The short version. We read the public Google reviews of 5,699 local businesses across seven US metros — Dallas, Austin, Miami, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Fort Lauderdale and Minneapolis — in August and September 2026, and counted who answers. Almost one business in four has never replied to a review, and two in three have a review of three stars or less sitting with no answer. Seven industries were measured in all seven cities, which lets us separate the trade from the town: the trade sets the floor, and the town moves it by as much as 73 points. Every number below is a median from public listings, with its sample size; an industry is only reported in a city where we read at least 20 listings.
Key findings
- 23% of the 5,699 listings have never replied to a review — no owner reply under any review we read. The four-line fix is in how to respond to Google reviews. By metro: 18% in Fort Lauderdale, 20% in Dallas and Scottsdale, 23% Miami, 25% Austin, 26% Minneapolis, 28% Phoenix.
- 66% have a review of three stars or less with no reply. In 49 of the 67 industry-city groups we measured, that is the majority of businesses in the group.
- The median business answers fewer than half its reviews in 47 of 67 groups. Metro medians run from 16% (Minneapolis) to 50% (Scottsdale).
- Med spas are the only industry that replies everywhere — a median of 62% to 92% across all seven cities. Restaurants are the only one that replies nowhere: 6% to 16% across the five cities where we could measure them.
- The practice industries vary most by city, not least. Dental practices run from a median of 13% in Minneapolis to 86% in Fort Lauderdale — a 73-point spread on the same read depth. Holding a patient record does not make a practice answer its reviews.
- The quarter of businesses that reply most answer nine reviews in ten in 51 of the 55 groups where the comparison clears our floor, are more often clear of unanswered negatives in 55 of 55, and receive reviews faster in 51 of 55.
- A slowing pace is normal: of the three groups read deeply enough to say, 58% of Dallas restaurants (n = 187), 76% of nail salons (29) and 57% of bars (23) receive reviews more slowly than twelve months ago; median change −11% to −23%.
This is the first edition. It will be re-run on the same URL each year, and the per-city tables — which name the businesses that answer the most of their reviews — are the market reports.
What did we measure, and how?
The universe. 5,699 Google Business Profiles in seven metro trade areas. Each listing was found by searching its industry from inside the metro, so the set is what a customer searching there actually sees, not a municipal register:
- Dallas, 1,153 — Dallas and fifteen surrounding cities, including Plano, Frisco, Irving, Garland, Carrollton, Richardson, Addison and McKinney.
- Austin, 996 — Austin, Round Rock, Cedar Park, Lakeway, West Lake Hills.
- Miami, 933 — Miami, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Doral, Hialeah, Hialeah Gardens, North Miami, South Miami.
- Phoenix, 896 — Phoenix, Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, Glendale, Peoria, Tempe.
- Scottsdale, 768 — Scottsdale and Paradise Valley.
- Fort Lauderdale, 493 — Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Plantation, Oakland Park, Wilton Manors, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea.
- Minneapolis, 460 — Minneapolis, St Paul, Bloomington, Edina, Minnetonka, Plymouth, Richfield, St Louis Park, Wayzata.
Each is open, carries a Google category in one of our industries, and was audited between August 18 and September 22, 2026. They are the businesses our audit pipeline reads for the market reports. Five states, six of them Sun Belt: this is a seven-metro sample, not a national one.
The read. For each listing we read its newest reviews and the owner replies under them. Dallas is the deep read — up to 300 reviews per listing in eleven walk-in industries (restaurants, bars, coffee shops, bakeries, barbershops, hair and nail salons, tattoo studios, retail, groomers, massage). Everything else was read at the newest 50, including the four practice industries in Dallas. A "reply rate" is replies ÷ reviews read, so a Dallas restaurant's rate is over its newest 300 and a Phoenix restaurant's over its newest 50. A deeper read reaches further back into the years before an owner started replying, so the five Dallas walk-in cells that appear in the cross-city tables are marked †: read part of any gap under them as the depth, not the town. "Never replied" means no owner reply under any review we read. "Unanswered negative" means a review of three stars or less with no reply.
The floors. An industry is only reported in a city where we read at least 20 listings; below that it is absent from every table. That leaves 67 industry-city groups, and it is why Fort Lauderdale restaurants (13 listings), Minneapolis restaurants (2) and Minneapolis dermatologists (18) are not in the tables, along with day spas, cafés and forty-nine other thin cells. Comparisons inside a group — the top quarter of repliers against the rest — are only made when the smaller group holds at least 10, which 55 of the 67 do.
