User feedback, serving your community

In the US federal system, purchases under the micro-purchase threshold, $15,000 since the FAR inflation adjustment took effect in October 2025, can generally be bought directly without competitive bids, and purchases above that and up to the simplified acquisition threshold, $350,000, use simplified acquisition procedures rather than a full formal solicitation (acquisition.gov, FAR Parts 2 and 13). State and city governments do not follow the FAR directly, each state sets its own thresholds in its own procurement code, so a city or county should check its own purchasing rules rather than assume the federal figures apply. In the UK, the Procurement Act 2023 sets the regulated threshold for goods and services contracts at £135,018 for central government authorities and £207,720 for sub-central authorities, which include most local councils, effective from 1 January 2026 (gov.uk, Procurement Policy Notes, threshold amounts), and below that a council can buy without running a full regulated procedure, subject to its own contract standing orders.

Yes. In the US, buying through GSA Schedules (gsa.gov) or a state cooperative contract such as NASPO ValuePoint (naspovaluepoint.org) means the competition requirement is already satisfied by the schedule holder or the lead state, so the purchasing agency does not need to run its own bid process. In the UK, the equivalent is buying through a Crown Commercial Service framework, in particular the G-Cloud framework on the Digital Marketplace (crowncommercial.gov.uk), which is built for exactly this kind of SaaS purchase and lets a council award a call-off contract without running a full regulated procedure itself. Running a direct procurement instead means the authority must manage its own competition in line with whatever threshold applies to the contract value.

US local government usage reserves resident or constituent for the people served by a city, county, or public agency such as a library or a public pool, even when the collection format looks like an ordinary customer review. UK councils typically use service user or citizen for the same relationship. In both cases, when the feedback identifies an individual it counts as personal data, in the US under the relevant state privacy law and public records rules, and in the UK under UK GDPR as enforced by the ICO (ico.org.uk), which expects a clear legal basis, a privacy notice, and contact details kept separate from the feedback content itself.

In the US, the President's Management Agenda customer experience priority, tracked on performance.gov, pushes federal agencies to measure and publish service satisfaction results, and a number of state and local governments have adopted similar customer-experience programs modeled on it. In the UK, the Government Digital Service Service Standard (gov.uk) and the Cabinet Office public service reform agenda set comparable expectations for government bodies, including local councils, to measure user satisfaction with digital and in-person services. Neither framework mandates a single tool, but both push public bodies, down to small ones like a library or a municipal pool, to run a regular, structured measurement rather than relying only on spontaneous Google reviews.

Up Review collects Google reviews through a QR code at the front desk, an NFC card, a text message, or an email sent after a visit or a service request, a format that works for a city hall, tourism office, library, or public pool just as it does for a private business. The built-in satisfaction survey gathers structured resident or constituent feedback alongside the public reviews. AI-assisted reply suggestions stay configurable to use institutional wording such as resident or service user rather than commercial language like customer.

Up Review starts at EUR 89 net per month with a 12-month commitment billed monthly, or EUR 119 net per month with no commitment. There is no free plan, and the annual cost of a single subscription sits well under both the US micro-purchase threshold and the UK below-threshold procurement limit. Each agency should still confirm with its own procurement or purchasing office whether an informal competition or a comparative quote is required internally, independent of the legal threshold, especially if the subscription is combined with other similar services during the same budget year.