Among the businesses someone searching in Lafayette, CA is shown, there are trades where not one business we read had answered any of its recent reviews: coffee shops, bars, food trucks, day spas, dermatology and gyms. The most-reviewed dermatology listing we read carries 1,594 reviews, the most-reviewed gym 1,396, the most-reviewed bar 982 and the most-reviewed coffee shop 803, and in none of those trades did we find a reply to a recent review.
Restaurants read differently. Local Kitchens and Tutu's Food and Drink each answered 10 of their last 10 reviews, on listings of 937 and 757 reviews, and Batch & Brine answered 8 of 10 on 762. Those three names appear among both the restaurants and the cafés named here. Among the bakeries, Brioche de Paris answered 8 of 10 and A Sweet Affair Bakery 5 of 10. Across the whole listing history, the median restaurant we read carries 424 reviews and the median coffee shop 142.
Among the nail salons, 2 Hearts Nail Spa, The Lounge Nail Spa and Chloe Nails Lounge each answered 10 of 10. Among the weight-loss clinics, Pound Melters Medical Weight Loss Clinic Concord, Abundant Life Weight Loss and Bay Area Medical Group - San Ramon each answered 10 of 10. Among plastic surgeons, MBody by Dr. Eric Mariotti and Golden Hills Plastic Surgery answered 10 of 10, and Vivian Ting, MD, FACS - Veritas Plastic Surgery 9 of 10. Among chiropractors, Orinda Chiropractic & Laser Center answered 10 of 10. Among the med spas, NakedMD Med Spa Walnut Creek answered 9 of 10 and SkinSpirit Walnut Creek 7 of 10.
Among pet boarding businesses, Club K9 and Camp Bow Wow Diablo Valley each answered 10 of 10; among groomers, Woof Gang Bakery & Grooming Walnut Creek answered 10 of 10 and Hound Lounge 9 of 10. Smile Power Orthodontics answered 10 of 10, and among the dentists Raj Talwar, D.D.S. Dental Corp. answered 7 of 10. East Bay Healthy Smiles appears among both the dentists and the orthodontists named here. Among tattoo studios, Future Ink Tattoo & Supply answered 10 of 10, and Zebra Tattoo & Body Piercing answered 9 of 10 on a listing of 2,867 reviews, the most-reviewed tattoo studio we read. The benchmark measured here is 81%: the share of recent reviews a typical measured business answered, across 43 businesses in all trades together.
What to do about it
Open your own listing and count how many of your last 10 reviews carry a reply. The reply figures above were counted exactly that way. The benchmark measured here is 81%, taken across all trades together rather than any one trade alone. If you run a coffee shop, bar, food truck, day spa, dermatology practice or gym, no business we read in your trade had answered a recent review. If your trade has named businesses at 10 of 10, that is the figure to hold yourself to.
The work itself is small. Read each new review as it comes in and write a short reply that responds to what the person actually said, the warm ones as well as the critical ones. Thank people by the detail they mentioned, and answer a complaint plainly without arguing. The reply is the one piece of that exchange that is yours to write.
Food & drink in Lafayette, CA
Among the coffee shops, bars and food trucks someone searching in Lafayette, CA is shown, not one had answered any of its recent reviews. We read 20 businesses in each of those three trades, and the reply count came back empty every time. These are not small listings. The most-reviewed coffee shop we read carries 803 reviews and the median one carries 142, at a median rating of 4.6. The most-reviewed bar carries 982 reviews and the median bar 237. Food trucks run smaller, with a median of 49, though the most-reviewed truck we read carries 982.