What the numbers are. Medians, not averages — half the businesses sit above, half below — so one business with 4,000 reviews can't move the figure. No business is named on this page; the ten that answer the most of their reviews in each city are named on that city's page, and nothing else about any business is published anywhere.
How many businesses have never replied to a review?
| City | Listings read | Never replied | Median reply rate | Have an unanswered ≤3★ | Read depth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dallas, TX (15 industries) | 1,153 | 20% | 24% | 74% | 300 walk-in / 50 practice |
| Austin, TX (9 industries) | 996 | 25% | 31% | 70% | 50 |
| Miami, FL (10 industries) | 933 | 23% | 32% | 64% | 50 |
| Phoenix, AZ (9 industries) | 896 | 28% | 24% | 70% | 50 |
| Scottsdale, AZ (9 industries) | 768 | 20% | 50% | 57% | 50 |
| Fort Lauderdale, FL (8 industries) | 493 | 18% | 44% | 53% | 50 |
| Minneapolis, MN (7 industries) | 460 | 26% | 16% | 63% | 50 |
Weighted across all 5,699 listings: 23% have never replied and 66% have an unanswered review of three stars or less. Each city row covers every listing we read there, including industries below the reporting floor, which is why the rows read a little differently from the industry tables below them. Two of the rows need reading with care. Dallas looks worst on unanswered negatives (74%) largely because it is the only metro read to 300 — a deeper read finds older complaints. And the cities do not hold the same mix of industries: Minneapolis has no restaurant row and Scottsdale has proportionally more med spas, so a city median is a fact about that city's sample, not a league table.
Never-replied, by industry and city:
| Industry | Dallas | Austin | Miami | Phoenix | Scottsdale | Ft Lauderdale | Minneapolis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Med spas | 8% | 11% | 12% | 7% | 8% | 14% | 6% |
| Dental practices | 20% | 14% | 16% | 15% | 19% | 15% | 29% |
| Dermatologists | 27% | 27% | 27% | 31% | 25% | 19% | — |
| Plastic surgeons | 23% | 18% | 21% | 21% | 30% | 33% | 18% |
| Nail salons | 7%† | 9% | 14% | 16% | 6% | 16% | 29% |
| Barbershops | 21%† | 20% | 27% | 17% | 11% | 21% | 41% |
| Coffee shops | 22%† | 23% | 19% | 30% | 37% | 17% | 27% |
| Pet groomers | 13%† | 9% | 20% | 14% | 12% | 9% | 22% |
| Restaurants | 22%† | 36% | 33% | 41% | 28% | — | — |
† Read to 300 reviews rather than 50. — means fewer than 20 listings, so the cell is not reported.
"Never" is not rare anywhere. In 35 of the 67 groups, a fifth or more of the businesses have never replied to anything; in ten of them, 30% or more. The two extremes are Phoenix restaurants and Minneapolis barbershops, both at 41% — two businesses in five with a review page carrying no owner voice at all. The floor is med spas, between 6% and 14% in every city.
Which industries reply, and which don't?
Seven industries were measured in all seven metros, which makes 49 directly comparable cells. The practice tier first — businesses that already hold a customer record — by median reply rate, with the number of listings in brackets:
| Industry | Dallas | Austin | Miami | Phoenix | Scottsdale | Ft Lauderdale | Minneapolis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Med spas | 81% (74) | 82% (65) | 76% (85) | 80% (59) | 86% (95) | 62% (35) | 92% (31) |
| Dental practices | 34% (85) | 48% (84) | 60% (81) | 64% (89) | 80% (93) | 86% (75) | 13% (72) |
| Dermatologists | 20% (51) | 69% (41) | 23% (62) | 13% (35) | 36% (24) | 26% (31) | — (18) |
| Plastic surgeons | 30% (75) | 74% (65) | 28% (77) | 24% (29) | 37% (74) | 11% (51) | 31% (39) |
And the walk-in tier — where the customer pays, leaves, and is gone:
| Industry | Dallas | Austin | Miami | Phoenix | Scottsdale | Ft Lauderdale | Minneapolis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nail salons | 36% (41)† | 79% (88) | 57% (80) | 34% (76) | 72% (79) | 68% (61) | 32% (63) |
| Barbershops | 15% (81)† | 10% (85) | 20% (81) | 24% (87) | 52% (71) | 37% (80) | 2% (73) |
| Coffee shops | 7% (27)† | 12% (70) | 29% (64) | 20% (60) | 4% (35) | 37% (58) | 6% (90) |
| Pet groomers | 27% (23)† | 30% (43) | 48% (54) | 42% (57) | 64% (41) | 42% (44) | 29% (32) |
| Restaurants | 16% (358)† | 6% (417) | 7% (256) | 6% (378) | 14% (230) | — (13) | — (2) |
† Read to 300 reviews rather than 50. — (n) means the city has fewer than 20 listings in that industry; the bracket is how many it has.
