AI Review Tone & Length Guide: Control How the AI Writes Your Reviews

The AI generates review drafts from customer answers, but you control how it writes: formal or casual, brief or detailed, in English or ten other languages. This guide covers every tone and length option, which settings suit which industries, and exactly which control lives in which tab — because two of them aren't where you'd expect.

Where to Find AI Settings

Open your review form editor and click the "Quick" tab. This is where the two settings that matter most live:

• Tone: Controls the writing style and voice — 10 presets, plus the ability to type your own
• Review Length: Controls word count and detail level — Short, Medium, Long, or a custom number

The editor has four tabs in total: Quick, Content, Form, and — for some accounts — AI. The AI tab holds temperature, custom prompts, language, and variation controls, and it's covered at the end of this guide. Language is not in the Quick tab, which surprises people; it's in the AI tab.

10 Tone Options

Tone controls how the AI writes. Choose the tone that matches your industry, brand, and customer expectations. Here's every option with examples and recommended use cases.

1. Professional

Description: Polished, articulate, business-appropriate
Best for: B2B services, legal, financial, consulting, healthcare
Example: "I recently engaged ABC Consulting for strategic planning services. The team demonstrated exceptional expertise and delivered actionable recommendations that exceeded our expectations. Their professionalism and attention to detail were outstanding throughout the engagement."

2. Casual

Description: Relaxed, friendly, conversational
Best for: Restaurants, retail, coffee shops, salons, casual services
Example: "Stopped by for lunch and wow, the pasta was incredible! The staff was super friendly and helped me pick the perfect dish. Definitely coming back soon."

3. Enthusiastic

Description: Excited, very positive, energetic
Best for: Entertainment, events, hospitality, tourism, experiences
Example: "What an amazing experience! From the moment we walked in, everything was perfect. The team went above and beyond to make our event unforgettable. Can't wait to book with them again!"

4. Balanced

Description: Fair, measured, realistic
Best for: Most businesses — neutral option that works for 70% of use cases
Example: "Had a good experience overall. The service was prompt and the quality met my expectations. A few minor issues but nothing major. Would recommend to others."

5. Friendly

Description: Warm, approachable, personable
Best for: Service businesses, gyms, spas, pet services, childcare
Example: "The team made me feel so welcome from day one. Everyone was kind, helpful, and genuinely cared about my experience. It's rare to find this level of personal attention."

6. Formal

Description: Respectful, structured, traditional
Best for: Legal, medical, academic, government, high-end services
Example: "I wish to express my satisfaction with the services provided by Dr. Smith's practice. The clinical staff maintained the highest standards of professionalism, and the quality of care was exemplary."

7. Warm

Description: Genuine, caring, empathetic
Best for: Healthcare, therapy, senior care, hospice, counseling
Example: "The staff showed incredible compassion during a difficult time. They took the time to listen, answer questions, and make us feel supported. We're grateful for their care and kindness."

8. Energetic

Description: Dynamic, lively, action-oriented
Best for: Fitness, sports, adventure, outdoor activities
Example: "This gym is next level! The trainers push you to crush your goals, and the energy is electric. Every class leaves me pumped and ready to come back for more."

9. Diplomatic

Description: Tactful, considerate, balanced
Best for: Managing mixed feedback, situations requiring tact
Example: "The service had its strengths and areas for improvement. The staff was courteous, though wait times could be better. Overall, a reasonable experience with room for growth."

10. Authentic

Description: Genuine, honest, real-world perspective
Best for: Brands focused on transparency, customer-first messaging
Example: "Honestly, this place is solid. Not perfect, but they do what they promise. The staff is real, the service is consistent, and I appreciate the straightforward approach."

Which Tone Should You Choose?

Match tone to your industry and customer expectations:

• High-touch services (healthcare, legal, real estate): Professional, Formal, or Warm
• Casual retail and food (restaurants, coffee, shops): Casual, Friendly, or Balanced
• Experience-driven (events, tourism, entertainment): Enthusiastic or Energetic
• Service businesses (gyms, salons, pet care): Friendly or Casual
• B2B and consulting: Professional or Balanced

When in doubt, choose Balanced. It works for most industries and avoids extremes.

Pro tip: Test multiple tones on a small sample before committing. Generate 5-10 reviews with different tones, read them, and pick the one that sounds most like your ideal customer.

Writing Your Own Tone

The tone field isn't a fixed dropdown. It's a combobox that accepts custom input, so if none of the 10 presets sounds like your customers, type your own description instead of settling for the nearest match. This is in the Quick tab alongside the presets — no special access required.

