Among the orthodontists someone searching in Burlingame, CA is shown, Orthodontics of San Mateo answered 9 of its 10 most recent reviews and Alborzi Orthodontics answered 8 of 10. Among the dentists shown in the same search, the practice we can name as answering is San Mateo Dental Care, which replied to 3 of its last 10. Those three figures are the reply record we can put a name to in this section. We can't see how the other practices we read handled their recent reviews, so nothing here is a count of who answers and who does not.
We read 20 dentists and 20 orthodontists. The median dentist we read carries 105 Google reviews, and the three most-reviewed carry 359, 311 and 277. The median orthodontist we read carries 58, while the three most-reviewed carry 466, 359 and 229. The median rating is 4.9 in both trades. These are whole-listing figures: every review a practice has collected, not the handful of recent reviews behind the reply figures above.
The named practices hold listings above their trade's median. Orthodontics of San Mateo's listing carries 229 reviews and Alborzi Orthodontics' carries 194, against an orthodontist median of 58. San Mateo Dental Care's carries 245, against a dentist median of 105. The reply figures for all three cover each practice's last 10 reviews only, not the whole listing, so they describe what each owner did with that handful rather than with every review they hold.
For comparison, the reply benchmark measured here is 62%: the share of recent reviews a typical measured business answered, taken across 52 businesses in all trades together, not dental practices alone. A 4.9 median rating is one number for each trade; it says nothing about how any single practice's reviews read. A reply is the one part of that exchange a practice writes.
What to do about it
Start with your own listing: count how many of your last 10 reviews have your reply under them. That is the same measure behind every reply figure above: Orthodontics of San Mateo at 9 of 10, Alborzi Orthodontics at 8 of 10, San Mateo Dental Care at 3 of 10. The benchmark measured here, across all trades together, is 62%.
If your count is low, make answering a set task: each time a new review arrives, reply to it, positive or negative, in a sentence or two that responds to what the patient wrote. Keep patient details out of every reply and confirm nothing about treatment or a visit, even when the reviewer has mentioned it. When another 10 reviews have come in, count your last 10 again. The reply is the one part of your listing you write yourself.
Dentists
| # | Business | Answered | Reviews | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Mateo Dental Care | 3 of 10 | 245 | 4.9 |
Orthodontists
| # | Business | Answered | Reviews | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Orthodontics of San Mateo | 9 of 10 | 229 | 5 |
| 2 | Alborzi Orthodontics | 8 of 10 | 194 | 4.8 |