Four things stand out.
One industry replies everywhere, and one replies nowhere. Med spas are the only industry whose worst city is still above 60% — 62% in Fort Lauderdale, 92% in Minneapolis, and between 76% and 86% in the other five. Restaurants are the mirror image: the best of five cities is Dallas at 16%, and the other four sit between 6% and 14%. A restaurant's reply rate is close to a property of being a restaurant. A med spa's is close to a property of being a med spa. Nothing else in the corpus is that stable.
Between those two, the town matters more than the trade. Dental practices run 13% (Minneapolis) to 86% (Fort Lauderdale) — 73 points, on the same 50-review read. Plastic surgeons run 11% to 74%; dermatologists 13% to 69%; barbershops 2% to 52%; nail salons 32% to 79%. The three biggest spreads in the corpus all belong to the practice industries, which is the opposite of what a patient record would predict. Whatever drives a reply rate, it is mostly local habit — the front desk that answers is in some cities and not others.
The city that replies least holds the industry that replies most. Minneapolis has the lowest metro median we measured, 16%, and the lowest cells in barbershops (2%), dental (13%) and nail salons (32%) — and the highest med-spa rate in the corpus, 92%. Scottsdale is the reverse: the highest metro median at 50%, and the lowest coffee-shop rate anywhere at 4%. A city is not "good at replying." An industry within a city is.
The walk-in trades where money changes hands fastest reply least. Across the corpus, coffee shops (4–37%), barbershops (2–52%) and restaurants (6–16%) sit at the bottom, and the shape is the same in every city: the customer pays, leaves, and there is no record of them — so there is no moment at which anyone is prompted to look at the review page at all.
Dallas is the only metro where we read all fifteen industries, and at 300 reviews per listing rather than 50. Its full table, by median reply rate, with "≥90%" the share of businesses that answer at least nine reviews in ten:
| Dallas industry | Listings | Median reply rate | ≥90% | Never replied |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Massage studios | 40 | 86% | 48% | 5% |
| Med spas | 74 | 81% | 42% | 8% |
| Hair salons | 23 | 38% | 17% | 13% |
| Nail salons | 41 | 36% | 12% | 7% |
| Dental practices | 85 | 34% | 29% | 20% |
| Plastic surgeons | 75 | 30% | 25% | 23% |
| Pet groomers | 23 | 27% | 4% | 13% |
| Retail shops | 83 | 25% | 11% | 25% |
| Dermatologists | 51 | 20% | 24% | 27% |
| Restaurants | 358 | 16% | 18% | 22% |
| Barbershops | 81 | 15% | 14% | 21% |
| Tattoo studios | 82 | 10% | 17% | 30% |
| Bakeries | 56 | 9% | 11% | 25% |
| Coffee shops | 27 | 7% | 7% | 22% |
| Bars | 41 | 4% | 15% | 20% |
The surprise in the deep read is massage studios at 86%, with only 5% never having replied — a walk-in trade behaving like a practice, on a par with med spas. It is measured in one city, so treat it as a lead rather than a finding; whatever the reason, it is not that they hold a patient record.
How many have a negative review sitting unanswered?