The owners we can name as replying appear among the restaurants, cafés and bakeries. Local Kitchens answered 10 of its last 10 reviews, on a listing of 937. Tutu's Food and Drink also answered 10 of 10, on 757 reviews, and Batch & Brine answered 8 of 10, on 762. All three appear among both the restaurants and the cafés named here. For scale, the median restaurant we read carries 424 reviews and the most-reviewed carries 1,251; the median café carries 242.5.
| Trade | Median reviews | Median rating | Answers reviews best | Answered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurants | 424 | 4.5 | Local Kitchens | 10 of 10 |
| Cafés | 242.5 | 4.5 | Local Kitchens | 10 of 10 |
| Coffee shops | 142 | 4.6 | — | |
| Bars | 237 | 4.5 | — | |
| Bakeries | 131.5 | 4.5 | Brioche de Paris | 8 of 10 |
| Food trucks | 49 | 4.5 | — |
Hair, nails & barbering in Lafayette, CA
Among the nail salons someone searching in Lafayette, CA is shown, 2 Hearts Nail Spa, The Lounge Nail Spa and Chloe Nails Lounge each answered all 10 of their most recent reviews. That is the clearest fact in this section. They are the nail salons answering the most among those we could measure, so they stand for themselves rather than for the trade. What they do show is what a full reply record looks like among the businesses a searcher here is shown.
The listings behind those three names differ in size. 2 Hearts Nail Spa carries 371 Google reviews in total, the highest count among the nail salons we read. The Lounge Nail Spa carries 339 and Chloe Nails Lounge 116. The median nail salon we read carries 31 reviews and holds a 4.6 median rating, so each of the three named listings sits above the middle of this group.
| Trade | Median reviews | Median rating | Answers reviews best | Answered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barbershops | 94 | 4.9 | Walnut Creek Barber Shop | 1 of 10 |
| Nail salons | 31 | 4.6 | 2 Hearts Nail Spa | 10 of 10 |
Spa & aesthetics in Lafayette, CA
Two of the six trades in this section came back with no replies at all. We read 20 day spas and 20 dermatology practices among the businesses someone searching in Lafayette, CA is shown, and not one business in either trade had answered any of its recent reviews. That includes the dermatology listing carrying 1,594 reviews, the largest listing among the spa and aesthetics businesses in this section, and the day spas carrying 673, 646 and 468.
The same section holds the opposite. Among the plastic surgery practices we read, MBody by Dr. Eric Mariotti and Golden Hills Plastic Surgery each answered 10 of their last 10 reviews, and Vivian Ting, MD, FACS - Veritas Plastic Surgery answered 9 of 10. Among the weight-loss clinics, Pound Melters Medical Weight Loss Clinic Concord, Abundant Life Weight Loss and Bay Area Medical Group - San Ramon each answered 10 of 10.
| Trade | Median reviews | Median rating | Answers reviews best | Answered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day spas | 73.5 | 4.6 | — | |
| Med spas | 72.5 | 4.9 | NakedMD Med Spa Walnut Creek | 9 of 10 |
| IV therapy | 49 | 4.9 | B12 LOVE | Walnut Creek | 10 of 10 |
| Weight-loss clinics | 44 | 5 | Pound Melters Medical Weight Loss Clinic Concord | 10 of 10 |
| Dermatology | 84 | 4.8 | — | |
| Plastic surgery | 46 | 4.8 | MBody by Dr. Eric Mariotti | 10 of 10 |
Fitness & wellness in Lafayette, CA
Of the 20 gyms we read among the businesses someone searching in Lafayette, CA is shown, not one had answered any of its recent reviews. These are not empty listings. The three most-reviewed gyms we read carry 1,396, 446 and 434 reviews, and the median gym we read carries 47 reviews with a median rating of 4.8. Customers are writing about these gyms; in the recent reviews we checked, no owner had written back.
