/ GUIDE — 6 min read
CSV review import: the universal fallback
One schema that swallows any platform's export — column reference, formatting rules, and the errors that reject rows.
Extensions and API connections cover the big platforms. For everything else — industry directories, a previous reputation tool, marketplace reviews, a spreadsheet someone kept by hand — one normalized CSV is the route.
The schema
reviewer_name,rating,review_text,review_date,platform,review_url,owner_reply
"Jane D.",5,"Great service, fast and friendly.",2026-05-14,GOOGLE,https://maps.google.com/...,"Thanks Jane!"
"Mark T.",2,"Waited too long, no follow-up.",2026-04-30,TRUSTPILOT,,,| Column | Rules |
|---|---|
| reviewer_name | Free text; quote if it contains commas. |
| rating | Integer 1–5. Anything else rejects the row. |
| review_text | Quote if it contains commas or line breaks. |
| review_date | YYYY-MM-DD. |
| platform | Uppercase source name: GOOGLE, FACEBOOK, TRUSTPILOT, OTHER. |
| review_url | Optional. |
| owner_reply | Optional — include your past responses so response-rate metrics start accurate. |
Leave unknown fields empty rather than guessing. Files up to 5 MB; split larger ones.
Mapping an export from another tool
Open the old tool's export in a spreadsheet, rename/reorder columns to the schema above, fix dates into YYYY-MM-DD (a single format cell + fill-down), and re-save as CSV. Ten minutes of spreadsheet work beats losing years of history.
Facebook's odd shape
Facebook "recommendations" are yes/no rather than star-rated. If you're normalizing them by hand, a common convention is 5 for recommended and 1 for not recommended — just be consistent, and expect the rating distribution to look bimodal.
When rows reject
Bad dates, ratings outside 1–5, and malformed quotes are the usual culprits. Fix the flagged rows in the spreadsheet, re-save, re-upload — imports skip duplicates, so partial retries are safe and you only need to correct the failures.
Google Takeout: last resort
Takeout can export your Business Profile data, but the review export is JSON, arrives one file per location, and sometimes comes back without usable review text. If it does, fall back to the extension or the GBP connection instead of fighting it.