Custom tone descriptions that work well:

• "Witty and a little dry, but genuinely positive"
• "Like a local food blogger — casual but knowledgeable"
• "A parent recommending to other parents"
• "Straightforward tradesperson, no marketing language"

Two rules make custom tones work. Describe a person rather than an adjective — "a regular who's been coming for years" produces far better output than "loyal." And stay in the register your customers actually use; a tone that's more polished than your real clientele is exactly what makes a review read as manufactured.

Custom tones need more testing than presets, since you're describing a voice in your own words and the model interprets it. Generate a handful and read them before committing.

Length Options

Review length controls how much detail the AI produces. Longer reviews include more context and specifics; shorter ones are punchier and mobile-friendly.

There are three presets — Short, Medium, and Long — plus a Custom option where you enter a target word count directly. Custom is the right choice when you have a specific platform constraint in mind, or when a preset consistently lands just short or just long of what you want.

One thing to understand before the descriptions below: the ranges behind each preset vary by platform. Short doesn't mean one fixed number — each platform in the config carries its own word ranges, tuned to what reads naturally there. The figures in this section are Google's. For comparison, Yelp and TripAdvisor use 100-300 for Short, 300-600 for Medium, and 600-1000 for Long, and G2 starts Short at 150-300, reflecting how much more substantial software reviews tend to be.

So if you switch platforms and the output length changes without you touching anything, that's the platform's ranges applying, not a bug.

Short (50-200 Words on Google)

Example: "Great service and friendly staff. Highly recommend!"
Best for:

• Mobile-first businesses (food trucks, retail)
• High-volume review requests (daily transactions)
• Customers who won't write long reviews
• Platforms where short reviews are common (Yelp, Google for casual businesses)

Trade-off: Short reviews lack detail and specificity. They're less helpful to future customers and less credible to platforms.

Medium (200-500 Words on Google) — Recommended

Example: "Had a great experience at this restaurant. The pasta was fresh and perfectly cooked, and our server was attentive without being overbearing. The atmosphere was cozy and perfect for a date night. We'll definitely be back!"
Best for:

• Most businesses (70-80% of use cases)
• Balances detail with readability
• Long enough to include specifics, short enough to stay engaging
• Works well on all platforms

Why this is recommended: Medium-length reviews include enough detail to be credible without overwhelming readers. They mention specific products, services, or experiences — the details that make reviews useful.

Long (500-1000 Words on Google)

Example: "I recently used ABC Realty to sell my home, and I couldn't be happier with the experience. From our first meeting, my agent was professional, knowledgeable, and attentive. She took the time to understand my goals and pricing strategy, and her marketing plan was comprehensive. The home sold within two weeks, above asking price. Throughout the process, she communicated clearly, responded quickly to questions, and made what could have been a stressful experience completely seamless. I highly recommend ABC Realty to anyone buying or selling in the area."
Best for:

• High-consideration services (real estate, healthcare, B2B)
• Story-based reviews that build trust
• Industries where detail matters (legal, financial, technical services)
• Platforms that reward longer reviews (Google, Trustpilot)

Trade-off: Long reviews require more customer input and take longer to generate. They work best when customers have detailed feedback to share.

How to Choose Length

Start with Medium. It works for most businesses. Adjust based on results:

• If reviews feel too generic or lack detail: Switch to Long
• If completion rates drop or customers complain about length: Switch to Short
• If mobile traffic dominates and reviews are skimmed quickly: Try Short

Industry defaults:

• Short: Coffee shops, food trucks, retail, quick services
• Medium: Restaurants, salons, gyms, automotive, most services
• Long: Real estate, healthcare, legal, B2B, financial services

When to Use Custom Length

Reach for Custom in three situations:

• A preset consistently overshoots or undershoots. If Medium reliably produces more than you want on Google, set 150 rather than dropping to Short and losing all the specifics
• You're working to a platform limit. Set a number you know fits, instead of hoping a preset lands inside it
• You want consistency across platforms. Because presets shift ranges per platform, a fixed custom number is the only way to get comparable output length everywhere

Be reasonable with the number. A 20-word target won't leave room for the specifics that make a review credible, and a 900-word target on a coffee shop review will read as obviously inflated.

Language Settings

The language selector lives in the AI tab, not the Quick tab — under a collapsible "Language Settings" section. The AI reads customer input and generates the review in your selected language.

Eleven languages are exposed in the selector:

• English (default)
• Spanish
• French
• German
• Italian
• Portuguese
• Dutch
• Swedish
• Norwegian
• Danish
• Finnish

The underlying language config defines around 50 languages, but the form editor deliberately surfaces this shorter Western European set. If you need a language that isn't listed — Japanese, Arabic, Hindi — it isn't selectable from this UI today, so don't promise it to customers.

Single vs. Multiple Language Mode

The Language Settings section has a mode toggle, which is more useful than it first appears:

• Single: Pick one language, and every review generates in it
• Multiple: Select several languages for one form

Multiple mode is the better answer for bilingual businesses than creating a form per language, because your link limits are tight — 2 links on Free, 5 on PRO. One form set to English and Spanish costs you one slot instead of two.

