Pampered Pooch Playground answered 10 of its last 10 reviews, and it turns up twice in this group — once among the pet grooming businesses someone searching around Minnetonka is shown, and again among the boarding ones. Its listing carries 407 reviews. It is one business, counted in two trades, which is worth knowing before anyone reads the two lists as two separate stories.
In pet grooming we read 20 businesses. The three answering the most of their recent reviews are also the three carrying the most reviews we read there: 515, 407 and 391. The median grooming listing among those twenty holds 96.5 reviews. Bubbly Paws answered 3 of its last 10, on a listing of 391 reviews. Adore Dog Salon answered 1 of its last 10, on 515.
Boarding sits deeper on review counts. The median across the 20 we read is 135, and the largest file we read holds 929 — that one is The Bond Between (formerly Secondhand Hounds), which answered 1 of its last 10. ADOGO Pet Hotel Minnetonka, MN answered 3 of its last 10, on 429 reviews. Among the 20 veterinary practices we read the median is 289.5 reviews; the deepest file we read there holds 493, and that listing is Oak Knoll Animal Hospital, which answered 10 of its last 10.
The median rating is 4.75 for grooming, 4.8 for boarding and 4.75 for the veterinary practices. A median is a single figure for a whole set of twenty; it does not tell you which listing is which, and nothing here is ordered by stars. A typical business among the 53 we measured in what a searcher in Minnetonka is shown answered 80% of its recent reviews.
What to do about it
If you run one of these listings, notice which number is which. The review counts on this page — 515, 493, 929 — are the whole listing. The reply counts are not: they are drawn only from each business's most recent reviews. That is a much smaller pile, and it is the one you can do something about, so the place to start is the newest reviews on your own listing, working back until you reach ones you have already answered.
Two things make that work hold up. Answer the good reviews as well as the hard ones — a reply under a five-star review is still a reply, and it is the easiest one to write. And write them yourself, in the words you would use to that person's face; a reply that would fit under any review on any listing says less than two specific sentences about the dog, the stay or the appointment. Since the counts here come from the most recent reviews, keeping up is a different job from catching up once.
Pet grooming
| # | Business | Answered | Reviews | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pampered Pooch Playground | 10 of 10 | 407 | 4.8 |
| 2 | Bubbly Paws | 3 of 10 | 391 | 4.6 |
| 3 | Adore Dog Salon | 1 of 10 | 515 | 4.9 |
Pet boarding
| # | Business | Answered | Reviews | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pampered Pooch Playground | 10 of 10 | 407 | 4.8 |
| 2 | ADOGO Pet Hotel Minnetonka, MN | 3 of 10 | 429 | 4.6 |
| 3 | The Bond Between (formerly Secondhand Hounds) | 1 of 10 | 929 | 4.6 |
Veterinarians
| # | Business | Answered | Reviews | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oak Knoll Animal Hospital | 10 of 10 | 493 | 4.8 |