Wag N' Wash Natural Pet Food & Grooming shows up among the best repliers in two of the three pet trades we read around Lakeville. Under grooming it answered 9 of its last 10 reviews; under boarding it answered 9 of its last 10 as well. Its listing carries 334 Google reviews. One business can lead in more than one trade, and here one does.
Depth is where these three trades separate. The veterinarians we read show a median of 313 Google reviews per business, and the three most-reviewed hold 518, 452 and 448. The vet recorded as answering the most of its recent reviews, South Metro Animal Emergency Care, answered 7 of its last 10, on a listing of 452. That is one business, and it says nothing about the rest of the twenty we read.
Pet boarding's median is 65.5, while its three most-reviewed listings hold 590, 536 and 371 — the top of that trade is deep even though the middle sits far lower. Pet grooming falls between them at a median of 98, with 334, 313 and 286 at the top. Among the groomers, Dakota Pet Hospital answered 10 of its last 10 reviews, on a listing holding 313, and Barks & Bubbles answered 10 of its last 10, on 248. In boarding, Camp Bow Wow Burnsville answered 10 of its last 10, on a listing of 536, and Puppy Play and Stay answered 8 of its last 10, on 590. Two windows are in play here: those reply counts are drawn from each business's most recent reviews, while the review counts describe the whole listing.
Median ratings sit at 4.65 for grooming, 4.8 for veterinarians and 4.85 for boarding. A trade median is a single figure for a whole set; it does not tell you which listing is which, and nothing on this page is ordered by stars. Across the 58 businesses we measured in what someone searching in Lakeville is shown, a typical one answered 77% of its recent reviews. We read 20 businesses in each of these trades — that is how many we read, not how many exist.
What to do about it
If one of these listings is yours, the figure worth checking is not the total on your profile but how many of your most recent reviews have anything written under them. That is the window every reply count above comes from: the last ten, one business at a time. A file the size of the ones the veterinarians we read carry, a median of 313, cannot be answered from the beginning, and there is no reason to try. Start at the newest, work backwards until the unanswered ones run out, then keep the habit, because catching up once and letting it lapse puts you back where you started.
Write each reply differently. Two replies that repeat the same sentence sit one above the other on the same listing, and naming the animal or the service booked costs little more than a generic line. Answer the straightforward reviews as well as the difficult ones.
Pet grooming
| # | Business | Answered | Reviews | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dakota Pet Hospital | 10 of 10 | 313 | 4.8 |
| 2 | Barks & Bubbles | 10 of 10 | 248 | 4.3 |
| 3 | Wag N' Wash Natural Pet Food & Grooming | 9 of 10 | 334 | 4.7 |
Pet boarding
| # | Business | Answered | Reviews | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Camp Bow Wow Burnsville | 10 of 10 | 536 | 4.8 |
| 2 | Wag N' Wash Natural Pet Food & Grooming | 9 of 10 | 334 | 4.7 |
| 3 | Puppy Play and Stay | 8 of 10 | 590 | 4.9 |
Veterinarians
| # | Business | Answered | Reviews | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Metro Animal Emergency Care | 7 of 10 | 452 | 3.9 |