A review of three stars or less with no reply is, in our view, the most consequential thing on a profile: the complaint stands, and the silence under it answers for you. Across all 5,699 listings, 66% have at least one. In 49 of the 67 groups it is the majority of the group. By industry and city:
| Industry | Dallas | Austin | Miami | Phoenix | Scottsdale | Ft Lauderdale | Minneapolis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Med spas | 42% | 42% | 34% | 41% | 23% | 29% | 29% |
| Dental practices | 52% | 51% | 48% | 54% | 39% | 41% | 54% |
| Dermatologists | 69% | 51% | 60% | 66% | 25% | 65% | — |
| Plastic surgeons | 72% | 60% | 70% | 72% | 54% | 75% | 64% |
| Nail salons | 95%† | 68% | 63% | 79% | 58% | 62% | 71% |
| Barbershops | 59%† | 47% | 48% | 52% | 37% | 48% | 62% |
| Coffee shops | 100%† | 81% | 75% | 73% | 80% | 67% | 86% |
| Pet groomers | 100%† | 60% | 63% | 56% | 71% | 45% | 63% |
| Restaurants | 91%† | 85% | 82% | 84% | 81% | — | — |
† Read to 300 reviews rather than 50, so these five cells find complaints the 50-review cells never reach.
Two patterns, and they are not the same as the reply-rate ones. Volume decides this, not habit. Coffee shops and restaurants are 67–100% in every city because a busy listing accumulates complaints faster than anyone answers them. Med spas are 23–42% everywhere because a 2-a-month listing rarely has one. And the practice tier is not clean — over half of dental practices in four of seven cities have an unanswered negative, and plastic surgeons are 54–75% in all seven.
The Dallas deep read shows the size of the backlog underneath, including how many reviews of any rating are more than 30 days old and still unanswered:
| Dallas industry | Listings | Have an unanswered ≤3★ | Median unanswered ≤3★ per listing | Median reviews >30 days old, unanswered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coffee shops | 27 | 100% | 20 | 169 |
| Pet groomers | 23 | 100% | 9 | 82 |
| Nail salons | 41 | 95% | 19 | 129 |
| Bars | 41 | 93% | 15 | 111 |
| Restaurants | 358 | 91% | 16.5 | 137.5 |
| Bakeries | 56 | 86% | 5 | 42.5 |
| Hair salons | 23 | 83% | 5 | 50 |
| Plastic surgeons | 75 | 72% | 1 | 21 |
| Dermatologists | 51 | 69% | 2 | 25 |
| Retail shops | 83 | 67% | 2 | 28 |
| Barbershops | 81 | 59% | 1 | 40 |
| Dental practices | 85 | 52% | 1 | 19 |
| Tattoo studios | 82 | 48% | 0 | 37.5 |
| Med spas | 74 | 42% | 0 | 7 |
| Massage studios | 40 | 40% | 0 | 3.5 |
The median Dallas restaurant has 16 or 17 reviews of three stars or less with no reply, and 137 reviews older than a month with no reply. Those are not backlogs anyone is going to clear by hand on a Sunday; they are the reason the reply rate is 16%. The low-volume walk-in trades are different in kind: the median barbershop or tattoo studio has one unanswered negative or none, but 37–40 reviews older than a month with no reply — a small backlog, left a long time. And the practice side is smaller still: the median dental practice has one unanswered negative, the median med spa none. A practice's backlog is a morning's work; a restaurant's is a system.
What do the businesses that reply most do differently?
In each group we split the listings into the quarter with the highest reply rate and the other three quarters, and compared them. 55 of the 67 groups have at least ten listings on both sides; the other twelve are left out. Ranges across the cities that clear that floor:
| Industry | Cities compared | Top quarter: median reply rate | The rest | Top quarter with no unanswered ≤3★ | The rest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Med spas | 5 | 98–100% | 50–70% | 75–100% | 50–69% |
| Dental practices | 7 | 96–100% | 4–56% | 67–91% | 34–51% |
| Dermatologists | 3 | 96–98% | 4–54% | 67–80% | 21–39% |
| Plastic surgeons | 5 | 90–98% | 4–40% | 42–67% | 21–39% |
| Nail salons | 7 | 91–100% | 8–54% | 20–87% | 0–30% |
| Barbershops | 7 | 56–100% | 0–21% | 56–100% | 31–54% |
| Coffee shops | 5 | 80–98% | 3–16% | 47–71% | 3–20% |
| Pet groomers | 5 | 95–99% | 12–36% | 50–92% | 20–48% |
| Restaurants | 5 | 92–98% | 0–4% | 33–61% | 1–7% |
Three findings, one caution.
Replying is a policy, not a spectrum. In 51 of the 55 groups the top quarter's median reply rate is 90% or higher — not "more than the others," but nearly everything. The four exceptions are Dallas bakeries (81%), Dallas retail (84%), Minneapolis coffee shops (80%) and Minneapolis barbershops (56%), and three of those four are among the weakest-replying groups in the corpus to begin with. Once a business has the habit, the rate is 90%+ regardless of industry or city; the middle is nearly empty.
