One tattoo studio in the set someone searching around Lakeville is shown carries 2,260 Google reviews. The next two largest files in that trade hold 333 and 243, and the median across the 20 tattoo studios we read is 61. The biggest listing is nothing like the middle of the trade.
Shops read thinner. The median across the 20 we read is 41 reviews, and the three most-reviewed hold 217, 97 and 76. Three of those shops answered every one of their last ten: Mainstream Boutique Apple Valley, which carries 217 reviews, A Bushel and A Peck, which carries 76, and Style Niche Boutique, which carries 56. That list names only the businesses answering the most of their recent reviews, so it says nothing either way about the rest of the twenty we read.
Among tattoo studios, The Asylum Ink answered 10 of its last 10 and carries 232 reviews. The Canvas Tattoo Studio carries 333 reviews and answered 1 of its last 10. Both come from the same short list of the studios answering the most of their recent reviews.
Two windows are mixed on this page and they are worth keeping apart: the reply counts are drawn from each business's most recent reviews, while 41, 61, 2,260 and 217 are whole-listing Google review counts. Across the 58 businesses we measured in what someone searching in Lakeville is shown, a typical one answered 77% of its recent reviews, out of 460 read across all the trades we covered around this town. Reply behaviour is not uniform by trade: none of the 20 barbershops we read had answered any of their recent reviews, and none of the 20 gyms had either. Depth is not uniform either, with a median of 945 reviews across the 20 restaurants we read and 38 across the 20 bakeries we read. The median rating is 4.9 for both trades in this group, and a median is one figure for a whole set: it does not tell you which listing is which.
What to do about it
Start at the newest review and work backwards, not at the top of the file. The counts on this page come from each business's most recent reviews, so a listing holding 217 or 333 of them does not need all of them answered before anything has changed. Answer the warm ones as well as the awkward ones, and write each reply as its own sentence rather than one line repeated down the page, because a repeated line reads as a form rather than a person.
With a median file of 41 reviews across the shops we read and 61 across the tattoo studios, catching up is small work. Keeping up is the part that recurs, and it is the part the measurement follows: the window is always the most recent reviews, so it moves every time a new one lands. Pick the point in the week when the new ones get checked, and answer them then, in the owner's own words.
Shops
| # | Business | Answered | Reviews | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mainstream Boutique Apple Valley | 10 of 10 | 217 | 4.8 |
| 2 | A Bushel and A Peck | 10 of 10 | 76 | 4.6 |
| 3 | Style Niche Boutique | 10 of 10 | 56 | 4.9 |
Tattoo studios
| # | Business | Answered | Reviews | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Asylum Ink | 10 of 10 | 232 | 5 |
| 2 | The Canvas Tattoo Studio | 1 of 10 | 333 | 4.8 |