The chiropractors in the same search read very differently. Orinda Chiropractic & Laser Center answered 10 of its last 10 reviews. Beyond Chiropractic answered 9 of its last 10, and Rivulet Chiropractic also answered 9 of 10. Those are the three chiropractors we can name as answering. We can't see how the other chiropractors we read handle their replies, so nothing here describes them.
| Trade | Median reviews | Median rating | Answers reviews best | Answered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gyms | 47 | 4.8 | — | |
| Chiropractors | 60 | 5 | Orinda Chiropractic & Laser Center | 10 of 10 |
Dental & orthodontics in Lafayette, CA
Among the 20 orthodontists we read from the businesses someone searching in Lafayette, CA is shown, Smile Power Orthodontics answered 10 of its last 10 reviews, on a listing that carries 272 reviews, the highest count among the orthodontists in this section. Mt. Diablo Orthodontics - Reichhold & Vargas answered 8 of its last 10, on a listing of 144 reviews. Those two figures come from the most recent reviews each practice received, and both owners had written back to most of them.
Among the 20 dentists we read, the best reply figure belongs to Raj Talwar, D.D.S. Dental Corp., which answered 7 of its last 10 on a listing of 173 reviews. East Bay Healthy Smiles answered 5 of 10 on 225 reviews, and Ron Wake, DDS, Inc answered 2 of 10 on 224. Those last two listings, at 225 and 224 reviews, are the two most-reviewed dentists we read. We can name only the practices whose replies we could measure and who had answered at least one recent review, so this says nothing about how the other dentists in the set handle theirs.
| Trade | Median reviews | Median rating | Answers reviews best | Answered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dentists | 85.5 | 5 | Raj Talwar, D.D.S. Dental Corp. | 7 of 10 |
| Orthodontists | 76 | 5 | Smile Power Orthodontics | 10 of 10 |
Pets in Lafayette, CA
Among the veterinarians someone searching in Lafayette, CA is shown, the most-reviewed listing carries 1,215 Google reviews, while the median veterinarian of the 20 we read carries 125.5. The next two most-reviewed sit at 476 and 386. Those are whole-listing totals, and 1,215 is the largest review count among the three pet trades in this section. The median veterinarian we read holds a 4.7 rating.
Pet boarding reads differently. Of the 20 boarding businesses we read, the median carries 61 reviews and a 4.8 rating, and the three most-reviewed carry 777, 402 and 342. On replies to their most recent reviews, Club K9 answered 10 of its last 10 and Camp Bow Wow Diablo Valley 10 of 10; their listings carry 402 and 342 reviews in total. Camp Bow Wow San Ramon answered 8 of its last 10, on a listing of 161 reviews.
| Trade | Median reviews | Median rating | Answers reviews best | Answered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pet grooming | 42 | 4.7 | Woof Gang Bakery & Grooming Walnut Creek | 10 of 10 |
| Pet boarding | 61 | 4.8 | Club K9 | 10 of 10 |
| Veterinarians | 125.5 | 4.7 | Veterinary Emergency Group | 8 of 10 |
Shops & studios in Lafayette, CA
The most-reviewed tattoo studio someone searching in Lafayette, CA is shown is also one of the studios answering its reviews. Zebra Tattoo & Body Piercing carries 2,867 Google reviews, the largest listing among the 20 tattoo studios we read, and its owner replied to 9 of its last 10 reviews.
The median is far smaller. The median tattoo studio we read carries 83 reviews, and the median rating is 4.9. After Zebra, the next two most-reviewed studios carry 613 and 548 reviews. Those are whole-listing totals, and a median is a single number: it does not describe how any one studio's listing looks.
| Trade | Median reviews | Median rating | Answers reviews best | Answered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tattoo studios | 83 | 4.9 | Future Ink Tattoo & Supply | 10 of 10 |
Method
Every figure comes from public Google listings — the businesses and owner replies any customer can see — read on 2026-09-24. Counts describe the businesses someone searching in Lafayette, CA is shown, which is the competitive set a customer actually chooses from, not a register of businesses inside the city limits. A business is named only where we read at least eight of its recent reviews, and only the ones answering the most are named; the rest of a market appears as a distribution with its denominator. Chains are counted but never named. Nothing is ranked on star rating. Lafayette, CA has a population of 25,277 and a median household income of $222,393 (US Census) — context for the town, not a predictor of its reviews.