The single most consistent finding in the report: in 55 of 55 groups, the top quarter is more often clear of unanswered negatives. Not a majority of groups — all of them, in every industry and every city. It is also usually a large gap: Dallas restaurants 33% against 1%, Miami dental 90% against 39%, Fort Lauderdale barbershops 100% against 37%. Whatever else replying correlates with, it correlates with not leaving a complaint standing.
In 51 of 55 groups the top quarter also receives reviews faster. Dallas restaurants in the top quarter receive 14.4 reviews a month against 8.4 for the rest; Miami dermatologists 11.5 against 2.1; Dallas tattoo studios 5.9 against 1.6. Of the four that don't, two are ties (Phoenix restaurants 9.5 each, Minneapolis barbershops 1.0 each), one is within a rounding of level (Minneapolis coffee shops 4.3 against 4.4) and one is genuinely slower — Dallas massage studios, 2.1 against 3.3, the industry where nearly everyone replies, so the "top" is barely a distinct group. The caution: this is a correlation in a snapshot, not a measured cause. Businesses that reply may be the ones that also ask; busier businesses may be the ones with a person on the desk who does both.
The Dallas deep read, in full, is the worked example — twelve of its fifteen industries clear the ten-listing floor on both sides:
| Dallas industry | Top quarter: median reply rate | The rest | Top quarter with no unanswered ≤3★ | The rest | Reviews a month: top quarter | The rest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Massage studios | 100% | 78% | 100% | 47% | 2.1 | 3.3 |
| Dental practices | 98% | 16% | 86% | 36% | 6.5 | 5.6 |
| Med spas | 98% | 66% | 83% | 50% | 3.6 | 2.8 |
| Dermatologists | 96% | 6% | 67% | 21% | 4.6 | 0.6 |
| Plastic surgeons | 96% | 16% | 50% | 21% | 2.0 | 0.7 |
| Tattoo studios | 95% | 3% | 85% | 42% | 5.9 | 1.6 |
| Barbershops | 93% | 5% | 70% | 31% | 2.7 | 1.9 |
| Bars | 92% | 2% | 30% | 0% | 7.0 | 5.1 |
| Restaurants | 92% | 3% | 33% | 1% | 14.4 | 8.4 |
| Nail salons | 91% | 22% | 20% | 0% | 13.0 | 6.2 |
| Retail shops | 84% | 8% | 50% | 27% | 2.1 | 0.7 |
| Bakeries | 81% | 4% | 43% | 5% | 4.9 | 2.4 |
On reply length, the honest finding is no pattern: the top quarter writes longer replies in 22 of the 55 groups and shorter in the rest. The median owner reply across all 67 groups runs 11 to 49 words — two to five short sentences — and length is not what separates the businesses that reply from the ones that don't.
How fast are reviews arriving, and is it slowing?
Reviews a month per listing, median, over the last six months:
| Industry | Dallas | Austin | Miami | Phoenix | Scottsdale | Ft Lauderdale | Minneapolis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Med spas | 2.9 | 2.0 | 4.5 | 2.0 | 3.1 | 2.1 | 1.3 |
| Dental practices | 6.0 | 7.1 | 6.4 | 7.5 | 5.3 | 5.0 | 3.7 |
| Dermatologists | 1.1 | 2.2 | 3.0 | 3.1 | 1.9 | 3.2 | — |
| Plastic surgeons | 1.0 | 1.3 | 2.6 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.7 | 0.5 |
| Nail salons | 7.7† | 6.8 | 3.5 | 3.2 | 3.1 | 3.2 | 3.5 |
| Barbershops | 2.1† | 3.2 | 2.9 | 2.9 | 2.1 | 2.7 | 1.0 |
| Coffee shops | 6.5† | 6.7 | 7.5 | 5.3 | 4.9 | 8.1 | 4.4 |
| Pet groomers | 1.4† | 1.6 | 1.4 | 1.6 | 1.3 | 1.7 | 1.7 |
| Restaurants | 9.3† | 9.8 | 10.5 | 9.5 | 7.5 | — | — |
Pace is the most stable thing we measure. A restaurant receives 7.5–10.5 reviews a month in every city, a dental practice 3.7–7.5, a plastic surgeon 0.5–2.6, a pet groomer 1.3–1.7 — narrow bands, unlike the reply rates above them. Two consequences: a business can compare its own monthly pace against its industry with some confidence, and the reason a restaurant's reply rate is 6% while a med spa's is 80% is partly arithmetic. The restaurant is being asked to answer five times as much.
