Twenty barbershops were read around Edina, and not one of them had replied to any of its most recent reviews. The review counts are not small either. The three most-reviewed barbershops a customer searching in Edina is shown carry 681, 523 and 285 Google reviews, and the median barbershop in that set sits at 175. The median rating is 4.8. So the reviews are arriving in volume, they are good, and nothing is coming back the other way.
Nail salons in the same catchment work completely differently. Nail Bar & Spa answered 10 of its last 10 reviews and has 973 in total. Nails Image & Spa also answered 10 of its last 10, on 408 reviews. Kim's Nails & Spa answered 4 of its last 10, on 368. Nail salons also carry the most reviews of the three trades here, a median of 248 per business, on a median rating of 4.5.
Hair salons fall between the two. Salon Oriana answered 9 of its last 10 reviews and has 386 in total. Lili Salon Spa answered 2 of its last 10 and has 862. The median hair salon someone searching in Edina sees has 85.5 reviews, the smallest median of the three trades, though the most-reviewed one in the set carries 1,310. The median rating is 4.8, the same as barbershops.
Put against the town as a whole, the barbershop result is the odd one out rather than the norm. Across the 56 businesses measured in Edina, a typical one had answered 72% of its recent reviews, and 460 businesses were read across all trades. Two named businesses in other trades around Edina, Dentistry on 77th and Rowan Southdale Center, each answered 10 of their last 10 reviews. A barber with 681 reviews and no replies is not behind the salon next door on reviews. They are simply not in the conversation those reviews started.
What to do about it
If you cut hair around Edina, the work here is small and it is sitting in one place: the last ten reviews on your Google listing. Open them this afternoon and answer them, newest first, in the words you would actually use with that customer in the chair. Answer the five-star ones too, not just the difficult ones. A short, specific line that mentions what they came in for reads like you, and a copied sentence pasted ten times reads like it was pasted ten times.
After that it is a habit rather than a project. Nail Bar & Spa is at 10 of 10 on 973 reviews and Salon Oriana at 9 of 10 on 386, so a large pile of reviews is not on its own a reason the recent ones cannot be kept answered. The other half is asking. The moment to ask is while the customer is still at the desk paying and looking in the mirror, not that evening once they are home and the haircut is old news.
Barbershops
We read 20 barbershops businesses here and not one had answered a single one of its ten most recent reviews. The first owner here who replies is the only one doing it.
Hair salons
| # | Business | Answered | Reviews | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Salon Oriana | 9 of 10 | 386 | 4.7 |
| 2 | Lili Salon Spa | 2 of 10 | 862 | 4.8 |
Nail salons
| # | Business | Answered | Reviews | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nail Bar & Spa | 10 of 10 | 973 | 4.3 |
| 2 | Nails Image & Spa | 10 of 10 | 408 | 4.5 |
| 3 | Kim's Nails & Spa | 4 of 10 | 368 | 4.1 |