

Result: You now have your first required value: the Google Maps Platform API key.

Step 2 — Get your Place ID

Your Place ID uniquely identifies your business location on Google and helps OctopusPro pull the correct reviews.

How to find it:

  1. Open Google’s Place ID tools: Place ID documentation or the Place ID Finder.
  2. Search for your business and select the correct result.
  3. Copy the Place ID.

Find Place ID

Copy Place ID from results

If your business doesn’t appear: Make sure your location exists and is verified inside your Google Business Profile.

Manage locations in Google Business Profile

Location verification in Google Business Profile

Result: You now have the second required value: your Place ID.

Step 3 — Get your “Write a review” link

This is the direct URL to your Google review form and powers the Leave a Review button in your Customer Portal.

  1. Log in to your Google Business Profile: business.google.com
  2. Open your business/location.
  3. Find the option to share your review form/link (Google provides a direct “write a review” URL).
  4. Copy and save the link.

Open your business profile location

Request reviews - share review form link

Result: You now have the third required value: your “Write a review” link.

Step 4 — Add Google Reviews credentials in OctopusPro (API integration)

Now add the 3 values (API key, Place ID, Review link) inside OctopusPro.

  1. Go to: Settings → Company Settings → Integrations (API)
  2. Click New developer integrations (API)

OctopusPro - New developer integrations (API)

  1. Select Google Reviews from the dropdown.

Select Google Reviews integration

  1. Enter your credentials:
    • Google Maps API key
    • Place ID
    • Write a review link
  2. Click Save.

Enter Google Reviews credentials in OctopusPro

Step 5 — Enable Google Reviews on the Customer Portal homepage

Enable the portal widget so reviews appear on your Customer Portal homepage.

  1. Go to: Settings → Customer Portal → Flags & Permissions (on some accounts: Settings → Communications → Customer Portal → Flags & Permissions)
  2. In Website Flags, enable: Display Google Reviews on customer portal homepage (or similarly named Enable Google Reviews).
  3. Click Save.

Enable Google Reviews flag in Customer Portal Flags & Permissions

Where will reviews display?
Once enabled, the Google Reviews section will appear on your Customer Portal homepage (commonly toward the bottom of the page), based on your settings.

Optional — Configure per Trading Name (multi-brand / multi-location)

If you manage multiple Trading Names (sub-brands/branches), you can configure Google Reviews per Trading Name so each portal URL shows the correct reviews and branding.

Typical path: Settings → Company Settings → Trading Names → select a Trading Name → configure Google Reviews display options.

Common configuration options (may vary by account):

  • Enable/disable Show Google Reviews
  • Set the Google Place ID
  • Custom title (e.g., “What our customers say”)
  • Limit the number of reviews shown
  • Optional minimum rating threshold
  • Review link mode + Test Review Link

Optional automation: You may also see options to automatically request reviews via Email and/or SMS after completed bookings, including delay and reminder controls.

Learn more about multi-brand setups here: Manage Trading Names (multi-brand / multi-location)

Best practices

  • Ask everyone: Invite all customers to leave honest feedback (don’t selectively request reviews).
  • Make it easy: Add your review link to job completion emails/SMS, invoices, and the Customer Portal.
  • Respond professionally: Reply to reviews (especially negative ones) quickly and constructively—future customers read your responses.
  • Use feedback to improve: Track recurring complaints and fix the root cause (customers notice when issues stop repeating).
  • Keep keys secure: Restrict your API key to required APIs and rotate it if you suspect exposure.

Troubleshooting (if reviews don’t appear)

Check the following:

  • Flag enabled: “Display Google Reviews on customer portal homepage” is ON and saved.
  • API key copied correctly: no extra spaces/characters.
  • Billing enabled: on the Google Cloud project (required for many Maps Platform APIs).
  • Required APIs enabled: at minimum, Places API (and any other required APIs for your configuration).
  • Correct Place ID: matches the right business/location.
  • Business Profile verified: your location is live/verified in Google Business Profile.
  • API restrictions not blocking: if you restricted your key, confirm the allowed APIs/referrers/IPs match your setup (over-restricting can prevent requests from working).

If you still can’t see reviews, try temporarily loosening restrictions to confirm connectivity, then re-apply the correct restrictions once working.

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