The Dallas deep read adds the top quarter and the size of the listing behind it:
| Dallas industry | Listings | Reviews a month (median) | Top quarter | Median reviews on the listing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurants | 358 | 9.3 | 17.4+ | 807 |
| Nail salons | 41 | 7.7 | 13.0+ | 447 |
| Coffee shops | 27 | 6.5 | 13.0+ | 362 |
| Dental practices | 85 | 6.0 | 8.7+ | 339 |
| Bars | 41 | 5.4 | 8.2+ | 470 |
| Massage studios | 40 | 3.1 | 9.2+ | 198.5 |
| Med spas | 74 | 2.9 | 6.7+ | 131 |
| Bakeries | 56 | 2.6 | 7.0+ | 210.5 |
| Tattoo studios | 82 | 2.2 | 8.0+ | 152 |
| Barbershops | 81 | 2.1 | 4.4+ | 160 |
| Hair salons | 23 | 1.7 | 6.5+ | 112 |
| Pet groomers | 23 | 1.4 | 2.4+ | 110 |
| Dermatologists | 51 | 1.1 | 4.2+ | 63 |
| Plastic surgeons | 75 | 1.0 | 2.7+ | 71 |
| Retail shops | 83 | 0.9 | 3.2+ | 81 |
Is it slowing? We compared each listing's last six months against the same six months a year earlier, for listings whose history reaches back 18 months with at least ten reviews in the earlier window. Only three groups clear the bar we set for publishing one, and the bar is the reason:
| Industry | Listings with a year of history | Receiving reviews more slowly than a year ago | Median change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurants (Dallas) | 187 | 58% | −11% |
| Nail salons (Dallas) | 29 | 76% | −23% |
| Bars (Dallas) | 23 | 57% | −12% |
So in the three groups we can measure, a majority of listings are receiving reviews more slowly than twelve months ago, and the typical decline is a tenth to a quarter. A slowing pace is the ordinary condition of a local listing; a business should compare its own change against its industry's, not against zero.
Why only three, out of 67. A year-over-year figure needs a listing whose newest reviews reach back 18 months — and on a 50-review read, only a quiet listing does. Every listing that sped up is excluded by construction, so a 50-review read manufactures the finding that everyone is slowing. The numbers that method produced in this corpus (80–100% "slowing", on samples of two to fifteen listings) are artifacts of the read depth, and none of them are reported here. The bar is therefore: read to 300, and at least 20 qualifying listings. Only Dallas was read to 300, and within Dallas only three industries hold 20 listings with 18 months of history — Dallas coffee shops missed it at 18. All of it fills in with a deeper read and a second year.
What does this mean for an owner?
- The bar is low and the top is absolute. In 45 of the 67 groups, fewer than half the businesses answer even half of their reviews, and the typical group sits at 43% — so answering half of yours is already unusual. And in 51 of 55 groups, the businesses customers see as attentive answer 90%+ of them. There is no rewarded middle.
- The negative one is the one to answer first. Two in three listings across seven cities have a ≤3★ review with nothing under it, and the businesses that reply most are cleaner on exactly that measure in every group we could compare. That is the reply worth writing first.
- Your industry sets the floor; your town moves it. Before deciding your 30% is bad, find your own industry-and-city cell above: a 30% dental practice is behind Fort Lauderdale's 86% and well ahead of Minneapolis's 13%. The market reports hold the per-city detail.
- Pace is a separate problem from replies, and quieter. Most listings we could measure are slowing and no one notices, because the count only goes up. Measure the same six months against a year ago, for a practice or for a walk-in business.
- You don't need to write 137 replies. You need the new ones answered as they arrive, with the negative ones first — a system, not a Sunday (see how Oh Local can help).
How Oh Local helps with this
The numbers on this page come from the same read Oh Local runs on a single listing. The free audit gives you your own row from these tables — reply rate, the reviews still waiting, the oldest unanswered negative — and the tables are right here to put it beside, so "16%" becomes "me, against the 358 restaurants around me." Once a listing is claimed, every new review arrives with a reply drafted in your voice, negative ones first, and nothing posts until you press approve; the backlog stops growing on the day you start, and the rate moves with every new review answered rather than with anyone clearing 137 replies by hand. The city tables that name the businesses answering the most of their reviews are free at the market reports.