The AI Tab

The AI tab is gated behind an internal feature flag rather than a plan tier, so it isn't something you can unlock by upgrading. If you don't see an AI tab next to Quick, Content, and Form, your account doesn't have the flag enabled — contact support rather than buying a higher plan expecting it to appear.

When available, it contains four collapsible sections. Only the first is expanded by default:

1. AI Configuration

Three controls:

• Temperature — a slider from 0 to 2 in 0.1 steps, defaulting to 0.7
• Custom Prompt — free-text instructions appended to the AI prompt
• Natural Feel — a toggle, on by default, that pushes output toward more human-sounding phrasing

On temperature: lower values (0.3-0.5) give consistent, predictable output suited to professional and formal tones. The 0.7 default is the balanced middle. Higher values (1.0-1.2) produce more variety, which suits enthusiastic and energetic tones. The slider goes to 2.0, but treat anything above about 1.2 as experimental — output gets erratic, and erratic reviews read as fake.

Custom Prompt examples that work well:

• "Always mention specific menu items when customers reference food"
• "Focus on timeliness and communication for service reviews"
• "Avoid superlatives like 'amazing' and 'incredible'"
• "Include location details such as parking and accessibility"

2. Language Settings

The single/multiple mode toggle and the 11-language selector described above.

3. Natural Variation Settings

This section exists to stop your reviews from sounding like they came from one template, which is the fastest way to look inauthentic. It offers three toggles and two sliders:

• Personal Touches — small individual details
• Specific Details — concrete specifics over generalities
• Conversational Fillers — the small verbal habits of real speech
• Sentence Variation — low, medium, or high; defaults to medium
• Vocabulary Variation — low, medium, or high; defaults to medium

The three toggles are off by default. Turning on Specific Details is usually the highest-value change here, since specificity is what makes a review credible to both readers and platforms.

4. Review Count

"Reviews per Generation" sets how many drafts a customer gets to choose from, between 1 and 5, defaulting to 3.

Three is a sensible default: enough choice that a customer who dislikes the first draft has somewhere to go, few enough that they don't stall comparing options. Bear in mind this interacts with your analytics — each generated draft counts toward Reviews Generated, which is why Reviews per Session commonly reads above 1.

Remember to click Save in this tab. It tracks changes and stays disabled until you've actually modified something.

Testing and Optimization

After selecting tone and length, test your settings:

1. Preview your form and fill it out as a customer
2. Generate 5-10 sample reviews with different inputs
3. Read them critically: Do they sound natural? Are they specific enough?
4. Share with team members or friends for feedback
5. Adjust tone or length if needed

Red flags to watch for:

• Reviews sound robotic or generic
• Reviews use the same phrases repeatedly
• Tone doesn't match your brand or industry
• Reviews are too short to be helpful or too long to read

If you see these issues, adjust settings and test again. Small tweaks make a big difference.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which tone should I choose for my business?

Match tone to your industry and customer expectations. Use Professional for B2B, legal, or healthcare. Use Casual for restaurants, retail, or services. Use Enthusiastic for entertainment, events, or hospitality. When in doubt, choose Balanced — it works for 70% of businesses.

What review length should I use?

Medium works best for most platforms. Short suits mobile-first businesses and high-volume review requests, and Long suits detailed service industries like real estate, healthcare, or B2B where story-based reviews carry more weight. There's also a Custom option where you set a target word count. Note that each preset's range is platform-specific: on Google, Short is 50-200 words, Medium 200-500, and Long 500-1000, while Yelp and TripAdvisor use 100-300, 300-600, and 600-1000.

Can I change tone and length after collecting reviews?

Yes. Tone and length settings apply to future reviews only. Existing reviews won't change. You can adjust settings anytime based on what's working. Test different combinations to see which generates the best review quality for your audience.

What is the AI tab and how do I unlock it?

The AI tab holds temperature, custom prompts, Natural Feel, language settings, natural variation controls, and review count. It's gated behind an internal feature flag rather than a plan tier, so upgrading won't reveal it — contact support if you need access. Custom tone input is not in this tab; it's in the Quick tab, available to everyone.

Can customers write reviews in languages other than English?

Yes, for 11 languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, and Finnish. The selector is in the AI tab under Language Settings, not the Quick tab. You can also switch to multiple-language mode to serve several languages from a single form, which saves a review link slot.

What's Next

Your AI settings are configured. Now customize the visual appearance of your review form. Read Part 4: Review Page Branding Guide to learn how to upload your logo, choose from 3 themes, and write custom welcome messages in the Content tab.

Or skip ahead to Part 5: QR Code Review Poster Guide if you need printable QR codes for in-person review collection.