How it works
- Run the free audit. We read your public Google reviews and replies and send you the numbers: reply rate, the reviews still waiting for an answer, and the oldest of them — with the table on this page to put them beside.
- Claim your page. Pick your listing, and your QR card and short link are ready to print — from your own phone, no onboarding call.
- Get the weekly email. Every new review with its reply drafted, private feedback that came in, and the short list of what to fix on your listing and site.
- Approve, and that’s it. You press approve on the replies you like. The rest — the card, the page, the measuring — runs on its own.
What you get
Your review page
A printed QR card and a short link that open every review option — Google, Tripadvisor, Facebook — capture the customer’s email, and give an unhappy customer a private word first. About four minutes to a printable QR.
Reviews handled
Every new review on your platforms, with the reply drafted in your voice, in one weekly email. Negative ones first. You approve, edit or skip; nothing posts without you.
Local standing
Where you rank around your shop, what competitors are doing, what changed on your listing — with the exact fix for each. Recommendations can lead to better rankings and more visibility; no tool can promise a position, including ours.
| Industry | Audited | Median reply rate | Never replied |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dallas restaurants | 358 | 16% | 22% |
| Dallas dental practices | 85 | 34% | 20% |
| Dallas retail shops | 83 | 25% | 25% |
| Dallas tattoo studios | 82 | 10% | 30% |
| Dallas barbershops | 81 | 15% | 21% |
| Dallas plastic surgeons | 75 | 30% | 23% |
| Dallas med spas | 74 | 81% | 8% |
FAQ
What percentage of businesses reply to their Google reviews?
Across 5,699 listings in seven US metros in August and September 2026, 23% had never replied to a review at all, and the median business answered fewer than half its reviews in 47 of the 67 industry-city groups we measured. Metro medians ran from 16% (Minneapolis) to 50% (Scottsdale), and by industry within a city from 2% (Minneapolis barbershops) to 92% (Minneapolis med spas).
Which industries reply to Google reviews the most?
Med spas, by a wide margin and in every city: a median of 62% to 92% across all seven metros. Dental practices are next but wildly uneven, 13% to 86% depending on the city. Restaurants reply least — 6% to 16% across the five cities where we could measure them — with coffee shops (4–37%) and barbershops (2–52%) close behind. In Dallas, where we read fifteen industries to 300 reviews each, massage studios lead at 86% and bars finish last at 4%.
Does the city matter, or just the industry?
Both, and for the practice industries the city matters more. Dental practices range 73 points across our seven metros (13% in Minneapolis to 86% in Fort Lauderdale) on an identical read depth; plastic surgeons 63 points; dermatologists 56. Only two industries are stable across cities: med spas, which reply everywhere, and restaurants, which reply almost nowhere.
How many Google reviews a month does a business normally get?
Pace varies far less by city than reply rates do. Medians across seven metros: restaurants 7.5–10.5 a month, dental practices 3.7–7.5, coffee shops 4.4–8.1, nail salons 3.1–7.7, barbershops 1.0–3.2, med spas 1.3–4.5, dermatologists 1.1–3.2, plastic surgeons 0.5–2.6, pet groomers 1.3–1.7. The top quarter in each group receives roughly double the median or more.
Are businesses getting fewer Google reviews than they used to?
In the three groups read deeply enough to answer fairly — Dallas restaurants, nail salons and bars — 57–76% of listings with a year of history are receiving reviews more slowly than twelve months ago, with a median change of −11% to −23%. We do not publish a year-over-year figure from a 50-review read: that read only reaches 18 months back on listings that are already quiet, so it excludes every business that sped up and manufactures the conclusion that everyone is slowing.
Where do these numbers come from, and can I cite them?
From 5,699 public Google Business Profiles across seven US metros — Dallas, Austin, Miami, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Fort Lauderdale and Minneapolis — read between August 18 and September 22, 2026 through our audit pipeline, and reported as medians with sample sizes, the read depth stated, and a floor of 20 listings per industry per city. Yes — cite as Oh Local, The State of the Reply 2026 with a link to this page, which will be re-run on the same URL each year. No business is named here, and no figure about any individual business is published outside the report for its city.
